ATHOS TSIOPANI
The visionary behind Eclipse Ireland and the Swan House Estate.
He has a passion for the great outdoors. Teamwork. Power. Fun. Adventure. He has built and landscaped the estate almost singlehandedly over the past 15 years and contracted construction of the Centre in 2008. He pours his life and soul into making Eclipse a successful experience for everyone involved; ensuring that each visitor to the centre goes away feeling fulfilled and with a feeling of achievement. He has an innate understanding of people’s needs. He’s great with kids. Whether you want to challenge your inner being or relax your battered soul, Athos will always do his best to help guide you along the way.
His “Credo”…“To lead life centred on excellence integrity and communication, continuously learning and growing and helping others to fulfil their potential.”
Oh, and he cooks a mean steak! Athos’s younger life saw him as chef & proprietor of Bristol’s legendary Cattleman’s Steakhouse Restaurant. He brings this culinary knowledge to the forefront with BBQ catering for all your birthday parties, corporate events and hen & stag parties.
•
ANITA TSIOPANI
Anita is the genuine and warm wife of Athos she is often seen looking after all the younger guests who comes to Eclipse, she is also house mum to the residential campers.
When not dealing with the children Anita operates as the customer relationship manager and is often the first person you will meet when coming to the Centre. Anita also provides administrative and reservations support for our busy office. She ensures that all administrative duties are completed to a high standard. She works very closely with all our departments, ensuring all rates & details are correct as well as liaising with clients, tour operators and works closely with our key partners. When she is not doing that she is loving Mum to Adam, Athoulis and Sonny.
•
SONNY TSIOPANI
Sonny is the Activity Co-ordination Manager.
Son of Athos and Anita he coordinates activity’s for Adult groups and Children’s campers. Sonny has a unique fun loving personalities that appeals to all. He encourages achievement from anyone he facilitates so that they go home full of confidence and self esteem.
He works closely with Athos and is often team leader for school groups, stags and hens.
•
LAURA DAVENPORT
Laura primary function is marketing and although she provides the essential ingredient in the office, she is a commited, self-motivated administrative manager with exceptional multi-tasking and organisational skills.
With a multitude of languages under her belt and having extensive experience of market research and business negotiation, Laura brings fresh thinking to the Eclipse team.
•
KAREN VICENCIO
Eclipse’s well rounded senior instructor Karen Vicencio hails from California, where she spent several decades training horses and riders in a number of disciplines. She earned her Horsemastership III certificate in 1982, at the time the equivalent of the British Horse Society Instructor’s certificate and the highest level certificate that could be earned. She also trained racehorses, and rode western pleasure, team penned, rode reining and cutting horses, and showed in trail and western pleasure classes. She drove horses for a living for several years, mainly Standardbreds and draft horses, holding a single and pairs teamsters license for the city of Sacramento, where she was also certified as an instructor.
Horses and riders trained by Karen earned national awards in working hunters, show jumping, equitation and English pleasure. They also won many regional championships in those divisions, and including dressage, hunter breeding and eventing. Local awards also included western riding events. Since moving to Ireland she has trained several successful riders, including one who earned a national championship in equitation and regional awards in dressage. Karen worked with many excellent trainers and international riders over the years, including Victor Hugo Vidal, Lawrence Langer, Dennis Callin, Rudy Leone, Jimmy Williams, and Bernie Traurig.
She also specialized in training problem horses (all of the horses eventually earning National awards came to her because they had serious behavioural problems), using natural horsemanship methods learned from some of the exceptional horsemen she worked with over the years, including Tom Dorrance, Pat Parelli, and GaWaNi Ponyboy.
•
RIPLEY DAVENPORT, FRGS
Ripley Davenport, our Operations Manager, is our newest addtiion to the Eclipse Adventure Team. We are very excited to have him! Ripley is a renowned desert explorer and adventurer who also trains and prepares for his expeditions at the Eclipse Centre.
His fascination for the harsh desert environment led him to successfully traverse the Namib Desert using Dromedaries and the Karakum Desert, totalling 108 days. He spent several weeks in Niger learning from the Tuareg and spent one month in the company of the Gadia Lohars, a vibrant and dignified nomadic community of Rajasthan in the Thar Desert.
In 2010, on his second attempt, Ripley managed to cover a 1628km / 1012 mile solo unassisted trek in just 52 days crossing the Mongolian-Manchurian Steppe and Gobi Desert man hauling his entire supplies on a specially made trailer weighing on average 230kg. In 2011 he returned to Mongolia leading The Gobi 2011 Expedition, which traversed 1000 miles of the Altai Mountain Range and Gobi Desert using a caravan of Bactrian camels.
In 2013 Ripley will attempt to cross the Sahara Desert following the legendary trans-Sahara trade route from Timbuktu to Marrakesh completely unsupported becoming the second European in 150 years to traverse the ~1800 mile route. His future plans also include an epic traverse of one of the world’s largest steppe regions using pack horses.
In 2011 he was honoured with Fellowship at the Royal Geographical Society and he is our very own Eclipse Brand Ambassador.
