Hunter's new toy

Some kids want toys and games for their birthday and some want different things. Hunter seems to be the type of kid who wants different. Check out his new kicker!!!

Hunter at Wake Games

Little 8yr old Hunter Henderson is off to a great start this season. Hunter placed 2nd at the first Performance Gravel Tour, and placed 1st at Wake Games. More good things to come from Hunter this season!!

Wake Games and Orlando Holiday

Florida & Wake Games

I am just back from an epic 2 weeks in Orlando, Florida! It was great to get away from Ireland’s cold weather and into the nice humid heat of Orlando (30 degrees Celsius). Nothing like a bit of sunburn!

I tried to get around as much and ride a little bit everywhere. I mostly rode at OWC on the boat lake with O’Brien team manager and members, Cobe and Tarah Mikacich, as well as taking advantage of the cable as much as I could. I also rode a lot with Stew Mackie down in Winter Haven with Sam and Jonny Carne, Paul Johnston, Charlotte Bryant and Jorge Gill. It was great riding with these guys as we were all pushing each other to ride as best we could. I also went to Louis Floyd’s house and we hit the Butler chain of lakes on his Nautique 230 with Ollie Moore and it was great to see them killing it. Now that I have seen Ollie ride, it will be hard for any wakeskater to impress me! I also had the opportunity to ride at Dallas Friday’s house behind her massive Malibu wake which was sick. And I landed my first Slim Chance 5 there!!

Lastly, I was also lucky enough to have a day with Mike Ferraro and this to me was a completely different experience to what I expected. I thought I was going to go ride with him, and that he would analyse my riding and then teach me the tricks he thought were best, but I was way wrong! He took a completely different approach to coaching – one I have never seen or heard of before. He went more deeply into the whole physics of wakeboarding and taught me some simple techniques on my 180’s that I was then able to take to the more difficult tricks. He also changed where I put my weight, which made my line tension way better. It is difficult to explain, but it helped my riding out long-term really well!!

Next up was the Wake Games at OWC. Last year I managed to win Junior Men, thus bumping me into Junior Pro Men, which is an entirely different ball park altogether! The level of riding in it is really high and I would say that the best riders like Daniel Powers would easily be up there with the pro men! Unfortunately, I didn’t ride the best. Actually my ride was quite honestly appalling!! I fell on the transfer box, on a skeezer (first fall of the season) and on a backside 5. Although on the bright side I landed a toeside backside 5 which I have never done in contest so I was pumped with that. But yes, my run was shocking! But ah well, it happens!

Despite not doing well at the Wake Games I had an epic time and learnt a good few new tricks like batwing blind 3’s and Front Mobe 5, and I hope to get back out there as soon as I can.

Thanks so much to everyone that I rode with.

David

Sean shredding the Paradigm

Sean O'Brien riding the O'Brien Paradigm from Sean O'Brien on Vimeo.