Opportunity knocked, and Jade answered the door.
When the downturn in the economy arrived, graphic designer Jade O’Connor had a decision to make. Her web-design business came to end end, so she asked herself a question.
“What are the gaps in the last 10 years? What are the things you didn’t do, that you wanted to do?'”
A watersports nut, she’d taken up kite-boarding around nine or ten years previous. From there she made a decision to take it seriously, to compete. Since then, it’s taken her around the world, representing her country. She’s now one of the world’s best.
“You progress pretty quickly. I didn’t really go after it competitively until around 2010, and that was more just because of the opportunity cost rather than anything else.”
The top ranked Irish kite-boarder for the past three years, she’s currently ranked inside the top 10 in the world. 2014 saw her claim the British Ladies title, finish fourth at the European Championships and 8th in the World Championships, the 42-year-old is looking to improve further in a busy few months ahead.
“In two weeks time I’m off to the UK to defend the British National Championship and then directly after that I’m off to another World Cup event to kite for Ireland, and then I’m off to the World Championships a month after that.
“I used to be an all-rounder but I’ve now set my sights firmly on the World Champiosnhip, I want to be world champion.”
The hectic schedule means that O’Connor won’t be competing at this weekend’s Battle for the Bay at Dollymount Strand, a watersports festival she helped set up eight years ago. However, as “part organiser, part ambassador, part problem solver”, she will be a big part of the two-day event.
“The Battle for the Bay started about 8-years-ago with the goal of crowning the King and Queen of the bay.
“It’s grown steadily every year and now can legitimately say the they’re crowning the king and queen of the bay. The reason why it’s so large now is that it’s no longer just kite-surfing from where it started, it now includes wake-boarding, five or six disciplines of stand-up paddle board racing, three disciplines of kite-board racing, freestyle wakeboard, land yachting, it’s just massive now.
“I’ll probably end of judging the events and giving advice wherever I can.”
Stumbling across kite-boarding while on holidays 14-years ago, O’Connor caught the bug instantly. It’s a sport, she says, that not many people actively seek out, but rather fall upon.
“Kite-boarding is one of those sports that people just happen across. They’re away on holidays or they’re in Ireland and they just see all these kites up in the sky and wondering what’s going on so it’s a pretty visible sport. And then if you take a couple of minutes to watch what’s happening I think you become enthralled pretty quickly. The bright colours, and just the idea of the speed and the splashes, and the heights and the jumps, so it looks fun from the outside.
“I’m guilty of that too. I was away in the Canaries on a wind-surfing holiday back in 2001 and I saw it for the first time and I was hooked. Never did I dream when I took up a kite for the first time that it would take me all the way around the world as a professional athlete, so that’s more than a dream come true.”
The dream costs money though. Sponsorship deals with Golden Pages and Pure Magic (who are organising the Battle of the Bay) keep her on the water for the year, and she still keeps up part-time work as a web developer. Prize money is available, but won’t set you up for life. There’s a one-day-at-a-time attitude to things on the water. Spirits are free.
“It covers my campaign. If you win events, you don’t get a huge amount of money, but you get enough that it more than covers your trip. You kind of just keep going until the money runs out. So if you do well,it’s like, ‘Oh well, now I can go on another trip!'”
Despite being 42-years-old, O’Connor is arguably at the peak of her career. Awareness and experience, she says are as important as physical fitness on the water, and with a 28 year gap between the top two female kite-boarders in the world (44 and 16), O’Connor sees plenty of gas left in the tank to fulfill her world championship dreams.
“It’s a sport of tactics, and it’s a sport of endurance as well, so us old, wily ones tend to do quite well. I also say you’re as old as you want to be, and I don’t consider 40s to be old anymore. I think I’m fitter now today than I’ve ever been in my life.”
