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MAY 2012 ISSUE 500

MAY 2012 THE NEXT BEST THING TO STAYING YOUNG

MICK FANNING, STANDING TALL. PHOTO: SWILLY

068 TOM CURREN STORY

500th ISSUE

PERPETUATING THE MYTH HOW TOM CURREN KEPT US ALL GUESSING HIS NEXT MOVE Interview and photos by Dave Sparkes

In a way, this introduction is pointless. For any surfer worth his salt, Tom Curren needs no introduction; his name alone conjures up so many desirable images and aspects of beautiful surfing, and understated charisma. And for surfers who haven’t heard of him, what is the point of trying to verbally, or in respect of the photographs accompanying this interview, even pictorially, describe the ethereal essence of his surfing? The Curren magic is in his flow, his fluid aggression, and only real life exposure or at the least, motion pictures, will reveal the real deal.

Fluid aggression. It almost sounds like an oxymoron, or a contradiction in terms, until you see it manifest in his artful attack, the deadly syrup of his precise and powerful tracks.

And this seemingly paradoxical blending of flow and radical manoeuvres is also borne out in his personality. On one hand he is extremely private, takes a long while to get to know, is mellow to the point of apparent docility, and yet in his prime he was a ferocious competitor. Outside of contest singlets though, “understatement” probably sums up his demeanour as well as any one word could.

His lineage is beyond impeccable. His father, Pat, enjoying similar cult status during the early North Shore era; a member of the first group to surf Waimea Bay; a phenomenal waterman, surfer, swimmer, paddler, diver, fisherman; shaper of the finest balsa/redwood surfboards ever made. Pat is also said to be a similarly charismatic personality, slightly mysterious and looked upon with awe by his contemporaries. Sounds familiar.

In the professional era of surfing, Tom was the first American Great White Hope with any, well, real hope. And the expectation, heaped upon him from when he was about 14, was fulfilled with little bother or fuss. His progress was textbook, winning Boys and Junior US Titles, the World Amateur Title and then his maiden World Professional Title in 1985, the first of three. He left the tour after his second consecutive title in 1986, then nailed his third title, essentially via the gruelling trials heats (although in reality he procured quite a few wildcard entries that year) in 1990. That one was on the end of a lightning fast comeback, followed by an almost as rapid second exit from the touring life.

At that point he embarked on the iconic Rip Curl Search program, further enhancing his cult status with landmark performances at mythical locations like Jeffreys Bay (a blisteringly perfect and poised effort on what is said to be his first wave at Supertubes) and the now seismically compromised Bawa in the Hinako Islands off Nias (riding Frankie Oberholzer’s tiny, five and a half foot Tommy Peterson fish in 10-12ft right barrels).Tom Curren has influenced almost eve-

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ry major surfing figure to emerge since his own incredible explosion onto the scene, and not a few who came before him. Even after Kelly Slater’s utter dominance and 11 World Titles, Curren is still regularly rated as the best ever by numerous high regarded surfers.

He has spent much time pursuing his musical career, and has several albums to his credit. He is a superb drummer and guitarist, and is currently putting time into completing another album.

At 47 years old, he has for several years been back on the Rip Curl Search team, and is still putting in performances of superlative grace and style. On a recent trip to the Mentawai, I witnessed him produce the closest thing to a perfect session I have ever seen: in 2 hours of 6-8ft heaving left barrels, he made every tube, read every section perfectly, did not fall, did not dig a rail, and wouldn’t have even got his hair wet if it hadn’t been soaked by the spit and mist of so many tubes. It was staggeringly Zen, and those who saw it just shook their heads.

Recently, I managed to corner Tom in my north coast loft and when I did, I hit the record button on the dictaphone. This is what he said ...

How old were you when you started surfing?

6 years old.

How did that come about? I was around the beach in Santa Barbara when I was a kid a lot, and I was belly-boarding I guess. I went to Hawaii with my parents and it was just the thing to do ... all the kids were surfing over there, so I borrowed a board and went out and stood up.

