Taking the kids and traveling halfway around the world. Is that even possible?

Traveling halfway around the world to find love sounds like the perfect beginning for a fiction novel or a trendy “Eat, Pray, Love” movie. But what if you could do the opposite and, having found your love, set out to discover new horizons, conquer blistering spots and climb snowy peaks?

The story of Oli Raskina e Kirill Umrikhin is exactly about that.

– How did you meet?

Kirill: I knew Olya for a long time, the first time I saw her was when I went to Egypt, I was a photographer at a festival in Hurghada. I knew that Olga Raskina would be there, she was taking part in it, and I had to photograph her. Then she and I crossed paths for 5-10 minutes. Years later I became a team manager at Quiksilver and Roxy, Olga came once every six months, she was windsurfing. Nobody fully understood what kind of sport it was, but she was a cool skater, so we supported her(smiles).

She also showed incredibly beautiful pictures from different parts of the world and then she’d leave again. One day she came and brought an incredible shot of Lena Bem from Mauritius, from a helicopter. When I saw those photos, I just had an epiphany. The underwater reefs, the views from the helicopter, Olga riding the wave, it was so beautiful that I said I wanted to shoot like that too. She offered to organize it. And that’s how it all came together.

Olya Raskina

Olya: We really rarely saw each other, it turned out that I brought my annual report, Kirill approved it and expressed some wishes, purely business relations(smile).

– Olya, how exactly did you come to windsurfing?

Olya: I was snowboarding, I had an injury, then I went to Dahab with my friends. At that time Egypt was a real Mecca for summer sports, it was before the revolutions and all kinds of political cataclysms. Very big competitions were held there. And just a month after I started skating, I was offered a job at the Five Kvadrat station. I stayed and learned to skate.

Olya Raskina – Team Toyota Russia athlete

– Can you remember any moment from your outing together when you were scared?

Olya: We had a short outing at sunset, literally half an hour before dark, to the most difficult surf spot called One eye. I was in the water and Kirill and our mutual friend Lena were filming. As soon as I got out of the boat, it became clear that it was impossible to surf. There were not just very big, but gigantic waves, just some kind of hell! There was no way to ride the wave. And at that moment we heard screams, and it was not even a cry for help, a man was just drowning and screaming from the last strength. I started giving signs to the guys on the boat not to swim away, but to see what was going on, I also tried to row in that direction.

It turned out that on the neighboring spot a regular snorkeler was being hit hard by a wave, he was hit by the reef, then dragged along the same reef, because of that he was covered in blood, and on top of that he was choking.

The man was drowning! And the boat, because there were very big waves and not enough water, could not approach the reef, it was too heavy. So the guys went to the other side, threw him a rope, he managed to grab it. And that’s when the giant set comes in! The next thing I saw was a wave coming, the boat gives full throttle and just goes flying out at the 2-3 story level. It was very scary because we didn’t know what was going to happen next. If the boat turns over, we would have to rescue not just one person, but the whole crew. I had no idea how to do it, because there are no lifeguards in Mauritius. On the shore I found out that the guys managed to pull the Frenchman out of the collapse zone, where he was picked up by another boat.

One day my equipment broke down, I was striped on the reef, and Kirill tried to rescue me.

Olya: When the guys were rescued, it was the scariest situation. I had a similar story, once my equipment broke down, I was gargling on the reef, and Kirill was trying to save me. But I knew roughly what to do, so it was a little easier for me.

Kirill: We were in the sea, she tried to swim to us, she was hit by waves, we waited until we could pass inside the reef, we passed, but she was carried away again, we waited until we could get out. And that’s how we chased Olya for about 40 minutes, until she was carried to us.

– What is important to take into account in physical preparation when getting into such a situation?

Kirill: It is very important to be psychologically ready and you can not immediately get into the big waves. Waves are good for that, even when a small wave hits you, rolls, hits you, a person immediately understands very clearly what will happen when they will be bigger. In this case, the instinct of self-preservation begins to work at 200%, unlike other sports.

– What do you do to calm down in such moments?

Kirill: At first I imagined myself as a dolphin. When I started to spin, I imagined that it was actually very cool and it calmed me down.

– How many days a year do you spend traveling?

Olya: Half, probably, a month in Moscow, a month on a trip. Kirill is definitely more.

Kirill: The problem with these trips is that if you’re a photographer, you’re practically obliged to go for a month. Tides, waves, wind are always very unpredictable, it depends on the moon among other things. So you need to be on the trip for the whole month to catch all the stages of the moon and all the stages of the tides. In this respect it is much easier for snowboarders, you can do everything in 10 days.

In September I won a grant and organized an expedition to the Commander Islands. There I called Ola on the satellite phone, and she told me: “Guys, you have four days before the storm! You need to get out of here!”

– What’s the coolest trip you’ve been on together and separately?

Kirill: As a couple, the coolest trip is the last one, we recently got back from Hawaii. This trip we kept postponing because of the kids, we kept going to Mauritius, which we were already used to. And now Olya decided to give me tickets for my birthday to stop putting it off(smiles).

