The Man Behind O'Shea: An Interview With Farrel O'Shea
Farrel O'Shea is a windsurfing legend. Quite literally writing the book on the sport, he's broken multiple records over the course of his career.
He also happens to be head honcho at O'Shea, one of the UK's most iconic watersports brands. Starting out with windsurf sails, O'Shea quickly grew to become one of the UK's best-known surf brands, and one of the earliest adopters for stand-up paddle boards.
We recently caught up with Farrel to find out more about his windsurfing career, SUP and all things O'Shea.
How did you first get into competitive water sports?
I’m not sure you ever set out with the aim to compete in sport. The competitive sort of tangent starts as a pastime gets into overdrive and consequently fuels some sort of addiction. Prior to Windsurfing I played many other sports to a pretty high level, it’s about application rather than the specific sport itself. With any sport there is no shortcut …. I’m a believer in the 1000 hour school of sport. The quicker and more intense you can get the first 1000 hours in the better… suddenly your worst performance days are better than most weekend warriors best show ever.
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Once you got sponsorship did the pressure to perform for the brand take away any of the joy you felt for windsurfing?
No not at all! I’m not one of those riders that’s ever felt over pressured. In fact it’s the total opposite from my perspective. Performing in my little world equated to pushing the limits win or lose. I had some amazing sponsors - most treated me like family – It was a special time and a time, thankfully, removed from the often more corporate sponsorships of today.
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Of all the places you’ve been lucky enough to travel to for Watersports, where is your favourite for windsurfing and paddleboarding?
The answer is the same for both sports – Abersoch, North Wales, that’s why we live and work here… it’s a beautiful place and there’s nothing like playing in your own backyard. Of course the easy answer would have been to say Hawaii. However if that holds true I would be living there today. That said I’ll never forget the first time I sailed in Maui, particularly the warm water and sharing waves with some of the giants of our sport.
I’ve paddle boarded in some pretty remote locations, places in Namibia for example where you know no one else has ever been on the water there before, an extremely soulful experience.
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When you’re used to the adrenaline rush of travelling at speeds of over 50knots on a windsurf, what's the appeal, to you, of a SUP?
The 50 plus knot sailing club still don’t have that many members. Id’ guess there’s still less than 25 humans ever gone over 50 knots under any form of sail but it requires incredibly extreme conditions. It’s not feasible to live life in the permanent extreme zone and I think that’s where SUP fits in. For me, SUP represents a social aspect of sport, where you can explore or just potter around with someone else, preferably in fair weather whilst chatting along – everything high speed windsurfing is not.
SUP is very accessible and probably the easiest of any of the water or Boardsports. That ease of entry has made it super popular. SUP is a simple concept to embrace and has brought in many new water users to our domain, we welcome them with open arms. Extreme is not a box I’m trying to tick with paddling and I prefer to think of the participants as families and individuals just enjoying the water without having to risk their metaphorical neck.
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The UK has a pretty tight knit Snowboard community, do you think the paddleboard scene has the same kind of feel?
The snowboard scene has always been tight knit, perhaps even more so back in the day! In one sense that’s the beauty of it, in the late 80’s early 90’s we pretty much knew everyone in the scene, I think everyone seemed to be on the same page or at least on the same book. SUP has evolved in a different geological era and will never have that parallel tight knit feel of snowboarding.
The participants are a much wider and differing demographic, which is in one way its strength. It feels as if it has more of a local community, fuelled by the internet to some degree, it’s a much larger audience and yet a more fragmented scene. As it’s relatively new, every community has its self-proclaimed experts. Never has so limited knowledge and understanding been shared by so many… very confusing for consumers I have to say!
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Photo Credit: Mantis Pro Media
You wrote ‘An Introduction To Windsurfing’ reportedly one of the bestselling windsurfing books of all time, given the relative youth of SUP are there any plans for ‘An Introduction To Paddleboarding’?
I’m really hoping for the reader’s sake that my literary career is behind me. I’m not sure in the 2020’s that instructional books show any relevance. Perhaps a nice quality photo-based coffee table style book could still hold credence?
Online content is King now, making learning and progression easier for all these board sports than it’s ever been. All you have to do is sort the online wheat from the chaff, a bit easier said than done though. However, there’s never been a greater opportunity than SUP to get on the water.
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You've been at the forefront of board sports for over 4 decades, from windsurfing through to snowboarding then wakeboarding and now SUP. That passion and the fact you're pretty good at them has allowed you to travel the world and see and do things that most people can only dream about. Do you ever take stock of that and think wow, how did this happen?
Sounds pretty good when you put it like that, where do I sign up?
There’s been a catalogue of WOW places and moments over the years. I’m lucky enough to have surfed some of the worlds’ best waves, snowboarded the deepest powder, sailed the windiest gnarly spots and SUPed in places time has long forgot. I do however perceive its fruitless living on the past. That time has gone...
In the spirit of performance you’re only as good as your last ride!
In the spirit of adventure it’s more important to keep searching for those memorable days in the future...
The search goes on...
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