Behind the Scene at Ika Manu: a swimwear brand designed for women riders, with its creator Francisca Cannas and Adventure Sports USA

It’s a subject we don’t often talk about, but it’s nonetheless an important one: swimwear for board sports such as wingfoil or kitesurfing. And when it comes to women’s water sports swimwear, the choice is even more limited. However, new brands and designers are beginning to take an interest in this area: such is the case of Francisca Cannas with her Ika Manu business. Francisca Cannas is a Chilean-born kitesurfer, brand ambassador for Adventure Sports USA, who lives in Florida. Her brand Ika Manu specialises in swimwear for women who practice board sports. In short, a brand created by women riders, for women riders! For TotalWing, Francisca talks about the creation and development of her swimwear line, its features specially designed for board sports (good fit, UV protection, sustainability and style), and her collaboration with Cabrinha and Adventure Sports USA. Bonus: some of the photos in this article are a sneak peek of the next collection!

Hello Francisca, can you introduce yourself?

This is Francisa Cannas, people call me Fran, I’m from Chile, I’m 28 years old and I am very very passionate of kiteboarding, it’s basically become a lifestyle for me.

Tell us about your background in kitesurfing and how it inspired you to create a swimwear line specifically for women in watersports.

I started kitesurfing in college, I studied at Florida Atlantic University, at Boca Raton, and they had a kiteboarding club there. So my friend Sage taught me, he had just broken his leg and… you know kiteboarding lessons were expensive, so he was like “I have a broken foot, let’s go to the beach, if you buy me a pack of beers”… so I was like “you know what let’s do it” it’s my chance to learn for free basically. So that’s where it started and I have not stopped keyboarding since then. It’s been quite a while.

When the pandemic started, I started to kiteboard a lot more often. I was newly single, so I had a lot more free time and it was one of those things that you could do in the open, where you wouldn’t really get covid. So I started kiteboarding so much more, and I realized that I was practicing new tricks and I was wiping out pretty bad! So I wanted to find a swimwear brand that would be sustainable, that would have UV protection on swimwear, and that it would be specifically for kiteboarding. I saw that there was very very little out there. So I was like… let’s do it! I really wanted to have my own thing, my own business, so that’s where it started.

When you’re buying swimwear for watersports like wing or kite, I think the first criteria is that it should be comfortable and staying put, even in the event of a crash, and even more so on bikinis than on onesies. What’s the R&D process like for functional swimwear that remains in place?

It’s been a little bit of a trial and error process. We’re still a very very new brand, we launched in May of 2022, even though I started thinking about it in 2021. For the R&D process, I work with a manufacturing company in Colombia, we work together and we find really cool fabrics that would be sustainable and that would have UV protection. So, from there, we’ve designed certain looks and certain models, that would be pretty functional, sexy and also for performance. From there, once we’ve manufactured them, they send them to me in Miami and I go out and I try them. I go kitesurfing and I go for a full session, and then I come back and I tell them what happened. Then we go back and forth, I may send it back with some corrections and they may send it back again… So it’s a little bit longer than a usual bikini product and production and manufacturing have been more of a trial and error process rather than a super streamline process. But, now, I think we’ve pretty much got it to the nail.

Well, the other key point is the look! What inspired the aesthetics of Ika Manu’s (superb!) swimwear?

So I really thought that, and I work with my sister Sophie, she has such great taste and we both love fashion. I’m the one more into water sports but she also loves all the trends and she’s super into marketing. So it’s a really really great mix of both of us. What inspired the aesthetics of Ika Manu was that, for our first collection, we really wanted to focus on having Basics, so something that you would take on any session, that you really like and it would be something that would be like an evergreen model, that you could keep forever. These bikinis are really meant to last for a long time… so I don’t know if it was a great business idea because you’re going to buy only one and use it forever, but that was kind of the back thought process on this.

When you practice outdoor sports, especially in the water, it’s important to protect yourself from the sun. Do Ika Manu swimsuits offer UV protection?

So yes we went for a fabric that would be sustainable, so the fabric is made out of recycled bottles, most of it. I can’t say it’s 100% all sustainable, but most of it is, and the swimsuits do offer UV production because since we’re out there in the sun for a long time, we really wanted to focus on the swimsuit to be something that you could wear on its own and you wouldn’t have to really layer up with something else. So yes it does have UV protection.

What materials are used in these swimsuits to meet all the criteria of fit, UV protection and style?

So for the fabrics of the swimsuit on their own, it’s 80% recycled polyester and another component, but, basically, most of the material is made out of recycled bottles. It is very hard to have a product that is 100% recycled, but this product is almost 100% recycled. We use that because the fit and the softness of that fabric is amazing and of course it’s sustainable, so that’s why we love that fabric. For the next collection, we have some of the materials also recycled but not all of them again are recycled. It’s really difficult to find good providers of materials that do 100% recycled work. However, we’ve seen there’s an increasing amount of new producers coming out every year, and I love that because it’s helping the industry become way more eco-friendly and mindful of the environment.

