Robert Ricci started windsurfing in 1981. Like most people his age at the time, he saw windsurfing as the new classic Californian summer sport and he very quickly fell in love with it. Only four years later he was racing all over Europe. He gained a job with a windsurfing company in Italy where he would start to learn about shaping boards. Here, he was able to make a career for himself out of something he was passionate for, and things grew further from there.