Sean has won his 4th Australian & Oceanic Formula Windsurfing Title at the FW Oceanic Championships at Hawks Nest, NSW. World #5 ranked Brazilian sailor Wilhelm Schurmann (BRA-999) won the event outright despite Sean nipping at his heels in every race and finally taking a bullet from the Brazilian in the final race of the event. On top of the stress of competing Sean had taken it upon himself to organise and run the media coverage for the event which meant super late nights and early mornings to get everything running smooth for the competitors (not the best preparation for an important regatta!). The location for the event was a town in beautiful Port Stephens where dolphins, sharks, turtles and even a friendly whale were spotted on on different parts of the course. This place had amazing flat water slalom areas, big swells on the course area and a fantastic point-break for surfing, SUP and swimming. For Sean’s efforts he took home the big Australian Title trophy made by VMG Blades and some new phones from the event sponsor Blackberry.

For more information on the event check out www.FW-Australia.com.

This summer Sean has taken on a coaching role, looking after the athletes from the Australian Sailing Team during the SailDownunder Sailing Series in Australia; three RS:X events including SailBrisbane, SailSydney and SailMelbourne, which is an ISAF World Cup Regatta. Sean will be looking after multiple Olympian Jessica Crisp, who earlier today won the SailSydney regatta in good form and will be looking to follow that up with a win at the SailMelbourne regatta next week.
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On March 11th 2009, a Category 5 cyclone (TC Hamish) was forecasted to hit the east coast of Australia around Hervey Bay at 1am. A group of us windsurfers, including Sean O’Brien and Julien Ventalon (shown in the video) drove north from Brisbane to Harvey Bay on that Monday morning to windsurf in the strong winds and tidal surge before the cyclone hit.

They were advised to make sure they were out of town by 4pm that day otherwise the roads might have flooded with the tidal surge and could leave them trapped to wait out the cyclone…