What, pretty much straight away?

Yeah, first wave.

I hate you. Did your father, Pat, have much input into your surfing?

Well at the beginning, the main contribution I suppose was that I’d been borrowing a board at a beach near Haleiwa in the summer, and it was time for us to head back to where we staying and stuff.

And the kid I borrowed the board from ... somehow my parents bought the board for 10 dollars ... and that was definitely a good deal. I took the board back to California and surfed it pretty much until it didn’t work anymore. I remember a photo of me sitting on top of the car, strapping the board to the roof, and my front teeth were missing, and ah, I was pretty happy, definitely.

TOM CURREN, POSSIBLY ENJOYING A SLY CHUCKLE AT THE EXPENSE OF ALL THOSE FANS HE’S KEPT GUESSING FOR THE LAST THREE DECADES. .

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TOM’S SURFING HAS ALWAYS BEEN DISTINGUISHED BY THE ABILITY TO APPEAR COMPOSED AND IN CONTROL IN THE MOST CRITICAL SECTIONS.

When did you start to think you might make surfing your career?

Well, the first idea I had about having a career in surfing was to somehow get into photography, because that was the only legitimate kind of career in surfing that I could see at the time. I knew that some of the really good guys were doing well with endorsements and stuff, but realistically at the time, you know, I wanted to be a surf photographer, as a way to just stay involved with surfing.

But that was early on, when I was like 8 or 9 or something.

Was your dad still around the family at that time? (Tell me if that question’s too personal!)

No it’s fine. Yeah, and he definitely made a huge impact on me surfing wise; we surfed together quite a few times. One time I remember we were in San Diego, and we were surfing these reef breaks and it was about 10 foot. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old and it was before leashes and so ... everything was kind of in a nutshell as far as avoiding the sets and as far as avoiding getting picked off by the sets to avoid having to swim in. I was just kinda watching him ... I think when you’re that young you really absorb things a lot, they stay with you a lot more, so it was really good input, and it goes a long way ‘cos it’s not just verbal.

Were you aware at that stage of your father’s history and exploits? Yeah I was. We had a photo album of Bud Browne photos, prints from his movies, we looked at them often. Some of ‘em were a bit grainy but they were always ... I think just about all of the photos were at Waimea. I think there was one photo of him sitting on a board in the Ala Moana Harbour. But there was just all these really amazing rides, and even in the most grainy photos you could see how low my dad was on the board and how he was going straight across the wall, instead of down to the bottom like a big drop sort of thing. I didn’t know this at the time, but apparently he was always in the right position for the take-off at Waimea. If you get into the right spot, and you’ve got the right board, you can just go right through the pocket, instead of just ... well usually most guys, even nowadays, they think of Waimea as just a big drop and that’s it, but when you get the right wave ...

My dad was famous for waiting for the wave of the day. He’d wait all day, and

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“I HAD A GOOD SENSE OF COMPETITION AND I LIKED IT, YOU KNOW, I LIKED WINING AND I HAD A TASTE FOR IT I GUESS.” he’d get the best wave out there, and he knew the lineup and things, you know – legendary status!

So there were those photos and the other ones were kind of standing around a car, I think with his friends, and you know, just a couple of other photos.

There was one photo of him where he’d done an ad for Jansen Sportswear, and it was pretty funny ‘cos he had these super tight bun hugger trunks on.

He was kinda laughing about it, he didn’t really like the shorts but I guess they paid him for it. Then there was one classic shot of him, they were sailing back from Hawaii and he had this beard and a kind of turban, it was kind of funny, it was pretty classic, they looked like pirates! But they were very young too, at the time.

When you started surfing competitively you got a name for having a deadly combination of great natural ability and contest savvy. Did you consciously devise strategies, or was it more intuitive?

