How a teacher discovered surfing in Taiwan, opened a factory in China, built a surf resort in the Philippines – and kept on riding the waves
- Australian James O’Donnell tells Thomas Bird about his love for Asia, and combining his entrepreneurial talents with his passion for surfing and the outdoors
I was born in 1980 in Ipswich, in the western suburbs of Brisbane. Back in the 1980s, Brisbane felt like more of a country town than, say, big cities like Sydney or Melbourne.
I have fond memories of my dad pulling me out of school every second Friday and taking me to Fraser Island or somewhere along the Sunshine Coast, camping or fishing with my cousins. I thought it was awesome. We were always on some sort of adventure.
To this day, I’m not much of a city boy, even though my business has taken me to some huge Chinese cities. I think being out in nature as a child informed a lot of who I am today.
Tasting Chinese
I was never a great student but I did enjoy learning languages. Typically in Australia, you learned Indonesian or French. But when I was about 14, Australia was reorienting towards Asia and our school was the first in the state to offer Chinese language classes.
I signed up straight away. Some people were like, “What do you want to learn that language for?” But it clicked with me and I continued to study Chinese along with business management when I enrolled in the University of Queensland.
Off piste
After graduating, I headed to Canada and worked for a season as a snowboard instructor. My plan was to save money to go to China and improve my Chinese. But then I met someone who had taught in Taiwan who told me, “It’s an amazing island, you should go.”
