Singapore on Repeat!
Just got back from another amazing trip to Singapore! The first time I was there to catch up with some buddies of mine but this time I was there to catch up with some buddies of mine AND compete at the 2012 Asian Windsurfing Championships. Singapore is just such an amazing city it’s a bit hard to describe; so I thought I’d make an attempt with the above photos. A bit less craziness this trip as I was competing each day and running lot’s of training clinics and coaching sessions for the local sailors and up and coming kids but we still did manage to make it to every nightspot imaginable, and some! Enjoy the pics. All by except the ones from Howie!
Asian FW Championship Reports
The 2012 Asian Windsurfing Championships (and Singapore Open) are about to kick off on Thursday here in warm and sunny Singapore. Get the live reports from me with all the inside action by clicking the picture above!
Sean Wins NSW FW States!!
Literally JUST getting off the plane from Europe I arrived back home to Brisbane and jumped in the car to drive 11 hours to Sydney for my first formula contest of the summer; the 2011 NSW Formula State Championships. All the guns were there, and this weekend I was doing a “full-Rick” (ie, using a completely brand new board, sail, mast, harness, fin, that I had never, ever used before) as I’d picked up a new 11.5 and 10.5 AC-1 ‘Handcrafted’ Series sail on the way home from Europe and had a new F167wide formula board sitting in the garage in the plastic for 2 weeks already before I got home. The wind was pretty light, and I managed to take 3 bullets from 3 starts winning one race by over 2 minutes on completely new gear and an old fin I found in the garage (happened to be a sweet one though!). Certainly great to come home to a win, and certainly great that my gear is going fast with absolutely no tuning.
Here are some shots we took the following weekend back in Brisbane as I had no cameras in Sydney. The photos were shot by the awesome David Kramer at Kawana in the surf in about 25 knots with no uphaul or chicken-straps on the new board; argghhh.
DRIVE: MIAMI
Quick video I shot on a trip to Miami, Florida last weekend. The whole video is shot on a tiny Nikon Coolpix P300 compact and completely handheld in the car whilst driving … suprisingly, the footage came up super crisp and not too shaky so with a tiny bit of colour correction in Premiere CS5, this is what you see. I’m actually a little sad to leave that pimped up Ford F150 truck we rented for the trip :-(
Music used is “Hypnotize” by the late Notorious B.I.G.
I’m in Miami B*TCH
Wow. Miami. What a place. Took a quick flight in with my good mate Kurosh to compete at the 2011 IFCA North American Slalom Championships. Rented the most obscenely pimped Ford F150 truck I’ve ever driven. Windsurfed all day, cruised South Beach all night … great times! I finished 3rd at the event behind Wilhelm Schurmann and Kurosh but points were tight and we each had a few wins a piece in the 12 races we managed. Miami is such a fun place to visit and my friends there (shout out to Diego, Alex “the Legend” Morales and Rick “Maui Malones” Randall!!) really looked after us and made sure we had a legendary time. Enjoy some pics and soon a quick video I shot with Kurosh driving our truck around the streets of Miami!
Singapore Weeeeeeekend.
So I hadn’t seen my bestie Timmy in about 3 years so figured it was time to swing down to Singapore to catch up with him and also another good mate of ours who’s just got hitched and on his way back to Australia. I haven’t been to Singapore proper (apart from Changi airport 15 times a year) in about 8 years and A LOT has changed in that time! Here’s a quick chronolog of our weekend madness in Singapore – the happiest Asian city on Earth!
Sentosa Tourist Park (can’t believe this guy ruined my shot!) – check out the 45m high stone MERLION statue in the background.
Collecting horrible Chinese masks in China Town.
Checking out the foyer in the $8 billion Marina Bay Sands Hotel/Casino (that place is awesome!).
View from Level 27 where our friends were staying in this amazing MBS hotel!
The Art/Science Museum at the front of the MBS where we went to see the Salvador Dali exhibition.
Caribbean Club apartments where we went to one of the wildest BBQ’s full of English twats and all-sorts on Saturday night before hitting the town.
The amazing INFINITY POOL on the roof level of the MBS which also doubles as a nightclub in the evenings called Ku De Ta (was $50 just to get in though – sheesh!)
Inside the MBS shopping centre there were small canals and fountains that you could take gondola boat rides in! WTF?!
