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

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.

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.

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!

After the closing ceremony of the PWA World Tour event in Alaçati finished up, the windsurfers took our VIP bus to one of the biggest clubs in nearby town Çeşme – Babylon Aya Yorgi! Live bands, DJ’s, crazy sunglasses, Burn&Vdoka shots and the most I have ever paid for a taxi ride to get home later; it was Sunday morning and we were back at the beach.

So two windsurfing families have come together in Poland; my best dutch buddy Markus Bouman married his sweetheart Natalia on the weekend in Warzsawa. I was lucky enough to have the role of best-man, and was introduced to a “polish wedding” which can only be described as ridiculous, fun, crazy, fun, scary. haha! Let’s just say there were churches, wakeboarding boats, hotels, squash courts, suits, good friends a nothing shy of 180 bottles of Zaladkowa vodka.

I just arrived on Lago di Garda (Lake Garda), Italy for a few weeks of working and sailing on one of Europe’s most famous windsurfing locations with the Point-7 team. I’m working from the new P7 head office in Arco, a few mins from the lake and surfing from Malsecine in the mornings and Torbole in the evenings; couldn’t be better!

One of my good Canadian mates is heading home to Canadia for good in the next few weeks. Before he leaves, we decided to have a blowout at one of Australia’s finest Japanese BBQ Teppanyaki houses; KABUKI – in Brisbane. Served up kobe beef and egg rice by ninjas, sampling the Asahi brewhouse and then onwards to the ‘Valley’ with a big bunch of Canadians to see our friend off.

Down in Melbourne before Christmas ’09 I did a cool photoshoot with Shawn from BlinqPhotography.com at Sandringham Yacht Club then later one early morning session at St Kilda pier. The results were really cool; here’s a few teasers. More will be published on www.AUS120.com soon!

About 6 months ago we had a party at my parents house in Brisbane before I left for my Europe tour in 2009. I thought these photos were lost forever but they were given to me today. A few snaps from the craziness. We had a daiquiri machine pumping out drinks all night and beats played by CMT. Even fashion designer Daz from April’s Chance label came for a drink.