On my own, I’ve been involved in a few cool projects over the past year. One was an expedition to Antarctica, and in September I won a grant, a project called Nikon special project, and organized an expedition to the Commander Islands. There I called Ola on the satellite phone, and she told me: “Guys, you have four days before the storm! You have to get out of there!”, “Guys, you have three days before the storm! Get out of there! Let’s get out of there!”, “Guys! In two days, you’re gonna have a storm that the captain said would make everybody puke! Get outta there!” There was no communication at all, no Internet, so we contacted her at three o’clock in the afternoon and she gave us the weather news.

Olya: I went to Madagascar alone, we were shooting a project for Air Madagascar. As soon as I arrived, I was immediately picked up by cab, taken to the coast, put in some pirogue, and the local guys first, rowed, then put the sail. It took us a long time to get to the little island. While you’re driving, there are giant stingrays swimming under you, and you’re not just afraid to fall, you’re afraid to even sneeze or cough, they’re five, six times bigger than a windsurfing board(laughs). Behind them are various snakes, turtles, like in an aquarium.

– If you have to choose, are you closer to waves or mountains?

Olya: For me waves are a constant excitement, you learn something new, progress, sometimes it ends up hurting. In the mountains it’s the same, but there I try to ride as safely as possible, with a beeper, with friends-guides, I don’t climb into dangerous areas… but on the waves you can’t do that, if you don’t climb under the peak, you won’t take the wave. So on the waves I “get” much more often, but also more emotions. But no, I can’t choose, in the mountains it’s just cosmos!

Kirill: If I had the opportunity to choose, I would do everything not to choose. It is impossible to separate one thing from another. The most ideal is to combine these two incredibly powerful elements.

– What place would you choose to move there for a while?

Kirill: That’s why we travel there a lot, we are looking for our place(smiles). We have it in our heads, but it’s very difficult to find it in reality. It’s hard to find the perfect country or city, but we have to decide one way or another in the next few years, because the kids will be going to school soon.

– Is traveling a childhood dream or did it appear in adulthood?

Kirill: It became my dream with photography, I wanted to photograph mountains, but I didn’t live in the mountains, so I had to travel there. The ocean came together with Olya, came into my life with a big wave and left me no choice.

Olya: I was a botanist student, I studied in Moscow, but I realized that if I lived like that for a whole year, I would go crazy. So I tried to organize my studies in such a way that I could go to the mountains in winter. Traveling made my life rich and full, and so it is now.

– What has changed in terms of traveling with the birth of children?

Kirill: Everything!(Laughs.) Actually I started to ride after having kids. Before, Olya used to ride and I was with the camera. With the birth of children it turned out like this: Olya skates – I’m with the baby and the camera, Olya stopped skating, she’s with the baby, and I have no one to film, so I started skating. Travel planning has changed a lot, now you have to think about everything in advance, tickets, accommodation, dates, time. Of course budgets have changed, traveling with a child, and now with two, has become much more expensive.

– Your mast of things you pack for a trip? It feels like you’re taking out half the apartment.

Kirill: That’s a fact! People wonder how I can move it all at once. How it can be crammed into a car, cab drivers don’t understand how it fits into their car. For me it’s photo equipment, for Oli it’s sports equipment, we have a warehouse near our house with her equipment, we rent a room where there are only boards and sails.

Next we pack, but we try not to take too much, we can get one suitcase for two people. Then we start to pack the kids, we take a bicycle or a treadmill. With the second child we discovered the beauty of our Thule Urban Glide stroller. I don’t know how we used to live without it, without these big wheels that can go absolutely everywhere. It’s hard to even call it an advertisement, it’s the most necessary thing (after a camera and windsurfers, of course). We also have a Thule Chariot bike trailer , which in winter can be “shoehorned” into skis and run through the woods with a child in a wagon behind you. The skiers around are very impressed, and the baby sleeps inside. The whole family is in the sport, so to speak(smiles).

– Have you tried to put the older child on a board, on skis or surf?

Kirill: He rides a bodyboard, it’s such a board, on which lie down riding on the waves, and he first forgot about it, but on the last day in Mauritius remembered, and we went to the beach before the plane, where he caught a wave. In the winter we put him on skis, now we have turned him over to the group and he has already started skiing on his own. For children it is better to ski than snowboard, they develop, then he will decide what he wants.

– What are the trendy sports for children now?

Kirill: Begovel, which is popular in Russia, causes a flurry of emotions in Europe and America, because everyone has scooters, on which children get tired, and here, if a child is tired, he can stop and sit.

– Are there things that you constantly postpone because of moving?

Kirill: Home renovation, there are also thoughts of creating some comfortable space, sorting out suitcases. It’s not always possible to work with Moscow, because of the time zone difference. But I wouldn’t say it’s a problem.

– Where will you go next?

Kirill: I want to go somewhere without the kids, because we only went to Paris together, but before the flight I injured my back and almost didn’t walk. I don’t know where, but I really want to see Australia or New Zealand, it’s the last continent we haven’t been to yet.