James Duncan O'Brien was born on June 9, 1983. He is a professional surfer from the North Shore,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

Career

Jamie grew up near one of the most notorious waves on the planet, with a home in front of the Banzai Pipeline, on the surfing Mecca of Oahu’s North Shore. He started competing in local surf contests when he was about six years old and carried on into his early 20s. O'Brien has said that he was fortunate as a child to grow up near the Banzai Pipeline. He is one of the youngest surfers ever to win a

Pipeline Masters The Billabong Pipeline Masters is an event in surfing held annually at Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii. It was established in 1971, and has been sponsored by Billabong since 2007. The event attracts the top 34 surfers from The World Surf Lea ...

. Jamie's father, Australian Frank O'Brien, was a lifeguard. Jamie has said that one of the things that got him interested in surfing was talking to many of the regular surfers on his dad's beach. Jamie has many achievements to his name. These achievements include the Pipeline Masters in 2001, in which he took 4th place after just recovering from a groin injury. His success continued with 1st place at Hansen's Pipeline Pro in 2003, 1st place in the 2004 Fosters Expression Trestles and the Rip Curl Pipeline Masters at 21 years of age, 1st in the 2009

Rip Curl Rip Curl is a designer, manufacturer, and retailer of Surfing#Equipment, surfing sportswear (also known as ''boardwear'') and accompanying products, and a major athletic sponsor. Rip Curl has become one of the largest surfing companies in Aust ...

Invitational, and 1st in the inaugural

Volcom Volcom is a lifestyle brand that designs, markets, and distributes boardsports-oriented products. Volcom is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, U.S. The brand is known for its trademark ''stone'' logo, its slogan ''True to This'', and the ' ...

Pipe Pro back in 2010. Jamie also had many other outstanding performances throughout the WSL qualifying series and the championship tour. He has had major success, winning some of the most prestigious events on the World Tour. However, somewhere along the way, the contests lost their appeal. Jamie is now a free surfer, meaning he’s not chasing contest wins or world titles. He’s out traveling the world filming stunning video footage of surfing in epic locales that’s capturing an audience worldwide. In a story by Red Bull, Jamie says, “I have fun filming and traveling and making memories that will last forever. That’s where my head was at.” O'Brien produced two surfing films, ''Freakshow'' and ''Freakside''. He also appeared in '' Step into Liquid'' and ''

Blue Crush ''Blue Crush'' is a 2002 sports film directed by John Stockwell and based on Susan Orlean's 1998 ''Outside'' magazine article "Life's Swell". It stars Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, Sanoe Lake and Mika Boorem. The film tells the story of ...

.'' He is the star of the video series "Who is JOB" which ended with the final episode posted on Oct 18, 2019, for a total of 9 seasons on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. He currently has his own personal YouTube channel listed under his name which has over 700K subscribers. He has collaborated with many other free surfers who document their journey including Ben Gravy and Sean “Poopies” Mclnerney. Poopies was a star in Jamie’s vlogs for a little while until he started, "The Poopies Channel." They are still good buddies and meet up when possible. Him and the boys can always be found doing crazy things such as surfing giant waves on couches. When he's not on a couch surfing massive pipe, he can be found putting his Catch Surf or Tokoro boards to use. With all his unique maneuvers and ideas, he has changed the views on soft top boards and brought a lot of attention to his sponsor, Catch Surf. Jamie has surfed against top competitors around the world such as Kelly Slater and John John Florence just to name a few. He still remains friends with all the top names in the surfing competition world and they can sometime be seen in one of Jamie's videos. In 2005 O'Brien received '' Surfer Magazine's'' Boost Breakthrough Performer of the Year Award for an up-and-coming athlete with an impact on the sport for years to come. In 2016 Jamie O'Brien assisted in the rescue of a bodyboarder who had wiped out and was drowning, by paddling out with a foam board to help Guilherme Tamega who was trying to bring the victim to shore. Jamie is also the owner and founder of Jamie O'Brien Surf Experience, a North Shore surf school that gives surf lessons in conjunction with the Turtle Bay Resort. According to Jamie, "I created this Surf School down the street from my home here on the North Shore to teach my unique style of surfing to the world and share with you the feeling that only comes from riding a wave."

References

External links

Red Bull's Profile on Jamie O'BrienNectar Sunglasses Advocates: Jamie O'Brien
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Jamie 1983 births Living people American surfers Sportspeople from Hawaii World Surf League surfers American people of Irish descent