Tom Carroll

Tom Carroll (b.1961), former professional surfer, made the finals of the 1979 Pipe Masters on his first ever world tour, finishing 24th in the world that same year. He continued to ascend from 17th to 10th to 3rd before taking the world title in 1983, becoming the first goofy foot world champion. The following year he defeated veteran Shaun Tomson to win the championship again. Having boycotted the South African leg of the 1985 tour in protest against apartheid he fell behind Tom Curren. In 1988, he made history again by securing a million dollar contract with surf outfitters Quiksilver. He retired in 1993 with twenty-six career world tour wins, three Pipe Masters victories (1987, 1990, and 1991), and two world titles. He was inducted into the Australian Suring Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Huntington Beach Surfing Hall of Fame in 1999 and was seventh on Surfer magazine's list of the fifty greatest surfers of all time in 2010. Carroll and fellow Australian big-wave surfer Ross Clarke-Jones currently travel the world for the Discovery Channel television series Storm Surfers; recently, Carroll miraculously avoided serious injury when his jet ski was pulverised by a monster wave.