Avalon Club. A 17,000sq foot ‘crystal inspired’ glass nightclub floating on the water in Marina Bay right in front of the Casino. One of the best nightclubs I’ve seen on the planet … simply amazing. Hello, another $40 to get in though and $20 drinks. Meh!
Hit the clubs with a few friends!
The city skyline viewed from the balcony at Avalon Club.
On Sunday we rocked the Tamjong Beach Club (they call it model beach apparently) for some sun soaked beers and sand. Great atmosphere.
Up the top of the MBS at Ku De Ta rocking the VIP section things get a bit wild. Our first adventures with the big man’s new fiance – think she took it all in stride!
About to check out the Louis Vuitton store which is another floating glass temple on the water in front of the MBS. There is actually a tunnel that goes between the LV store inside the MBS to this concept store where you walk under the water… Saw the most awesome pair of hightop sneakers there but they were $1,980.
On my last night before hitting the airport me & Timmy head to LITTLE INDIA and find the magic Ghandi restaurant where you are served endless rice/vege/meat curry assortments dumped on a massive banana leaf on your table and just eat with your hands. They refill the water glass pretty quick cause this stuff is SPICY!
Managed to actually make my plane this time and get back to Europe (and the cold). Singapore…WHAT A PLACE. Go visit! Do it!
PWA World Cup, Sylt
So once again we hit Sylt, Germany for the biggest windsurfing event on the PWA World Tour calendar, the epic Reno Windsurf World Cup, and after 10 days of sitting around waiting for the wind we were sent home with NO VALID RESULT for this last contest of the year; despite running a few of the first round heats on the Tuesday where I was in a nice qualifying position holding out Bjorn Dunkerbeck in my heat. That being said, around 100,000 tourists came to the beach over the week to watch the (non) contest and enjoy the insane festivities, beach parties, pro-rider signing sessions, nightclubs, tow-in freestyle competitions, SUP races and all things crazy that is SYLT! Enjoy a few pics from Carter/PWA and ContinentSeven.com.
Waterz Marathon in DK
Today we just finished the Waterz Downwind Slalom Marathon race in Hvide Sande, Denmark. Waterz is a pretty massive watersports event with competitions for windsurfing, kitesurfing, SUP and cable-wakeboarding with the highlight being this insanely long downwind slalom race on the Saturday. Over 250 competitors (windsurfers and kiters) took place in the marathon in about 12 knots of wind with a bunch of jetskis setting off a rabbit start for us. I had a flying start with Ross Williams to get on to an early lead and managed to finish 6th overall with Ross eventually winning. Check a few photos from the Waterz website and of course check www.waterz.dk sometime in the next few weeks when they “actually” update the results on there! Ps. Was a sick party in the evening too!
Somewhere in Checkers called Prague.
So after skipping the European Championships in Latvia due to an injury, I decided I needed some time out from windsurfing and some kind of European roadtrip. My good mate Andy was floating around Europe so I jetted him over to Italy and we thought we would take a tour through the East with a few days in one of my favourite European cities; Prague, Česká Republika. I actually rocked this city one before with some girls I know from NZ many years ago and after this visit, I think I remember why I really liked this place so much the time before; and once again.
Our timeline involved catching up with a friend in town and smashing the Playboy Party at one pretty slick club called Mazanej Králíček before visiting the rest of the Prague nightlife (which is, granted, pretty fine) and hitting up most of the places downtown. Somehow managed to drag ourselves out of the hotel each morning to do the usual tourist traps like Prague Castle, Astronomical Clock and of course the statues on Charles Bridge. They love a good statue in Praha; yeap! The weather was INSANELY hot by European standards (which I actually like) but isn’t so conducive to wandering the streets all day and alas, my big Canon 7D camera has been stolen so I didn’t really capture as much footage of this beautiful city as I would have liked. So I guess that means I will need to go back sometime………
Also in a completely UNRELATED story had someone throw in the word ‘Defenestration’ in to a conversation about breaking up with their girlfriend over the weekend and when I looked up that word, turns out they love a good defenestration in Prague (which is what that first picture is all about). If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you need to Google that sh**, yo!
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Sean OBrien: Really good! I love it! So easy to ride and great...
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Rafa: How´s the new 167 wide beast going? I can´t wait t...
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matt2000: you should have checked out the windsurfing scene...
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