Welcome to the website of Grant “Goba” O’Brien. I am a photo journalist from Australia based in Northern NSW who specialises in capturing the action and lifestyle of motorcycle related sports. I am also passionate about music, adventure, travel, extreme sports, nature, people's stories, and am available for photography/journalist work covering all of the above so if you need a moment captured in either medium then please contact me at gobadirt @ gmail.com (no spaces) or phone +61466598525 to talk further. I look forward to hearing from you … Enjoy the site!

Where has this year gone? I can’t believe how fast it is flying by. Is it the same for you? My last three months has been busy learning the ins and outs of managing two websites for magazines Freerider MX and Trail Bike Adventure . There’s always a lot to get your head around when embarking on a new project, at first it feels like it takes for ever to get anything done, but after working out the short cuts and slip streaming the way you go about it everything starts to flow more effortlessly as the weeks go by. I’ve been enjoying the new challenge of updating the sites. Coming up with original material is the key as there’s so many moto sites around now with the same info, but I must say this has been hard with only four hours per day for both sites, and unlike print media where the news comes out up to six weeks after the action websites have to have it up in minutes after the event, which can be difficult at times as you can’t be plugged into cyberspace 24/7! Who in their right mind would want to be anyways?

When I need timeout from the computer I jump on my bike and ride into the Border Ranges, which is on my doorstep, and climb some mountains – it's good therapy!

Australia and New Zealand produce great freestyle motocross riders, with the most common ones being – Robbie "Maddo" Maddison, Blake "Bilko" Williams, Cam "Sincs" Sinclair, Levi Sherwood, Nick Franklin, Matt "Schuie" Schubring, Kain Saul, Robbie Adelberg and Steve Mini to name some of them. Per capita we’re kicking arse compared to other countries around the globe. Most of these pro riders have been around since the beginning of the sport Down Under. They’ve worked their way to the top the hard way and won’t easily be knocked off their perch. Then there’s the riders in Oz we don’t hear much about. The ‘New Breed’, the ones working twice as hard to push their way in amongst the heavy hitters. They dream of the big time, riding X Games, X-Fighters, and they know they have to do what the pro guys are doing better if they stand a chance of opening doors where the stadium is already quite full. These kids need help so I thought it would be a good idea to give them some exposure through ESPN in a section I’d like to call ‘New Breed’, and my first one off the block is with West Oz ripper Josh Sheehan, a young rider who is bursting with style, and enthusiasm to make it on to the world stage. To read more 'click here'  

Josh Sheehan has one of the biggest Ruler Flips in the business Pic: Simon Makker/FRMX

My latest affair with a motorcycle started a few months ago after I was dreaming up ways I could score myself one – enduro, motocross, adventure, trail – hell I wasn’t being fussy, I just needed some wheels to scratch the itch I was feeling from being too long out of the saddle. Maybe I should have been more specific with my dreaming though as 15-minutes after snapping back to the reality of my MacBook screen and photos found surfing moto sites I get this out-of-the-blue phone call, “Hey Goba, its Steve Crombie, remember at the ADB ride day you mentioned your looking for an old adventure bike to get you going until you can afford one you really want”, Ah yeah, I replied. “Well I’ve got a deal for you”, he said, in a way I felt this could be really good, or maybe not so good, but hey I was bike-less and was prepared to give anything a go.

Pondering the many adventures to come