Kolby Fahlsing really loves wake surfing. So much, in fact, that she decided she’d take her unborn child with her.
It seems that every time a pregnant woman does something like this, internet commenters come out of the wood work. “You’re endangering the baby!” they yell. Remember when Bethany Hamilton surfed Teahupoo while pregnant? But it must be hard to spend your life in the water, then all of a sudden take 9 months off.
“Last year, I took a picture holding the surf board and was like, I’m saying goodbye,” said Fahlsing. “I’m hanging up the board and I was really sad. I cried.”
Before she went wake surfing, Fahlsing talked about it her doctor. “He did tell me, I don’t care if you do that, but don’t do 360’s and fire hydrants,” she told Kare11.com. “So, he’s like, as long as you aren’t doing tricks and putting yourself at risk to fall, then I think as long as you go out and coast, you’re fine.”
And fine she was. Five days later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy who she named Wilder. Fahlsing wants to break the notion that pregnancy means a certain thing. “There’s a stereotype or a gender role like, oh you’re pregnant now, so you have to be at home all the time and you have to do these things,” she says. “I think for a lot of women, it was very empowering.”
