Jennie “AdrenaJen” Milton: Schedule Your Fear:
Season 2 • Episode 8
Australian champion kitesurfer, snowkite athlete and TEDxBillings presenter Jennie “AdrenaJen” Milton on selling everything for Alaska, building courage through repetition and returning to the mountains after three brain aneurysms and three brain surgeries.
Jennie “AdrenaJen” Milton has spent her life chasing storms—but she wasn’t born fearless.
Growing up in a Canberra ski family, Jennie watched her brother Michael Milton return to sport after bone cancer and the amputation of his leg. His willingness to adapt became one of her earliest lessons in courage: work with what you have, find another way and keep moving.
At 18, Jennie founded Adrenaline Sports. From behind the counter of the snowboard store, she watched films of riders dropping onto remote Alaskan peaks and announced that she would do it one day. When her team told her to keep dreaming, she went home, chose a date and booked the flight.
That was the moment she learned to schedule her fear. Once the fear had a date, it also had a deadline - and she had time to train, learn, prepare and visualise what came next.
Jennie later sold her business, home and sports car, bought an RV and left Australia for what was meant to be a one-year adventure. More than two decades later, she is an Australian champion kitesurfer, globally ranked snowkite athlete, entrepreneur, author, coach and international speaker whose life still moves between wind, waves and snow.
In 2024, persistent headaches and rising blood pressure revealed three brain aneurysms. Jennie underwent three brain surgeries and was told that, if she survived, she might never ski or kitesurf again. The woman who had spent years choosing fear now had to face a fear that had chosen her.
In this episode of Only Friends on a Pow Day, Jennie speaks with Austin about building courage through repetition, the emotional crash that followed her first Alaska trip, selling everything to pursue a different life, surviving brain surgery and finding purpose in sharing what she has learned.
Cleared to return to skiing and kitesurfing in January 2026, Jennie is once again riding mountains and waves. She is also a presenter at TEDxBillings 2026 and host of the Fearless Women’s Summit in Bozeman.
This isn’t a story about having no fear. It’s about increasing your capacity to carry it.
In this episode with Jennie Milton:
How her brother Michael Milton shaped her understanding of courage and adaptation
The origins of Adrenaline Sports and the AdrenaJen name
Booking Alaska before she felt ready
Why courage grows through repetition
Selling everything and leaving Australia in an RV
Snowkiting, kitesurfing and a life built around extreme environments
Recognising the medical red flags that led to her diagnosis
Surviving three brain aneurysms and three brain surgeries
Returning to the mountains and ocean in 2026
Turning survival into service, speaking and community
