Steve Emmett O’Brien

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OB

  • Castaways nickname: The Viceroy

  • Tours Completed: 2000-The Epiphany; 2001-The Misspelled Tour; 2002-Gone Fishing Tour; 2003-Evolution Tour; 2004-The Salty Dog Tour; 2005-For the Dutchman; 2006-Seven Year Itch Tour; 2007-Die Another Day Tour; 2008-Whole Nine Yards Tour; 2009-Blood, Sweat and Ten Years Tour; 2010-Ocean's 11 Tour; 2011-The Dirty Dozen Tour; 2012-Come Hell or High Water Tour; 2013-Trip Around the Sun Tour; 2014-Don't Stop the Carnival Tour; 2015-East of Midnight Tour; 2016-Proof of Life Tour; 2017-Just Breathe Tour; 2018-Under the Bridge Tour; 2019-No Surrender Tour; 2020-20/20 Perfect Vision Tour; 2021-BlackJack Tour; 2022-Carry On Tour; 2023-Ridiculous Stunt Tour; 2024-Here Comes the Sun Tour

  • Team Role/Function: Team Founder

  • How did you become a Castaway? My mother's long battle with lung cancer.

  • Why are you a Castaway? To alleviate the suffering of all cancer patients.

  • Outside a kayak/bicycle, what is your "essential" gear? My life vest; keeps me warm during the summer rains and also doubles as my camp pillow.

  • Conch Republic Navy Rank: Fleet Commander

  • Favorite Castaways moment: Meeting the "popsicle fairy of Vaca Cut"!

  • Favorite Castaways quote: " When you are on the sea, you can't wait to come ashore...and when you're on shore you can't wait to get back in the boats"!

  • My Family: Proudly married to Candace. Proud father to Cassidy. Currently have almost as many cats as Poppa Hemingway did. My dad's family were just working-class heroes who first came to Miami from Chicago in 1948.  We were part of the original 1960s "Ridge Rats" from the southern Miami-Dade community known as Cutler Ridge. This was one of the neighborhoods that laid directly in the path of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Today that community is called "Cutler Bay", but the old Florida Crackers still take pride in calling it the "Ridge". My mother was from Oklahoma but spent some time in Missouri. A lot of my family had trained in Florida as aviators during World War II, and moved here permanently after the war, to what they believed was paradise!

  • Where are you from? Key West, Florida

  • Where'd you go to school? Christopher Columbus High School, FSU, and FIU too.

  • Where do you work? Christopher Columbus High School. (Teacher and former Cross Country coach)

  • Favorite music/artists: Moby, or any of the post-techno European bands.

  • Favorite movies/genre: "Heat" and the original "Miami Vice"

  • Favorite books: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius ( and titles from the Stoics)

  • Personal Fun Fact: Even though I have an Irish surname, I'm mostly English and a little bit Fin.

  • How have I helped carry out the CAC mission of funding cancer research and honoring those who have fought the fight? I tell everyone I meet about our mission and my personal ministry, trying to become more educated in the direction of new cures, and actively volunteer my services to anyone who could use a little love.