Can you tell me about the model you designed in collaboration with Cabrinha?

We designed a suit in collaboration with Cabrinha, this is called the Tarifa suit. What’s really cool about our first collection is that each model that we launched had a name of a kite spot. So for example for this collaboration, we did the Tarifa swimsuit and we have other ones like Combuco and Stiltsville, that’s right there in Miami, Los Roques… so there’s multiple. But the one that we did with Cabrinha was Tarifa, and what’s really special about it is that I was talking to Rachel about her suits and she really liked that one, and coincidentally I know this year Cabrinha opened a new shop in Tarifa. So it was a really coincidental thing and also something really special, because I know that’s kind of the model that they were looking to do, something that was long sleeve but also really stylish. The Tarifa swimsuit has sort of a biker jacket form in the front, which looks really really cool, with a zipper in the middle. And obviously we put the Cabrinha logos in there so it’s really cool. That model also is made out of recycled bottles, the polyester is recycled, it has UV protection. The way that the fabric was printed uses way less water than other processes when creating these materials… So overall it’s really a great product and really stylish, as I said it has this type of biker jacket form in the front which makes it look really cool. And, at the end of the sleeves, it has a hole for you to put your thumb, so the fit on the arms is way more comfortable than other suits.

What’s your connection with Adventure Sports USA?

Adventure Sports USA is in my heart! I started kiting, as I said, a lot more during the pandemic and I would see them a lot out there in Virginia Key, Biscayne… and that’s where I met some of the guys from the crew. Everybody’s so nice, it’s like a family to me at this point: Raul, Joseph, Brandon, Todd, Fran, Daniel… but everybody there is amazing… Cedric, Andy, I know everybody! I love them! Adventure Sports, I know they carry Cabrinha gear and we all work together, so that’s how you know we’ve become a really big family. In simple words, I’m local to Miami, they are local riders and we just see each other, enjoying the sport that we all love, and sharing the same beach and caring about the same things… so we become really good friends. They also spotted me when I was getting better at kitesurfing and now I’m a brand ambassador for them, because I ride Cabrinha gear so thanks so much Adventure Sports for supporting my favorite sport.

What advice would you give to women new to kitesurfing or wingfoiling regarding their choice of equipment, including swimwear, to optimize their experience?

The first advice I would give to women that are new to the sport, to kitesurfing, kiteboarding and wingfoiling, would be to just try it out. I know everybody thinks it’s really really hard and it’s not. Honestly, of course it takes hours of practice, but after you have it, it’s just the best feeling in the world. For me, this sport has become such a way of connecting with my true self, it’s a way of being present, it’s a way of meditating… and it it’s so energizing! So I would say just go for it, it’s so worth it. It’s become a total central motive in my life, that I I would recommend it eyes closed. It’s a sport and it’s beautiful with the great community that we have in Miami. I’m sure you’ll have a big crew that can come out with you and and help you learn. I would also advise that you should take at least 10 hours of classes, around that, for you to learn the basics of safety, how the gear works, what to do, what not to do… basic understanding to start with the right foot. This new sport can be, of course, a little bit uh you know more adventurous than other sports. So that’s what I would recommend. In terms of equipment, I would say go to the shop, go to Adventure Sports and ask the guys like “Hey listen, this is what I want to do, these are my needs, this is what I think…” and, of course, Joseph, Andy, Cedric… whoever’s there will help you out. They’re great guys and I’m sure they will make you make the right choice for your equipment or swimwear or whatever you may need. Even if you have questions on a kite trip that you may want to do, I’m also here to help. I’m on Instagram, my Instagram is @francannas, and you can message me and I can give you tips also on this kind of stuff. Happy to help! It’s very tailored to your needs, so that would be my advice.

And finally, a new collection is coming soon?

Yes a new collection is coming soon. I’m currently trying these swimsuits out here in Brazil, for this collection we’ve put a little bit more colors, a little bit more shimmer, a little bit more of… We’ve become a little bit more bold in our choices of the line. We want to have something that’s a little bit more fun, we we’re playing a little bit more with the fabrics, with the styles, and we want to have also something that stay put but also not too boring. So this second collection is more of like having fun, enjoying, being out there and feeling cool and sexy and also comfortable with these swimsuits. So a lot of new cool things coming up soon! And something that I also want to mention is that, on December 3rd, we will be doing a Beach Cleanup in Miami Beach. I would encourage for you guys to reach out to me and we need 20 volunteers. So we’re going to do a Beach Cleanup because, for every swimsuit sold last collection, we donated a percentage of that to the Surf Rider chapter, who are these really cool guys that will be there at the clean up, and that will explain what they do for Miami Beach, the health of the ocean and the environment here. That’s so important to our community.

Thank you so much Fran for sharing your passion, your advices and your interesting answers about swimwear! You can find the Ika Manu collection on Adventure Sports USA.

Follow Francisca Cannas:
Instagram

More info about Ika Manu:
Official Website / Facebook / Instagram

More info about Adventure Sports USA:
Official Website / Facebook / Instagram