I liked to compete a lot and I had the training because we competed pretty much every weekend. Then I also had swimming, I was on the swim team, and I was also in the junior lifeguards. Those kind of things. Also I played a bit of tennis, so I liked to compete. Swimming I think helped me a lot, because you really had to push yourself against your competitors and also you have to com-

TOM CURREN STORY 500th ISSUE

pete against ... you know it’s a mental thing and a physical thing at the same time, so you have to try to push past the point when you’re sort of breaking down or whatever, you have to just keep going. I think that helped me a lot.

And junior lifeguards were definitely, I think, a part of that as well.

Were the weekend surfing contests you mentioned school events?

They were WSA. They have the ESA on the east coast and the WSA on the west coast, and they had the Gulf coast and the HSA (Hawaii) and then every year they would have Nationals. I went in those when I was about 10, and didn’t do very good, I did okay in the local, regional ones but the state ones I didn’t do well. So I kinda forgot about it for a while and instead I got into skateboarding a lot. Then right around when I was 14, I got back into it and I started winning all the time. I went to the Nationals and won that, and then I did that again the next year, everything was the same, and I think that my surfing was definitely, you know, at the top level of what I was seeing at the time. But also I had a good sense of competition, and I liked it, you know, I liked winning and had a taste for it I guess.

What sort of boards were you riding back then?

Well at that time I’d just started riding Al Merrick’s boards. I was on a single fin for 2 or 3 years and it was like a round pin, pretty basic shape. Then Shaun Tomson started spending time in Santa Barbara, and he was riding twin fins.

So then Al started shaping twin fins, and it was so different! Like, the first time I started riding them I would kick out of waves because I would think the section was too long, couldn’t get around it and stuff. Actually one time Al was in the lineup, he was sitting there and I kicked out of a wave and he said: “you know, you could have made that,” ... just because they were so fast. So that took a little getting used to. In about 1981 or ‘82 I started riding thrusters, so I was enjoying the whole design process as a team rider. You know, Santa Barbara was kind of a quiet place but in reality we had a lot of advantages as far as board design was concerned because there happened to be a lot of guys that were really good shapers. One was Rennie Yater, and then Al of course.

George Greenough was out of Santa Barbara and also my dad was shaping for a while there for Yater, so there was a very rich tradition of board design. And the boards corresponded to the type of waves we had, so the shapers weren’t really focused on coming up with a good groveller for beach breaks, the surf is more down the line sort of thing.

It’s interesting hearing that Shaun Tomson influenced you to try twin fins, because I remember reading an interview with Rabbit where he said he was surfing with you, and you were riding a twin fin. That ultimately got him onto twin fins after he had a ride of yours and loved it!

Yeah! I stayed with Rabbit when I was about 17; I went to France for a few weeks and stayed with Rabbit and Bruce Raymond and John Law, the Quiksilver guys. We had about two weeks of really minimal surf and I don’t know how it happened but Rabbit ended up trying my board. And he was out there every day on it, on just little nothing waves, he was really getting into it. Then when we left, he went back to California ... I don’t know if he took my board but he went to California and Bob Hurley shaped him a board. He ended up getting up to the ... I don’t know what place he got but there was a contest in Malibu he did really well in on this twin fin. It was kind of a copy of my one. At that time of course MR was very much into twin fins and at the design forefront of twin fins. And then Martin Potter around ‘81 was working with Spider Murphy and, you know, the performances were incredible ... there was no comparison with the single fins. For more performance surfing, twin fins were definitely a lot faster. The problem is that they just didn’t work as good backside, and that was always a problem, that was pretty much the only major problem with twin fins. They were just super hard to ride going backhand, and if it wasn’t for that, they would still, you know ... there may not even be a thruster now, because they were so good. But that may not be true, that’s just my ... I don’t know, I just thought of that so ...

Well, that’s what we’re after here! It’s interesting though; kids today can never know that revelation of acceleration you experience after only ever riding a single fin and then jumping onto a multi fin board. Experiencing that intense speed off the mark you get off any multi finned board ...

Yeah! Yeah but I mean, if I had my choice, I would only ride single fins but they just, don’t work as good in a lot of different situations. I like just having one fin,

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the board’s faster, and you know maybe someday there’ll be a way to design a board with one fin, to somehow make it compete with the multi fin boards.

