HISTORY The first time I went to Fiji was almost thirty years ago, when I flew with Pete Cabrinha and the rest of the Gaastra crew to shoot the windsurfing movie “Angle of Attack”. You can find the intro on www.windsurf.co.uk/angle-of-attack …a time warp into the days of windsurfing past with short shorts, bright fluoro colors and a new sport that was taking the world by storm. At that time the “island” of Namotu was just an atoll with a few bushes and one or two coconut trees on it. We stayed on Plantation Island and took a boat out to Namotu each day to sail the barrier reef break now known as Namotu Lefts. The wind is side–shore (though not always strong enough to windsurf), the waves are long and clean, and it is normally warm, sunny and beautiful. I have been there many times over the years since that first trip, for windsurfing competitions, waterman multi sport events, family holidays (even over the millennium in 2000) and photo shoots, kitesurfing and stand up paddling. But this last trip was my all time windsurfing score. I have been working with a Dutch film crew called Eyeforce on a kitesurfing documentary film, and we wanted to include a trip to Fiji and more specifically Cloudbreak into the project. Initially the idea was to shoot with Naish team rider Kevin Langeree along with Pete Cabrinha and Keahi Deaboitz to kind of pair up some first generation kiters with some younger blood. The Cabrinha crew and the filmers would be on a big catamaran for a couple of weeks and Kevin and I would fly in if and when the conditions looked firing. Unfortunately, for the two week window that was planned, the wind and waves never really got sweet enough to justify flying all the way to Fiji. Then the forecast changed. A really solid swell with strong winds appeared just after our holding period. So they extended their trip and I packed up my equipment. This was a kitesurfing trip. But I could not go to Cloudbreak with the forecast that I was looking at and not bring some windsurfing gear!