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

Here is just a quick recap I put together of some scenes from the 2011 Downunder Pro – Formula Windsurfing Championships in Hawks Nest, Australia. Wilhelm Schurmann (BRA-999) won the event with myself winning the Australian title for the 5th time.

Music used is “End of Line” from the new TRON: LEGACY soundtrack by Daft Punk (which is AWESOME by the way; go see it). Most of the footage is shot by Holy Mackeral Productions in Australia as well as a few clips by James Briggs.

I’ve won my 5th Australian Formula Windsurfing Title!!! After a 4-day battle with some of the best windsurfers on the planet, competing at an event I helped organise, I have managed to put myself on the podium coming in 3rd at the 2011 Downunder Pro as well as being the first placed Australian and winning another National Title. Check out a few photos above from awesome photographers Rob Plim from New Zealand and Adam Craven.

The 2011 Downunder Pro – Formula Windsurfing Championships is about to kick-off tomorrow at beautiful Hawks Nest, Australia. The Nest is an incredible beach only 2 hours north of Sydney, with incredible spots to go surfing, SUP, windsurfing, fishing as well as playing golf, lawn-bowls and generally kicking back and enjoying the Australian summer. You can check out all the results and photos on the Official Website and see a few photos from my helicopter shoot yesterday above! Photos by Paul Santelmann in the chopper

Big Day Out is the largest and longest running music festival in Australia, playing in every capital city (including in New Zealand!) to the tune of 120,000 people per city. With the Downunder Pro Formula Windsurfing Championships looming next week, I thought I’d show some of my European windsurfing friends how we do festivals in Australia. Some of those friends included Jesper Vesterstrøm and James Briggs who are down here already for training. I also thought it’d be a good idea (at the time) to swing in to a friend of mine’s birthday party at the Gold Coast Turf Club; which means – getting suited up and hitting the horse races for the afternoon the day before Big Day Out.

On the weekend of New Years Day, amongst the festivals and other parties I managed to put together a photoshoot with a few of my friends including Jesper Vesterstrøm who is out in Australia training this summer. The man behind the lens was the legendary Adam Craven (who is also a fellow windsurfer!) who volunteered his time for the shoot. The location was a small bay in Sydney Harbour launching from Clontarf which allowed us to sail right up to the cliffs along the bushland forest areas of the Harbour; an amazing location. Here is a few of the pics from the shoot.

Over the past few weeks we have had non stop rain throughout Brisbane and the surrounding areas of Queensland which has all come to a head this week with one of the worst floods in 100 years in my city. Thousands of homes have been destroyed and many lives have been lost. The devastation in the affected areas is simply incredible. I have seen some of the worst scenes of my life watching the news on television with people’s houses literally FLOATING down the rivers with victims trapped inside the houses as well as a tidal wave of water that hit the mountain town of Toowoomba trapping many people in the centre of town in their cars.

With multiple tropical cyclones currently sitting off the eastern coast of Australia it appears the floods are only going to get worse. The Queensland Government has set up a Flood Relief Appeal which so far has raised over $35 million dollars; a trifle compared to the money required to rebuild this state when the waters recede. Whilst I am doing my best over here helping friends and family to try to save their homes, you can do your bit and DONATE to this worthy cause following the link below!

Last week it was my 27th birthday; an AWESOME day. Despite the pelting rain we’ve had the past week I managed to get out in town with a few tribe of my mates in to a rocking new bar that’s opened in Brisbane called the Bavarian Beer Cafe. Check out a few of my happy snaps with my new birthday gift – a Canon IS210SX camera (to replace my old 200SX which was stolen in Brasil)! The last picture is curtesy of the Bavarian Beer Cafe and shows the view out of the bar across the Brisbane River.

Right now, most of the area around my city of Brisbane is underwater. After 6 weeks of continuous torrential rain including a cyclone and some very big tropical low pressure systems, many towns around me are completely underwater and already some lives have been lost. I’m doing what I can to support some charities who are helping flood victims during this mess. Today, with some friends of mine we sailed at Golden Beach, Caloundra which is an estuary full of many shallow sand banks and is normally quite a nice place to sail. After the rain, the entire passage has flooded and nearly all the photos of me shown above I am actually crossing sections that normally you can WALK ON, but today they were under 2m of water – incredible!!! The channel which is normally only 50m wide at some sections is almost 450m wide in some parts!!! Hopefully the rain will soon stop…

My thoughts are with the families who are in the towns currently being evacuated.

On the 1st January, a bunch of mates of mine decided it would be a good idea to head to an epic all-day music festival right in the heart of Sydney CBD. After a few phone calls and some early morning trips to the airport to get friends flying in from other cities we had VIP tickets organised for the festival and were on our way! One of my favourite French DJ’s – JUSTICE – headlined the festival and we had a blast with the other 40,000 Aussie’s who were down at the Domain that day! What a way to bring in 2011 !!!

2010 came and went with a blast! Down here in Australia, people take their New Year’s Eve celebrations pretty seriously! I was in Sydney for NYE this time and decided to roll with a few of my Gold Coast mate’s down at Bondi at a few house parties before hitting Cream Tangerine Rooftop Bar down at Bondi Beach to watch the fireworks from Shore Thing music festival which was taking place next door!