So when you say the board’s faster, how does that then relate to what you said before about twin fins being able to make sections that you couldn’t make on a single fin?

Well, there’s just less stuff hanging off of the board so when you’re going in a straight line there’s no cavitation, there’s no drag coming from the other fins, and with the twin fin, you have the fins on the side so you have a wider board to begin with and you’re kinda going from fin to fin, so you accelerate with the use of the fins more, but the single fin is faster in a straight line ... you know, the fastest way to get down to the bottom of a wave would be probably on a single fin.

“I DID BUY INTO THE WHOLE PSYCHOLOGICAL THING AS WELL, AND YOU KNOW I TRIED TO KIND OF GIVE A ... TRIED TO KIND OF WORK IT AS MUCH AS I COULD ... ” When you really hit your stride competitively you had a pretty mysterious vibe at events, showing up out of the blue and stuff.

Yeah, I don’t know, it only happened a couple of times, when I was late for my heat or something and because I was pretty hard to beat they thought I was playing some mind games or something. There was one time in Santa Cruz I was against Luke Egan and I was late for my heat, and I ended up having to paddle up the beach instead of jumping off the top there by the lighthouse. So I’m, you know, I’m not even in the lineup and the heat’s started. So I’m paddling as hard as I can and this wave comes kind of in the middle there and I pick it up and I get a tube, you know and Luke’s still sitting out there trying to figure out the lineup. Steamer Lane is a pretty hard lineup to figure out, and ...

I’ve been surfing there a long time and done a lot of amateur contests there.

You know, little things like that. But I did buy into the whole psychological thing as well, and you know I tried to give a kind of ... tried to work it as much as I could even before the heat, or in the competitors area or wherever. I just kinda ... that was something I learned from Rabbit and, I think he learned that from MP and then Mark Richards ... it’s kind of a tradition. I think the Australians brought a lot of that, you know without being unsportsmanlike, I think there’s a lot of that ... the hassling would be bad, you know, and so a couple of the first events I was in you had to think about that as well. You had to think well, no matter what, everybody’s not just gonna be surfing and taking turns. It’s going to be a paddle battle or whatever, you know you could just paddle half a mile down the beach - literally - and I was just, pretty enthusiastic. I was stoked to be on the tour and I wanted to play all those games too, just like my heroes I guess. Anyway, so I used to practice with some of my friends at home. Sam and Matt George, they kinda told me about coming to Australia and surfing in the Stubbies and all this stuff, and we used to do practice heats and man on man heats and stuff and then we would practice hassling! Where you just, you didn’t really get the wave you just hassled. It was kinda funny, it was like playing one on one basketball or something, it was hilarious. You know it was like paddling on top of each other, not to the point of leash pulling and that, but I

TOM, BENDING HIS WAY THROUGH A DEEP GREEN, BACKSIDE BARREL IN CHILE.

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TOM’S FLUID ACT HAS ALWAYS BEEN UNDERPINNED BY A SIXTH SENSE FOR THE TUBE.

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PERHAPS THE REAL MEASURE OF SURFING STYLE IS HOW GOOD YOU MAKE A BOTTOM TURN LOOK. TOM, MAKING THE AESTHETICS LOOK AS SIMPLE AS SLIDING A KINIFE THROUGH SOFT BUTTER.

don’t know, I liked it, I liked competing and all that.

So that psych out thing was semi-cultivated around you by the media, and you figured “let’s run with it”? The late writer, Carlos Castaneda, said: “The warrior uses whatever’s at his disposal” (Tom laughs). If they’re helping develop that tool for you, great!

Yeah, I suppose that’d be correct.

So all of that mystique was just because you couldn’t find your car keys or something?

(Laughs) Yeah a little bit, but I did like to ... you know, I remember we’d go on some kind of promo, we’d go into a surf shop and some of the guys I competed against were there so I kind of, I wouldn’t talk to them and stuff, you know, do stuff like that. But I’m not that imposing a person so they probably just scratched their heads. I’m sure they weren’t psyched out or anything.

