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Posts Tagged ‘OBRIEN’

Comments Off on EA Wakeboard Championships, Kiev – Day 1

Hi everyone,
So stoked to let you know all the Open Men on the Irish Team qualified through to Semi Finals today! Not bad for a small cold and wet island! Paul Johnston, David Coates and I all got through qualifying rounds today to make Semis on Friday. We’re all so happy. Tomorrow the girls are riding, Aisling, Lindsay and Sian, as well as Jonny Crawford in Masters so good luck to them!
David




Comments Off on Irish Open Wakeboard Championships & Riverfest

Hi guys,

Last weekend to finish our little tour we went to Riverfest in Coleraine which was such a cool event and there were thousands of people on the riverside over the weekend. There was lots of entertainment for kids, jet ski demos, strong man and strong woman national championships and loads of other stuff.

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Comments Off on Our ‘Banterful’ Trip
13 August 2012

Our ‘Banterful’ Trip

Last week we had an unreal trip travelling the country in convoy with Dan & Rebecca Kavanagh, Paul Johnston, Sian Hurst, Pete Stewart, Brian & Aisling Deegan, Lindsay Whelan and a few others. Luke Lee of Liquid Intelligence Photography took some sick shots, hopefully we’ll see some later. We rode all over the country, on the Shannon, Lough Sillan in Cavan and the River Bann and Lough Erne in Northern Ireland.

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Comments Off on Irish Wakeboard Nationals 2012

Hi guys,

Just back home from another amazing weekend at the Irish nationals at Lough Muckno Wakeboard Club. We had ups and downs with the weather but when it came to finals yesterday the water was practically glass!

On Saturday we saw awesome riding from all the riders across all the categories and it was so great to see all the young guns killing it! It looks like a lot of them have bright futures ahead!!

After the first day of the Championships on Saturday we had a best trick, best attempt and best crash contest. Loads of new tricks were tried, and many edges too!! It was sick to see Sian Hurst stick the first ever mobe by a European athlete in a European contest when she nailed that whirly! Big congrats  Sian! Then I was also delighted to stick my first ever heel 9 straight after!! 🙂 So it was a contest well worthwhile for everybody 🙂 Details

Comments Off on Wakestock
11 July 2012

Wakestock

Hi everyone,

As always, Wakestock was such a sick event with a brilliant atmosphere and about 20,000 people there. The first couple of days it was lashing rain and they had flood warnings all over Wales and we were lucky to get the car moving in the muck. Sian Hurst rode really well on Friday but unfortunately didn’t make Finals. Then the sun shone on Saturday for the Pro Men Semi Finals and Finals. I was delighted to qualify first in the semi finals despite snapping my board two thirds of the way through! In Finals I fell on a Tootsie roll and my run went dowhill from there but I ended up coming fifth which has now motivated me to really go for it for the rest of the season. Big congrats to the three Dans! Dan Nott who took 1st place which is brilliant as for the past few years it has been foreign riders that have taken the top spot. The second and third spots went to Orlando riders Danny Thollander and Daniel Powers. Well done to all. It was Amber Wing who won the Ladies’ Pro Finals. Click here if you want the full results including the rail riders. http://www.wakestock.co.uk/news/dan-nott-takes-home-the-title-of-wakestock-champion-2012/

Yesterday we all headed to Glasfryn Wake Park to hit the Sesitec and had a blast hitting the obstacles there. Just got back to Dublin now and I head back out to Xtreme Gene at 7am tomorrow where I can’t wait to get some serious water time in. Details

Comments Off on Global Virtual Wakeboarding Competition

Hey guys,

$35,000 in cash and prizes! Check this out – a ‘Virtual Comp.’ Tige are holding a worldwide competition for the best riders in a whole load of different categories and ages, from amateur to pro. All you have to do is submit a 2 minute unedited video. Check it out on http://mywake.tige.com/

Comments Off on Wakeboarding at Xtreme Gene

Hi everyone,

I am out here in one of the best locations in the world for riding: Xtreme-Gene, near Cordoba in Spain. Since I got here 4 days ago it has been nothing but sun (40 degrees) and flat calm water. Yeah that’s “mucho mucho” hot for a fair skinned Irish kid!!!

