Daniela Moroz

6x Formula Kite World Champion, 4x US Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and 2024 Olympian (Ep 88). Recorded just after representing the USA in the first Olympic Formula Kite competition in Marseille; covers her introduction to Kite Foiling and life as an Olympic favourite.

• Background (Ep 88): learned to kite ~age 11–12 in the Bay Area (parents were racing windsurfers); taught to ride a raceboard by Sandy Parker at Sherman Island within about a year; switched from raceboard to foiling over winter 2013/14.
• Foil history (Ep 88): early race foils included a “Sword” and an F4; from ~2016 rode Mikes Lab foils (says she was the first to ride Mike’s original hand-built prototype) through the Bullet line, winning her first four world titles (2016–2019) on Mikes Lab kit. Moved to the Levitas foil after Mike declined to register his foil for Olympic-class racing (disclosure/confidentiality concerns), then switched again to the “Chewbanger” only five months before the 2024 Games, after finishing 5th (off the podium) at 2023 Worlds and hitting burnout. The Chewbanger, on which most of the Olympic fleet ended up racing, won gold in both fleets at the Games.
• Boards (Ep 88): rode Mikes Lab boards early on, then an unnamed brand for several years; had Ken Adgate hand-build her three custom Olympic race boards in 2024 around an undisclosed internal system, after her previous board brand declined to make her requested changes.
• 2024 Olympics, Marseille (Ep 88): finished 4th after a contentious final-race judging decision — a 1.1-point penalty for contact she says she wasn’t involved in, an unresolved protest of her own, and no formal hearing because the race was drone-umpired. Only 6 of a planned 16 races were sailed, which she attributes to race-committee mismanagement. Signed up for a half Ironman the week she got home and had begun planning for LA 2028.
• Weight/kite-size debate (Ep 88): a vocal critic of the pressure on Formula Kite women to gain weight for larger kites; favours a rule mandating a fixed kite size per wind band for all riders over a hard weight limit.