Maybe to a gregarious Australian, it was hard for them to get their head around somebody who was quiet, and they read stuff into it.

Well, one of the guys who I surfed and competed against in the amateur days was Dave Parmenter. He’s kinda one of the guys I looked up to and he had my number, I think he beat me like five times in a row. And he would play those games, he’d do little tricks and stuff on the beach just to spin me out a little bit you know. But it was all fair play, I thought that he didn’t respect me or whatever but it’s all kinda funny when you think about those things.

And he’s a smart guy I believe?

Yeah, he’s very smart, he’s very funny actually, he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. But he lived up north, there was like a pack of those guys, they’re isolated, surfing crummy waves in freezing water, and then they’d come down to the contests and they had this whole vibe. They brought it to a whole new level kinda, you know considering it was just their local scene. It was like World Championship Wrestling or something, it was kinda funny.

Some of your contemporaries were among the all-time greats, like Martin Potter, Tom Carroll, and Occy. Did surfing against those guys push you to get better?

Oh yeah, sure, it was really hard competing against them and you know when I’d surf against them and I lost I just had to go back home just try to work and train and think about it and work on my turns and work on heat strategy, just

the whole thing. It was all-consuming. But yeah, those guys were super tough and when they were on, all of those guys, it was really hard.

Would you have had different strategies against them individually, or was your strategy across the board?

I don’t know, maybe not really. I pretty much had to get a good start in the heat, if I didn’t I would kinda get into a ... you know things just didn’t happen.

If I got a good start then I could build on that, but generally to come back from being behind I think was harder for me than maybe for some of the other guys.

What’s your memory of the famous heat at Bells with Occy?

I had this perfect heat pretty much, actually one of the rare heats when I was behind and I caught up and moved ahead, but we were going wave for wave and then I went out for the final, I was totally out of gas and Carroll won it. But I won the title that day.

Did you know at the time that heat with Occy was for the title?

I don’t remember if I knew or not, I did know that I had to do well there because the next event was at Narrabeen which an advantage for some of the other guys. But one thing that happened which was kind of funny was that board I rode in that Occy heat worked really well, but I almost didn’t bring it. I almost left it in Sydney. I just didn’t think I’d need it, ‘cos it was like a step up board.

It was 6’3” and the waves had been kind of small for a while, and when that happens you kind of forget things like ... that the swell could hit! So the swell just started to come in a little bit the day before, it was still really small, but I took that board out at Winki, I had a couple of waves on it and it felt pretty good. It was a little big for those waves, but ...

What sort of circumstances led you to leave the tour when you were at your peak?

Well, it was just, I lost interest I guess. I wanted to do other things and I didn’t think that I was going to get better or that I was going to kind of hang on to that top tier of the elite, I guess. In retrospect I’m sure it would have been worthwhile to hang around longer, definitely, but ... you know. But then board design changed, and then the whole tour changed, and I kind of missed that so that was ... but on the other hand I went and did a lot of travelling and filming with Sonny Miller and so that worked out really well. But in retrospect I could have probably done both. But it just wasn’t interesting to me at the time, you know, I was kind of bored with it. Later I went in a few ‘QS events, and it’s really hard

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“WITH THE TWIN FIN, YOU HAVE THE FINS ON THE SIDE SO YOU HAVE A WIDER BOARD TO BEGIN WITH AND YOU’RE KINDA GOING FROM FIN TO FIN, SO YOU ACCELERATE WITH THE USE OF THE FINS MORE, BUT THE SINGLE FIN IS FASTER IN A STRAIGHT LINE.” SUCH IS CURREN’S MASTERY THAT IT ALWAYS SEEMED LIKE HE COULD MAKE A BOARD BEHAVE LIKE AN EXTENSION OF HIS BODY – A FIFTH LIMB.