Sunset at Xtreme Gene


When I first arrived there was a good array of riders including Dylan Mitchell from South Africa and Lucas Langlois from France, not to mention the two coaches Carro Djupso, from Sweden, and fellow Irish team rider David Coates (DC).So, as you can imagine with these riders, and the huge wake, the level of riding has been unreal and only getting better!!! Details

Comments Off on Wakeboarding at Dublin Docklands’ Festival

What an amazing hot weekend for the Dublin Docklands’ Festival. The sun shone for the entire time and there were thousands of people there. Jonny Crawford , from Mastercraft, gave slalom demos and Lindsay Whelan, from the Irish team, and I gave wakeboarding demos over the two days.  The water wasn’t the best as the area is very small and there is a backwash from the walls but we managed to throw a few things which kept the crowd cheering!
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Comments Off on Summer Wakeboarding in 9 Degrees Centigrade…..

It’s unbelievable here this month, really cold. Where is our summer? Last weekend in one day we hailstones and thunder and lightning, and this weekend we had hailstones again. Today the wind blew up to gale force and to cap it all our boat broke down for the first time ever since we bought it in 2007. It looks like breaking all records for the coldest May ever in Ireland if it keeps up like this for the rest of the month. I wish I could be in Florida or Xtreme Gene in Spain! Fingers crossed it picks up for next weekend.

A grey day in May!

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Comments Off on 3rd at Wake Games, Orlando

Hey everyone,

Just got back from the Wake Games in Orlando where I managed to make the podium and take 3rd place in Junior Pro Men. I’m so happy as I was very nervous riding with all those big names. I was even more stoked to have landed a toe back 7 and a heel back 7, back to back in semis.

Riding at Stew Mackie's place

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Comments Off on 5th at Wakeboard World Cup – Australia

Hi Guys,

The last few days I have been in Mandurah in Western Australia competing in the Wakeboard World Cup. They selected 20 of the top male and ten of the top female riders in the world.

Personally, I was just delighted to be invited to the event. There were loads of spectators on the banks when we kicked off at 8 o’clock on St. Patrick’s day. The water was quite choppy for Qualifying rounds but I managed to ride well and I was just over the moon to get through to semis.

Sian & David at the World Cup

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Comments Off on Practice – World Cup Australia

Hi guys,

Arrived in Perth, Australia a few days ago and managed to get a little training in at Bonney’s ski park, which is about half an hour outside the city. A big thanks to Jonny Crawford and Annette and Donough O’Donovan for looking after me so well!

Training at Bonney's ski park

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Comments Off on Gold Medal at Europe Africa Wakeboard Championships

Hi everybody,

Still can’t believe that I actually won the Gold at the Europe Africa Championships at the weekend. It was an amazing event and I’m still pumped.

The Championships were held on the Vaal River near Jo’burg. There were 124 Riders from 16 countries with two new countries competing for the first time this year – Namibia and Israel.

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Comments Off on South Africa – Training
15 February 2012

South Africa – Training

Hi everybody,

Last Tuesday, following my 9am Accounting exam, I got straight onto a flight to South Africa. Despite missing my connecting flight and not knowing when I could get another, I still managed to arrive at Kevin Dry’s place, Boardalign, on Wednesday night!

The Irish Team had already been there for a few days to get some training in. For the next few days we trained hard and everyone was doing so well! Sian Hurst had already got her contest pass to perfection and was working on some new tricks, Lindsay and Aisling were both landing 3’s consistently despite Lindsay falling previously and injuring her ribs. Then Aisling started to step it up and get some toeside backrolls and some tantrums! (I have high hope for both in the EA Championships). Brian Deegan, even with no ACL was still managing to get a lot of his old stuff back which was great to see as he was just so delighted to be on the water! Details

Comments Off on Irish Wakeboard Team at Xtreme Gene

The Irish Team

Hey everyone,

What a great way to start 2012. Straight after Christmas most of us on the Irish team headed over to Xtreme Gene in Cordoba in Spain, which is probably the best place to ride in Europe. After a dodgy drive down from Malaga (in a Volkswagen van with the wrong gearbox??) we all managed to get a set on the water before it got dark. It was a bit warmer there than in Ireland and we even had sunshine some days. With double ejections, front edges and lots of banter, it was a great ten days. Details

Comments Off on Winter riding in 0 degrees…..

Beautiful but cold!

Hi all,

Well it’s getting colder and colder here in Ireland and we have already had our first snowfall of the season! It’s woolly hat weather (on the water!) and we warm our feet in buckets of water before putting on our bindings! See the photos! We have also had a big problem with the wind. It’s been really difficult to get out the past few weekends and we spend a lot of time trying to find a spot on the lake where there aren’t white horses! Last Saturday and Sunday we had a team training weekend at our place in Cavan and we had over half the team there. One is in Australia and two were doing university exams so that wasn’t a half bad turnout considering the weather! Sunday was good though – no wind, but we did have cold, rain, sunshine and snow! Details

Comments Off on Halloween riding
5 November 2011

Halloween riding

Halloween riding with my weird friend!!

