Herb' s life

Courtesy of Flowpoint Method

HERB O'BRIEN

You might have heard his name. Probably knew what he was doing: building skis. But you surely don ’t know that if you ever tried water skiing in your life, you probably have ridden one of his creations!

Former professional skier and Swiss Waterski Resort owner, Clint Stadlbaur, was the first to tell me the story of Herb O’Brien during a diner. It blew my mind thinking how much one man could have left his mark so deep into the sport.

Herb first created O’Brien skis in 1964. He came up with this idea while watching his father, Edward, enjoying recreational water skiing when he was just a boy. Looking forward, it is amazing to see how many records were broken with O’Brien skis. Andy Mapple has been one of the most brilliant representatives of the brand with 6 world champion titles, 14 US Masters titles, totalising 168 professional victories during his career.

1964

1972. Woodinville, Washington, USA. Herb decides to build a waterski lake. Nowadays, there is no surprise about going to a lake made for waterski. Long enough to put a slalom course, narrow enough to control backwash and limit wind impact on the water. Back then, water skiing only happened on wide open lakes. Herb was one of the first to dig his own made man lake: Radar Lake. The lake is still used for R&D and promotional photos and videos. It also host the Herb Cup organized by Radar every summer.

1981

In 1981, Herb came up with a new company HO Water Sports. Obviously, that name rings a bell. HO skies are still present on every lakes and used by many pro skiers on the Tour such as Will Asher, Chris Parrish, Jon Travers, Jaimee Bull or Beny Stadlbaur.

2006

Radar skis arrose in 2006. Herb left HO and founded Square One, the company that is behind Radar and Ronix (Wakeboard). Once again, Herb made the waterski industry a present that we still enjoy today. Radar skis are one of the most known and performant ski brand in the world. Multi-times world champion with Whitney McClintock-Rini, and represented on the Waterski Pro Tour with top men and women like Joel Poland, Paige Rini, Corey Vaughn or Jason McClintock.