Born in Szczecin, a beautiful port city in Poland, Eliza Eliasz was exposed to a variety of extreme sports from a young age. She was skiing by the time she was four, windsurfing at ten, and competing in snowboarding championships in her teens. After obtaining her college degree, Eliza became a youth kitesurfing and wakeboarding instructor. She also served as Project Coordinator with the Polish Foundation for Sport and Culture, where she worked with youth from under-served communities and orphanages to promote education, physical activity, sports, and art. 

In 2014, Eliza founded Girls Can Wake, a wakeboarding program for girls that aims to break stereotypes that women do not have the required strength and fitness capacity to take part in boardsports. She also uses wakeboarding and kite surfing to teach environmentally safe, eco-friendly behavior. “It’s important to teach children about social responsibility, how to respect nature and protect the environment,” she says. “When I teach the children to kitesurf, I also teach them about respect. How we treat our environment is a reflection of how much we respect ourselves. We always end our session by collecting rubbish from the seaside and recycling it.”