Sara Aydin’s paving the way for a new generation of extreme sport enthusiasts
It all started with a moped. Sara had just turned 15 and convinced her parents to buy one to get around their home city of Stockholm—a feat that only took the born adrenaline-junkie a few months to grow out of. Before long, Sara decided what she really wanted: a motorcycle.
“Growing up, nobody in my family had any motor interest at all,” notes Sara wryly. “I knew my parents wouldn’t let me get one. So I got two jobs, and managed to make enough money to buy an older model. I bought it without telling them.”
As expected, it didn’t take long for mom to notice a motorbike in the garage. “She did everything she could to make me stop riding,” Sara admits, recounting the many times her mom chain-locked the bike or tried to sell it online. “But she didn’t manage, and I never stopped riding.”
It’s a good thing. The 24 year-old is now a professional stunt rider with a massive following and a handful of pro sponsorships. And though in some ways it seems that Sara’s career happened overnight—a YouTube video she made for friends went unexpectedly viral in 2014—she has, in fact, worked exceptionally hard to get to where she is.
“Back when this was happening there were no girls that were stunting on these kinds of supermotos,” Sara explains. “Being the first one to do it made me grow quickly. People don’t think that I’m worth everything because of that, but they don’t really see the work that goes into it.”
Hitting new heights
The obstacles Sara’s had to jump over—both figuratively and literally—have only helped her career soar higher. Take her love and talent for working on bikes. While born out of pure necessity, it’s a skill that’s helped her stand out in the sport.
“I only learned because one day my bike wouldn't start,” Sara explains. “I couldn't afford to take it to a shop, and being that young and having nobody around me that knew bikes, I had no other choice.”
She relied on YouTube videos to familiarize herself with the engine, which she was terrified to take apart. “I remember feeling like I had no idea what I was doing, but it worked out.” Today, most of her friends come to her garage when something needs fixing.
Sara’s rise to notoriety came with a lot of negativity, but like any great trailblazer, the skeptics were the ones that gave her the will to work harder.
Says Sara, “I got a lot of hate about my riding. Guys were telling me that I suck and that girls can’t wheelie. Some of it was true, but I took it as motivation to get better. I wanted to prove them and myself wrong. I wanted to show that girls could do it, too.”
Sara loved ripping around on The Radinn X-Sport, our newest, most-rugged jetboard model.
The need for jetboard speed
You’d think Radinn riding would feel like a walk in the park for someone that’s blazed across tarmac at 300 kmh, but that wasn’t the case for Sara, who took the boards out last summer in downtown Stockholm.
“It was way more adrenaline-pumping,” she exclaims, noting how riding her bike is something she can now practically do in her sleep. “The Radinn is a different kind of speed. At one point I was going faster and some waves and wake started coming. I remember getting that rush I haven’t had in so long.”
With no surfing and little board-sport experience, Sara also mentioned how nervous she was to try the jetboards for the first time — “I was like what if I can’t even stand up on this thing.”
It didn’t turn out to be a problem. She got the hang of it in no time and spent the afternoon cruising around the channels of Stockholm city. “I expected it to be way harder than it actually was,” she states. “The boards felt very stable, responsive, and fast to the throttle.”
Now that Sara’s gotten a taste, she’s already thinking up new jetboard tricks she wanted to try. “Being the adrenaline-junkie that I am, I definitely want to get more time on the board,” she adds. “There’s nothing like feeling free out in the water.”
Exploring the channels of Stockholm city.