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to get back in, once you’re not there anymore. And then a lot of what was mo- arrangements and the musical performance of the musical instruments is there, tivating me to do it or not do it was the financial side, but the competing and then that’s even better. You know that’s why you can listen to Bob Dylan, and surfing in bad waves a lot, I was bored with that, so ... even if it’s not the greatest quality recording, if the story’s right then you can let the rest of it slide, whatever, doesn’t matter. I think it’s hard to like a song if you And that was a big change in the tour later too – better waves. don’t like the message. Sometimes there’s some music that I like, or the beats Yeah. But I think overall I just thought that I was just not that interested any- in the song, but the message is so disturbing that I just don’t want to hear it. more plus I didn’t have the confidence that I could stay at the level that I was at either, and I didn’t want to, you know, fail at that, possibly. I haven’t really Is that technique experimental still, or is it already yielding results? spoken about that sort of thing but I think that’s probably a big part of it.

Well, like I said, the hardest thing for me to do is come up with decent words that I can look at and go: “Wow, that’s good”. That’s hard for me to do but you know So you enjoyed those early Search trips? You got to surf some amazing, I can say: “Oh that’s ok, or that’s interesting, or that’s a good rhyme”, but to be empty waves that are now fairly crowded. really happy with the words is something that I’ve struggled with a little bit. But Yeah it was really fun to be a part of that, it’s kind of a fantasy just travelling in the past I’ve had situations where the words come really easy, and then the around to surf perfect waves, it’s something that I was really lucky to be a song’s easy and then it sort of, can stand up. But you go through months or even part of. years without being able to come up with an idea, so you just have to keep trying to get started. Then once you do you just have to kinda keep it going, and then At the time you left competitive surfing, was music already a big part of whatever you get down, you can kinda trim it after that I think. It’s easier than your life?

I’ve always played, I started playing when I was real little and I was becoming more interested in learning guitar and then doing some recording and things like that. But it’s always been there, even before I was doing well in contests it was there. It was like surfing and music were almost the same, but the door opened for me in surfing and so I didn’t play for a while. I was kind of focused on surfing, and surfing is such a rich lifestyle, travelling and surfing and getting good waves is just so nice, it’s hard to beat it that’s for sure.

And the arena is nice, it’s not like a baseball field.

Yeah, it’s always different, I marvel at how lucky we are to be able to just surf and to be able to hang out at the beach and then to go on and make a career out of it.

Speaking of different places, how long did you live in France?

Between 5 and 10 years. Off and on.

And that was due to you being married to a French lady, your ex-wife, Marie?

Yeah. Actually I think part of the reason I did so well on the tour was because I had those French beach breaks. At home in California I was mostly going right, so for one thing I got to learn how to go backhand more in France. And then it was uncrowded and it was always so different it seems. Like, it could be pretty big, it could be different kind of sandbars, different variety of waves, so I think I was able to develop my surfing quite a bit on those beach breaks.

You’ve done some recording of your music, do you have aspirations to go further with that?

Yeah. I’m supposed to be doing an album, I have a contract to do an album so I’m trying to do that, and then I have a few gigs here and there. I’ve been doing the singer/songwriter thing for a while, and that’s kind of something that I keep going back to and trying to improve and I’m also trying to improve on guitar technique. So that’s kind of a second endeavour that I’ve been doing lately, with surfing being at the forefront for me still. But songwriting is a process that takes a while and sometimes things really click and sometimes you just come up against a brick wall, but it’s all about art and that’s always something I’ve been interested in. I really wanna write songs that are good, and that’s something that I’ve been working on for a while.

You mentioned yesterday that you’ve been using different sorts of techniques to write songs recently?

Yeah, well lately I’ve been working on the words first and then the music after, and it’s usually the other way around. I usually fiddle around on the guitar and then come up with the chord progression, and then maybe hum a melody and kinda yoghurt the words a little bit and kinda get an idea that way. But it’s always hard for me to come up with the lyrics; the guitar parts and the riffs and stuff, I can do alright with that. I can find rhymes pretty easily but the content is the hard part, to have something that is relevant and has some meaning.

