Sean O’Brien

I was born and still live in Brisbane, one of the bigger Australian cities on the East Coast. It’s a little inland – about 50mins drive from the water but I still managed to start windsurfing when I was about 5 years old. My Dad, who is also a sailor, taught me and the rest of the family when we used to go sailing in the school holidays, at the coast just north of Brisbane. I got good at windsurfing pretty quickly, but it was hard to find the time to sail living so far from the water. Up until I began competing when I was 14, windsurfing was really only a sport for the holiday season, and I didn’t give it much time compared to my other sporting interests (soccer, cricket, athletics, bike riding).

When I was 16, racing became quite difficult to keep forking out the money to buy all the latest gear all the time and I almost stopped sailing for a year or so, but then Formula arrived and I became motivated to windsurf again. My Dad and I began shaping and building our own formula boards for the first few years, as the widths increased. But then they changed the rules to prohibit custom boards. Around about this time Starboard picked me up which really helped me to get a headstart. Then I started travelling all around Australia doing every competition I could afford and slowly I started working my way up to better and better results.

Now that I have finished school I have been travelling to Europe for the last four or five years to compete on the Pro Tour for both FW and occasionally some PWA Slalom events at the nicer beaches. I have also had a short stint on the Australian Olympic Squad training for RS:X. I have been basing myself in the Netherlands when in Europe as I have a great group of friends there and really enjoy the country and its culture.

The first few years travelling to Europe I had found it difficult to get the results I wanted. It was hard coming from a city that has no wind in winter so I would arrive in the European summer without having sailed for quite some time and throw myself straight into the bigger events. As the years went on I also had difficulty getting the gear I needed to train/compete at the level I wanted and spent many events sailing with only 1 mast for the entire season which wasn’t optimum. In 2007, with a new sail sponsor, I finally had an opportunity to get the gear I wanted and had some better results, finishing all the events I competed in inside the prizemoney spots.

The past few years, I have also been getting myself involved in various projects/jobs in and outside of windsurfing. When I’m home in Australia for the summer, I usually have a different job each year – as I like to explore new challenges. Last summer I worked as an engineer at a major oil company, the year before that, I started my own professional sports team with some other athlete friends of mine; the year before that, started my own webdesign company.

I still do a lot of webdesign and late in 2007 I began doing some coaching and also spoke at a few dinners for younger sailors (all boat classes, not just windsurfing) in my home town. Eventually, that turned into me making a weblog about windsurfing where I could discuss some of the ideas I have about sailing, training and technique etc. So far it’s been quite popular (www.carbonsugar.com).

In early 2008 I took it upon myself to organise and run the 2008 Oceanic FW Championships (www.fw-australia.com). This was a big event by Australian standards and gave me a good appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes at a sailing regatta (what a nightmare of stress!). I’m hoping to continue getting involved with event organisation and promoting events over the next 12 months.

One day, when the windsurfing subsides a little I would like to go back to university and study Medicine as I had originally planned. I already have a degree in Psychology and Biomedical Science so Medicine is the logical next step. In the meantime I am just enjoying the fruits of my hard work to get some great sponsors who can allow me to travel, train and experience life without the hassles of working too much. Life is good.

See you at the beach ;)