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

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 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.

The third event of the NK-Windsurf Series in Holland happened last weekend at Hargen aan Zee which was part of a massive Volleyball, Kitesurfing and Catamaran showcase event. After a slow start in the first race Sean had a great start in Race 2 to lead for two laps only to be pipped on the last downwind by RSX champion Casper Bouman (NED-2). He was later told he was OCS and disqualified from that race.

On the second day, the wind increased and many of the sailors had rigged slalom gear hoping to get out on that instead of formula. The wind was a little gusty and so five formula races were held over the day with winds up to 25kts and seas close to 2.5m and breaking. In Race 7 after leading the entire first lap Sean had a large crash, resulting in a broken boom. This cost him a few places and he finished 4th overall by one-point to Dennis Littel (NED-13). Ron Ruiter (NED-1111) and Casper Bouman (NED-2) finished 1st and 2nd.

Check the http://www.nkwindsurf.nl/ website for some photos and the event results.