Pro Longboard Surfer Kaitlin Mikkelsen Has a New Set of Priorities—and She’s Still Winning
Part 4 in the JOY SEEKERS series, focused on mom athletes and their appetites for risk.
Read the series from the beginning.
Kaitlin surfing with her son Madix Reef. (Photo: Aaron Hughes)
Now that she’s a mom, Kaitlin Mikkelsen cares less about fitting the body image that comes with being a professional surfer and more about maximizing her time in the water so she can get back to doing what she loves best: hanging with her son Madix. She even briefly considered retiring from surfing this year, but then she reconsidered. The professional longboard surfer says becoming a mom took the pressure off. She’s no longer concerned about creating a certain “surf girl” image, winning at all costs, or putting her body at risk. But if her mindset shift has impacted her surfing, it’s for the better.
Kaitlin just won the USA Longboard Championships in Oceanside, California. Known as the “longboard olympics of surfing,” winning the event means she’s qualified to represent the U.S. in the International Surfing Association (ISA) World Longboard Championship in 2024. She’s also mom to 21-month old Madix Reef, and co-owner of a physical therapy practice. In the nearly two years since she added mom to her title, Kaitlin has competed on the pro longboard tour, traveled around the world in for surf competitions, worked hard, trained harder, and spent hours building sand castles with baby Madix.
The Encinitas, California-based pro longboarder has been bodysurfing and bodyboarding since age two, and surfing since she was 12. She competed in her first surf contest at age 13 and started winning junior longboard and shortboard competitions later that year. Then on her 18th birthday she placed seventh in her first world title competition.
The 35-year-old knew having a baby would change everything, but was determined to maintain her place as one of the top five female longboarders in the world—she’s the 3x North American women’s longboard champion and has won the Queen of the Reef and Mexi Log Fest competitions.
Surfing was a balm for her body changes during pregnancy, and a place to recenter herself as she prepared to become a mom.
“I worried that I would be really limited while surfing pregnant, but as I got a little bigger, I had to change up my paddle routine and timing of getting into waves,” she said. “But you still have that muscle memory, skill, and leg strength. I was able to do turns and nose rides up to almost eight months pregnant. That was such an amazing feeling; I actually didn’t skip a beat.”
In many ways, being more cautious made Kaitlin a better surfer.
“I slowed down my timing and really paid attention to the waves instead of trying to force something in a certain spot. As a competitive surfer you try to make things happen always on the waves as you need to impress the judges or get a score. Maybe my timing isn't always the best because I need to squeeze something in. Surfing pregnant I was more careful, more cautious, and so I definitely sat back and slowed things down to make sure everything was in the most perfect place on the wave.”
Midway through her incredible surf season, we connected to hear more about how she manages risk while doing what she loves, the unexpected body confidence that came with becoming a mom, and why she’s not ready to retire from competition just yet.
Kaitlin and her husband Niles surfing near her home in Encinitas, CA. (Photo: Nathan Petty)
“I think I drove everybody nuts. I couldn’t wait to get back to surfing. You feel like a limb gets cut off when you take away your sport.”
Regaining Her Balance
Madix Reef was born in October 2021. As a pro surfer and physical therapist, she understood that changes in her body would last beyond pregnancy, but she couldn't have prepared for the shift in balance she felt. Just four weeks after giving birth, Kaitlin was back in the water.
“I think I drove everybody nuts. I couldn’t wait to get back to surfing. You feel like a limb gets cut off when you take away your sport.”
Despite surfing and working out throughout her entire pregnancy, returning to the water postpartum was a whole new adventure. She jumped in the water and literally rolled off her board.
“It should have been a comedy. I had no abs,” she said. “I jumped on my belly and just fell off the board.”
During pregnancy, the enlarging uterus causes the abdominal muscles to stretch, and sometimes the two bands of muscles that meet in the middle of the abs to separate. That’s called ‘diastasis recti,’ and it occurs in more than 60% of pregnant women, though it usually resolves itself within two months of delivery. Without abdominal strength to steady us, balance becomes nearly impossible.
As she battled balance on the board, Kaitlin also contemplated the risk of paddling out into bigger waves.