You see songwriters, the really good ones, you’re not paying so much attention to the specific words, it’s the actual meaning. The message is what gets to me anyway, you know, and then if it’s a really good band behind it and the

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“ I REALLY WANT TO WRITE SONGS THAT ARE GOOD AND THAT’S SOMETHING THAT I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON FOR A WHILE.”

coming up with an idea and then going: “Oh that sucks” or “that’s no good”.

So the best thing is just to try to keep going, and that takes time.

Have you had any musical training?

Not really any training, I’ve just had collaborations and that sort of thing, I’ve learned a lot from other people but not in a formal way. I did go to drum class when I was in Junior High School, and that was good. I’m happy that I learned to play drums first because the counting part of music is so important, it’s overlooked a lot and sometimes you can have really brilliant guitarists but they can’t count that easily. We had a drum class and so we’d stand with the sheet music and play drums on a piece of wood, we never got to play the actual drum set, but it was set up in the corner of the room so we got to look at it. (Dry laugh) The dangling carrot...

Yeah. So we’re: “Oh wow, I’ll take drum class, that’s cool!” and then go and just beat on this piece of wood! But I think it was really important for learning how to count.

Has it been inspirational for you to watch your kids grow up and surf and play music with them and in a way, go through it all again with them?

Sure, yeah it’s really interesting, because it was the same for me, I like to do both and they do too, they play music as well, and they’re pretty darn good, and I think it’s good to have that. I don’t think it’s good to have too many things that you’re good at, but I think if you can have a few things you’re good at, that’s great.

You’ve had a few phases in your career, and at 46 you’re still surfing at a really high level. What are your thoughts on refinements in board design perhaps helping you keep your surfing at a high level? People like Tom Carroll and Occy are still ripping...

Yeah, I’m sure it’s the same for them, the way boards are going, it makes

IT SEEMS FITTING THAT SOMEONE WHOSE SURFING COMES OFF LIKE A SERIES OF PERFECTLY TIMED NOTES, ALSO HAS A PASSION FOR MUSIC.

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it still fresh and makes it very exciting to try new boards, with the way designs are going, some boards are really good for doing aerials and stuff and even I can appreciate that. It’s a lot harder to actually do aerials but the way the boards are they seem to want to go into the air.

The other night you threatened to walk me through the method for doing an aerial...

(Laughs) Yeah, I know how to perform the aerials, all the different kinds – in my mind you know – but to actually do them, I can’t. Usually when I do get into the air and make it it’s always some sort of a blunder, and I somehow got back up and rode out of it, but ... Yeah, you know I like riding really short boards, I like to do all the power surfing and stuff, and tube riding I really like to do, but I would like to be able to do airs ... maybe one day.

Have your kids seen you do an air yet?

I think I did one air, then I kind of went into a layback or something and Pat (Tom’s youngest son, 14) saw it. But I heard that my son Frankie was watching me surf, and it was like a perfect air section but I did some kind of snap. He was like “Man, my dad can’t do airs”. He was really disappointed.

This last week in Northern NSW, a lot of surfers have recognised you and asked you for photos and stuff. Does that bother you at all?

No it doesn’t bother me, in fact I find that in Australia, there’s a lot less of that because surfing is at such a high level here and there’s so many top level pros that probably come through the area. But Australians are super friendly, like 99% of Australians, which is amazing, you know. When I first came here it was the first thing I thought, it’s like: “Wow, they’ll go out of their way to help you”, and I think that’s generally how Australians are. Then some places in Oz where the crowds are really heavy it’s a little different, and you kind of have to hassle and they won’t let you get a wave and stuff. But generally people here are very normal and very friendly and seem to have a good vibe.

You’re travelling a fair bit still, is it difficult spending time away from your family now?

