“The Fantastic Four” in Holland.
Posted on September 2, 2007 in 2007, Netherlands | Comments (0)
The Fantastic Four were back in action and terrorising Europe again this week; this time in Groningen, Netherlands. Actually, the lineup has changed since the last adventures in Poland but some of the core group remains: Timmy, Ads, myself and our new inclusion to the team, Benni, man-ed up for one weekend of nightclubs, bars, sightseeing and early morning running sessions (hey, the training never stops right?).
Girls Trip: Somewhere in Checkers called Prague
Posted on August 9, 2007 in 2007, Czech Republic | Comments (0)
Straight after a week of man-ing up with the boys, I picked up the girls from Berlin on the way out of Poland and did a few days of roadtripping through Checkers and Austria on the way down to Switzerland for the next FW Euro-Cup. For those who aren’t up with the lingo, Checkers is what we nicknamed the Czech Republic (Ceska Republika); both the people and the money used there. With two Kiwi girls beside me in the van we headed straight into Prague (Praha) and spent two nights and one long day missioning on foot around one of the most interesting and older cities (older in terms of not being punished during WWII) that I have seen in Europe so far …
Boys Trip: Top 7 Things About Poland
Posted on August 6, 2007 in 2007, Poland | Comments (3)
This year the big international Formula Windsurfing event in Poland was the “boys trip” for the summer. My old vegas crew who now reside in LDN - Timmy and Ads - made the epic journey to Poland for one week of sun, wind, beaches, parties, sunglasses, girls and of course vodka. I picked Tim up on the way through Berlin and Ads somehow managed to drive from LDN to Leba, Poland in his right-hand drive car. After the event; the boys and I sat around discussing the week’s onslaught, and came up with the Top 7 things we liked most about Poland … and why its a country that should be “at least” in your Top 5 if you manage to leave Australia one day … enjoy:
Slalom Training at the Lauwersmeer
Posted on June 28, 2007 in 2007, Netherlands, Training | Comments (0)
Shortly before heading to Cascais, Portugal for the ISAF Sailing World Championships (RS:X) I had a week’s training in the Netherlands with no RS:X gear (as it was on route to Portugal from the Kiel Week Regatta courtesy of one of the AST’s Audi A4’s and one nice enough coach from NZ who was doing the driving. God always likes to make things a little more tricky and exciting for me, and for the 6 days I was home before my flight to Portugal, it blew nothing less than 25 knots every single day, with a lot more of 35-45 knots on others …
Carbon & Fingers: Not a tasty cocktail!
Posted on June 26, 2007 in 2007, Dangerous, Netherlands | Comments (0)
If you hang around with carbon products a lot, sooner or later you are going to get a carbon splinter. Sometimes they can be big, sometimes they can be really small - unfortunately, more consistently, they usually hurt: A LOT!
What you do next is up to you … but let it be said to “not let the sun go down on an embedded carbon shard” …
This is a story of one of those such days. It started off like any other day; 15-18 knots cross-shore at the lake where we train. Rigging 10.7m to get a few km’s in on the formula kit before we try a few runs on the light wind slalom kit. I have a few 530cm masts. I have few because I’m told they break a lot, however I’ve been lucky and only broken less than 3 masts in 5 years of sailing NP gear and so the particular mast I pulled out was pretty old and starting to peel at the ferrell. When the wind is blowing you just want to get out on the water as quick as possible so I was a little careless putting the mast together and feeling a sharp pain in my finger I pulled back to see a 5cm piece of carbon jutting out from my middle finger.
The Mysterious Korean Gunmen
Posted on August 25, 2006 in 2006, Asia, Dangerous | Comments (0)
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…
Sean
O'Brien is a 24 year old Professional Windsurfer hailing from Brisbane, Australia
- a purpose driven elite 