Hi guys,

Well, since the World Cup and the UK Pro Tour at the beginning of October I’ve had to settle back into school and sit mid-term exams, not very nice! But I’ve got up to the lake every weekend and for the Halloween break and managed to still find friends to ride with before it gets too cold for most people. It has been good just to free ride without having to worry about contests! Details

Comments Off on First at the Relentless UK PR TOURRRRRRRRRRRR
Comments Off on Wakeboard World Cup – Linyi in China

High five!!

Just finished competing at the second stop of the Wakeboard World Cup Series in Linyi in China. There were 30 invited riders at this stop – twenty men and ten women – from 22 countries all over the world. This was another amazing event, really well organised with yet again thousands of spectators lining the shores. They built a whole new grandstand especially for the World Cup and they had an awesome opening ceremony where they had confetti guns and balloons…. Details

Comments Off on Wakeboard World Cup in Kuching, Borneo

I'm happy with that run!!

I just finished competing at the first stop of the Wakeboard World Cup in Kuching, which is on the island of Borneo – the Malaysian part. It’s an awesome city and surrounded by jungle. We got to see some Orang-utans and we also visited caves. The weather was really hot, the people were friendly, and the food was great. Details

Comments Off on Another win …. at Chill & Ride, Germany

Hi Guys,

Just back from Germany where Sian Hurst (Irish Team rider) and I went to enter in a contest called Chill and Ride. It was a very different and unique contest. Instead of sitting on the shore waiting whilst others ride you sit on your ‘own’ boat and ‘Chill’ all day and then when you ride, it is on your own boat which is pretty sick because you are used to the wake.

There were about 30 wakeboard boats and about 8,000 people at the evewnt which was pretty sick. It’s sort of what I can imagine Brostock would be like. There were two events. First was a Team Challenge and Sian and I were on the German MasterCraft team and we managed to win the challenge. Then there was a wakesurfing comp and an amateur wakeboarding comp and then finally a Pro contest and Sian and I both took first place which was brilliant. Details

Comments Off on My first 900 – at Mid Air
Hi guys,
 
Just a quick update on the weekend.
 
We all headed up to Northern Ireland for the Mid Air contest. It was a lot of fun withabout 32 riders. Everybody there was really interested and involved which made it great fun and created a great atmosphere. They ran it on the same format as Big Air – the best two out of three runs which means everyone gets to ride lots and you can try new stuff without worrying about getting through!
 
The riding was good but a lot of the top riders are still away or injured – like David Coates who was in Spain and Paul Johnston who dislocated his shoulder. I managed to get 1st place with Pete Stewart in 2nd.
 
What I really stoked about though was that I landed my first ever 900 on the Sunday which I was delighted with!!!

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Comments Off on Silver Medal at the IWWF World Championships in Milan

Hi everybody, I’m just back from the World Wakeboard Championships in Italy.

Coming off my win the week before at Wakestock, I was feeling a little more relaxed and confident. In the last couple of weeks my riding appears to be starting to come together and I was able to get through to the finals qualifying first in my heat at each stage which I was so pumped about considering all I wanted to achieve was qualify! Then in finals I surprised myself sticking some mobes as well as a heelside backside 5 and a toeside backsode 5. Unfortunately I bailed on a Whirly 5 last trick. Nonetheless I was able to grab myself second place and a silver medal, which I am stoked about. In First was the ledgendary Daniel Powers who quite honestly cleaned up with an enormous Blind Judge and a heel 7 off the double up. Details

Comments Off on David wins Wakestock, UK

Hi guys,

I still can’t believe that I actually came first at Wakestock! This past few days have been absolutely unbelievable! The Irish Wakeboard crew and I headed out to Wales for Wakestock.

Unusually for Wakestock the sun was shining throughout most of the weekend and the water was not horrifically choppy.

In the Women’s it was close for 2nd, 3rd and 4th but there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Argentinian Robbie Rendo would to take the top spot. Then in 2nd was Charlotte Bryant, swiftly followed by Irish team member Sian Hurst who rode really well coming back from a fall and killing it with loads of solid inverts. Details

Comments Off on Irish National Wakeboarding Championships, 2011


Hi guys,

Just back from the Irish Wakeboard Nationals which were in Dungannon in Northern Ireland. They were really early in the season so that the Team selectors would have time to choose who is going to go to Italy to represent Ireland in the Wolds in about 3 weeks time. This had its pros and cons as there was not much time for preparation, but it was great to get everyone riding together so early in the season. Details