ELI FULLER “I started windsurfing when I was 12 years old on Dutchmans Bay which was in the heart of the North Sound of Antigua, an area I had grown up spending all of my free time exploring, fishing, snorkelling and playing since I was old enough to be taken on a boat. My father was born there and had done the same for all of his life. This beautiful natural and undisturbed area was a section of protected coastline buffeted by 22 offshore islands and a myriad of coral reefs and shallow sea beds. It was a perfect place to learn how to windsurf as it made exploring the islands even more exciting once powered quickly by wind. Course racing and slalom were things I did daily for fun within this area and I started competing during my first year. By the time I was 16 I was training for the Korean Olympics. I raced in the Caribbean and mostly in Florida through college and finally ended up training and working in Maui staying with Sean Ordonez who had been a school mate of mine back in Antigua when we both started windsurfing. I spent a year and a half in-between injuries competing with the PWA and then the PBA. Aruba, The Virgin Islands, Greece, The Canaries, Germany, the UK and Brazil were PWA events that I raced in. I landed a nice job with Maui Sails working with Nils Rosenblad and Barry Spanier on testing and development of Neil Pryde sails together with a guy called Peter Slate. I had an awesome time getting paid to windsurf on the best equipment in the world at the time. It was the best job in the world to have in between competing internationally. However, I knew I couldn’t keep doing it forever and one day while sitting in the sail loft back in 1999 late after everyone had gone home I realized that I had to plan for my future. I sat there and thought about pros and cons of all the jobs that I had worked on over my life trying to figure out what I would be passionate about. After an hour it was pretty obvious what I had to do. Within a few months I was back home in Antigua registering a company called Adventure Antigua and trying to get a very small open boat owned by my family insured and licensed so that I could start doing day trips within the North Sound to areas off the beaten path which I had explored in little boats as a kid and while training for competitions. I was passionate about history, ecology, snorkelling and showing people sides of my country that they would have missed on a typical holiday here. It was December 1999 and the Adventure Antigua Eco Tour had themes of ecology, history and adventure while taking guests snorkelling, caving, hiking, beaching and more all in one fun filled day. Sunsail Club Colona had just started up and with most of the management and staff being windsurfers from the UK, I quickly was able to get them promoting my little tour company. It was a hit! Within a few years it had grown tenfold and I was able to purchase a 52 foot powered catamaran. Today we have a few more boats and a few different tours including one that goes right around Antigua. Without my start in windsurfing I really don’t know what I would be up to now”