Sean O'Brien, Pro Windsurfer – seanobrien.com.au™

Sean successfully defended his Formula Class Australian Title last night in Fremantle, Western Australia. A strong fleet of the nation’s best Formula sailors and a few internationals from Europe contested the four-day regatta at both South Beach, Fremantle and the Swan River, in Perth.

After two days of battling the weed and choppy conditions of South Beach, the event was moved into the smoother waters of the Swan River. Sean was sitting comfortably in 2nd heading into the third day after winning the first race of the series and stringing together another six 2nd’s behind the Danish champion, Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111). The racing proved tricky in the shifty waters of the river, with winds on the 3rd day getting up around 30knots. Despite being beaten in a few heats by Western Australia’s Jesper Orth (AUS-10), Sean was too far ahead to be troubled for the top Aussie spot. Overall Sean finished 2nd to world #1 ranked Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) by a clear margin with Jesper Orth (AUS-10) and Sam Parker (AUS-3) in 3rd and 4th.

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Sean dominated the Qld State Slalom Championships yesterday by winning every single race he started. A fleet of 25 of the state’s top slalom sailors competed at the Championships run off of the rock wall at Norfolk Point, Manly. Sean used his 7.8m NeilPryde RS6 and Starboard iSonic 115 combo in the 15-20 knot winds to dominate the field and successfully defend his title from last year.

The new 2007 Starboard formula boards have arrived in Australia and with good winds the entire week Sean has had the opportunity to test the new board in a variety of conditions. Read the rest of this post for an Action Shots gallery from some days sailing at Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Read More…

Sean has just arrived in Gangneung, South Korea last night for the 2006 Formula World Championships. He will be writing a daily report of the event which you can find here:

• Formula Worlds Daily Report
• Sean’s Gear: Formula Worlds

And also, due to the amount of emails Sean received asking about this, he has included some information about the gear he registered and some tips on how to setup your formula gear for racing. Enjoy.

Ok so we’ve had a few windless days in South Korea now! So I decided to go for a run last night to keep up the fitness levels. Our hotel is right on the beach front but separated from the sand by 40-50m of thick forest which is heavily fenced off. So to make it to the beach you need to walk north about 900m to the restaurant area which has beach access – from there the beach stretches in two directions (separated by a small creek) as far as the eye can see.

On this particular night I decided to run along the beach in front of our hotel, thinking there would be another access point further south of our hotel allowing me to get back. The sand was really soft but its a good workout for the ankles so after passing the few small restaurants to the north I headed out on to the beach and began to run south, a few metres away from the small breaking waves…

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Sean has returned home early from the Euro-Cup event in Silvaplana, Switzerland. After a crash on the startline of the first race, Sean injured his neck. Nothing too serious, but it prevented him from racing again for a few days, and Sean thought it best to return to Holland and spend some time recovering in preparation for the Formula Worlds in South Korea next week.

A little disappointing as their is a good international turnup to this event, with many of the world’s top formula sailors vying for the 20,000 euros prizemoney on offer.

The Formula Euro-Cup event in Leba, Poland finished a little disappointingly with only 2 races completed after the 4 days of racing; but as only one race is needed for an event, it still counts. Not to much of a problem as there’s plenty to do and see in Poland (especially in the summer months) and at no point were the sailors bored! Sean finished on equal points with 16th but was designated to 17th on a countback. Steve Allen (AUS-0) won the event with Arnon Dagan (ISR-1) and Michal Polanowski (POL-16) following closely behind.

On the first day, and in the first race of the Euro-Cup event in Silvaplana, Switzerland, I crashed on the startline with Arnon Dagan (ISR-1). Not really anybody’s fault, but when I hit the water I felt my neck “click”. Not a broken-bone click, but a “this doesn’t sound too good” kind of click. So I headed back to the beach and sat out the next two races. By late afternoon my back was starting to seize up and my neck was throbbing. By 9am the next morning I couldn’t even turn my head 5cm each direction. I’M OUT! That was the end of my Euro-Cup event in Switzerland!

So that brings me to the purpose of this story. Before heading back to Holland the following day, myself and another Aussie friend travelling with me decided that we needed to see some snow. I haven’t seen snow in 15 years (believe it or not, its 20 degrees in my hometown in winter!), and there’s no better place to see snow than in St Moritz; one of the more famous skiing towns of southern Switzerland.

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The 2006 PWA World Tour came to Fuerteventura in July for the 2nd Slalom 42 Grand Slam event. Fuerteventura is one of the larger Canary Islands, a little out to sea off the north western coast of Africa. This was Sean’s first PWA World Tour event and there was no better place to do it than Fuerte! This is really one of the world’s windsurfing meccas; perfect sandy beaches and crystal clear flat water as well as the super windy conditions every day!

On the second day of racing, Sean badly sliced his foot open, making the rest of the week quite difficult to race. He finished all the races however, dropping back a few places to 28th by the end of the week.

I arrived on the sunny island of Fuerteventura late on a Monday afternoon. “Fuerte” is one of the more popular of the Spanish Canary Islands, just a stone’s throw away from Gran Canaria, Teneriffe and Lanzarote. Having never been here before I only knew Fuerte by the photos on the PWA websites, the long stretches of white sandy beaches and crystal clear, flat water. The taxi drivers at the airport are prepared to deal with surfers and after selecting one with roof racks I had my 80kg triple board bag strapped tightly on the roof and began the one hour drive to Sotavento beach (right in the south of the island).

The island was a stark contrast to what I was expecting. Barren and desolate desert as far as the eye could see in all directions. This was as close in appearance to Mars as you will ever encounter; a pale reddish stony and dusty landscape, with no plantlife dotting the horizon other than a few shrubs, not more than 30cm off the ground. Small but steep mountains surround the entire island, and it is easy to see how the years of constant wind have shaped their features, very smooth transitions and sharp peaks on the taller of the mountains.

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