“There was a lot of big swell right after I got cleared to surf. I went out one day and it crossed my mind that I may not be ready and should probably go in after a few waves. I knew I wasn’t physically all the way there and I may be a little bit slow or my timing may be off. You do definitely think, ‘Hey, if I get hurt or if something happens to me, it's not just all about me anymore.’ At the same time, it's my passion and what drives me. So I'm definitely going to continue to push my surfing to where I feel comfortable and safe.”
Taking the Pressure Off
In 2022, one year after Madix was born, Kaitlin returned to the Longboard Pro Tour. Qualifying for the tour is a competitive feat in itself, and skipping a season would have meant ceding her spot to another woman, possibly letting go of her place in the competition forever. Add in her sponsorships with Axxe Wetsuits, Surf Ride shop, Ride Unhinged, and Donald Takayama Surfboards, and she felt a certain pressure to maintain her competitive momentum.
“When I’m out there surfing I’m having a good time and doing my best. I don’t care what I look like in a bikini or a wetsuit. And then at the end of the day I come home to this beautiful little boy that I’m so in love with.”
“I just didn't want to give it up. It’s pretty cutthroat right now. You have all these hungry, beautiful athletes just coming at you to climb their way to the top. In the U.S., you have maybe 60 girls showing up and only one will make it on tour.”
Kaitlin has competed as a professional longboard surfer on the world stage since she turned 18, a path which has meant adopting a lifestyle focused on travel and modeling, which came with its own pressure to project a certain image, including a certain body type and look. If you’re picturing tan, blonde models with tan skin and perfect abs, you’re spot on. Being seen and keeping up appearances was always a part of the game. That all changed for Kaitlin after she had Madix.
“Being a mom has shifted me back to my 16-year-old self where it’s all about competing, all about focusing your energy into being the best surfer you can be, not worrying about the lifestyle aspect. Even though I'm not in the best shape of my life, I feel the most confident and comfortable in my own skin.”
“I'm out there surfing, I'm having a good time, and I'm doing my best. I don't care what I look like in a bikini or a wetsuit. And then at the end of the day I come home to this beautiful little boy that I'm so in love with.”
Kaitlin (center) greets Madix at USA Surfing Championships in Oceanside, CA, alongsgide fellow pro longboarders Reid Van Wagoner (left) and Rachael Tilly (right). (Photo: Gretchen Harris)
Still Charging
After an ectopic pregnancy—a sometimes dangerous circumstance when a fertilized egg grows outside of the uterus—in 2022 and a harrowing near-death experience from the bleeding that followed, retiring from surfing this year would have been an easy choice for Kaitlin. Her body has been through a lot, and finding time to train while running a business and parenting a toddler isn’t exactly easy.
“This is what I live for and what I want to do with my life as long as I can.”
Then she got the email announcing the 2023 competition lineup. “I just feel like there's something still inside me that's lit up and I've got to do it. I can't let it go yet,” she told me in March. “Going through the ectopic pregnancy really made me grateful for what I have as an athlete and what I've been blessed with as far as a family and the ability to travel the world and compete. I want to continue to do it as a mom, too. This is what I live for and what I want to do with my life as long as I can.”
This year she’ll compete in World Surf League events close to home in California (catch her at the U.S. Open Huntington Beach July 29-August 6) before traveling to Australia for Bells Beach (August 30-September 2) and El Salvador for Sunzal (September 19-25), before returning home for a competition in Malibu (October 3-13).
Now that Madix is almost two, deciding whether to bring him and her husband Neil along for the competitions is one of many choices in the juggling act of pro athlete, business owner, and mom.
“Do I choose to be selfish and focus on myself?” She often asks herself. “I guess you feel that way as a mom. You're being selfish when you choose yourself first, anytime. It does seem forever being away from your kid for a day, let alone a week.”
While surfing is Kaitlin’s first passion, she hopes to use her training as a physical therapist to help other new moms recover and learn how to stabilize their bodies so that they can get back to doing what they love, too. She wants to work with surfing moms who (like her) couldn’t wait to get back into the water.
Meanwhile, Madix is learning to love surfing, too. On recent day at World Championships, Kaitlin held Madix on the front of her board. They caught a wave together and his face lit up.
“When we named him, we decided on Madix Reef. Hopefully he likes surfing when he grows up. He already loves the ocean, so we're lucky there. Hopefully we got a little surf baby on our hands, or at least an ocean lover. He can be whoever he wants to be, but fingers crossed.”
Photo: Vincent Duprat