I’m lucky because they get to travel with me quite a bit, and when I’m away without them it’s usually not so long, so it’s not enough to be a problem, so that’s very good. Any time I’m away for a long period, I manage to travel with them. And my other kids; Leanne is now surfing on the tour so I see her sometimes. She’s always travelling and sometimes we go to the same country, but we won’t actually hang out because she’s in another part of the country! But we do spend time together, for however many days, and if she has time she stops over in California. My other son, Nathan, is actually in New York right now, and he’s working on his film career, but he’s also been in Santa Barbara, so it’s pretty good. The kids are grown up and they’re making their move.

Do you speak to Leanne and Nathan in French?

In French, yeah.

Are you pretty much fluent in French?

Oui Do you ever catch up with the good old boys from your days on tour?

Sure, yeah, actually I see some of them around, we had a Clash of the Legends in Hawaii, that was pretty fun, you know it’s all good vibes now, there’s no weirdness. It’s cool to still go to these places like Hawaii and Australia and see what everyone’s up to. Occy and me did a special heat in 2010 at Bells; the waves weren’t that good but I won the heat. After the heat I said: “Oh here’s a set, let’s ride a wave in together and just kind of, hold hands or whatever, do kind of a ... like we’re bros and it’s all cool. And he’s gone: “Yeah ok, no worries!” And then a wave comes in and its kinda bigger than anything in the whole heat, so we’re out of position, but I kind of paddle up and turn around to get a whitewater takeoff.

I wasn’t even thinking that Occy was trying to go. And then the guys in the actual contest, in the next heat, were paddling out, so I had to dodge one of them and at the same time I see Occy in the lip, trying to drop in.

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I had to just kind of bump rails with him, and he came flying through the air straight at me, and it looked kind of strange, like he was trying to hurt me or something! We went over the falls together, and I came up and my fin is stuck straight through the middle of his board! So that’s how sometimes you have an idea, and it doesn’t quite turn out the way you planned it. (Laughs).

At Rip Curl, you’re like the prodigal son returned, and you’re doing some Search trips again. Do you still enjoy that sort of stuff?

Yeah, definitely, we had a really good trip to Indonesia in 2010 to surf this river wave (The Bono) that was really different. I’m definitely into going on these kinda trips that are a little different. It’s working out really well.

I read somewhere that one of your friends was at your house and found one of your world title trophies in the backyard covered in weeds or something! Do the tangible aspects of world titles mean much to you, or is it more of a personal satisfaction?

Yeah ... I don’t really have a trophy case, I think it’s good to take care of those things though, after a while you think “wow”, you know, but I don’t know why it wasn’t in a case or something, I think we were moving and it might have been in a box ... It’s not that it doesn’t matter to me, it matters a huge deal to me but the trophy itself is not as important as the rest of it. But the thing is that I don’t like to have a lot of clutter so I try to keep the things that are extra special. I guess that trophy would be one of them but it’s probably better to have it in a surf shop or something than to have my house full of trophies.

So what’s on the agenda for the future?

You’re still with Rip Curl, you have your music happening...

It’s good. I’m travelling, surfing, supporting my kids with their aspirations and trying to make things happen, trying to make sure they have the right boards, make sure they’re doing well in school – and the rest of it they have to figure it out. I’m doing a lot of team stuff with Rip Curl and then I have this album that I have to finish ... that’s about it. And surfing.

Does your wife, Maki, surf?

She bodyboards! (Laughs then says: “nah sorry, I’m just joking!”) She’s gettin’ pretty good, she only just started about 5 or 6 years ago, and now she always seems to get the wave of the day. But she just thought “Well I’m coming to the beach, taking the kids to the beach, I should surf!” But she picked it up pretty quick.

Do you get flashbacks when you go to events with your two youngest boys, get taken back to the glory days?

Oh yeah, absolutely, it’s weird, the whole thing, NSSA and WSA . It’s pretty cool, you see these little kids and they’re super competitive, little aggro kids in the water. It’s funny, but there’s these little cute kids and then when they get out there they’re all aggro, it’s hilarious. But there’s some really good talent coming out of California, and now the training for the kids has gotten super, like science fiction, so that’s exciting. My younger kids haven’t gotten into that yet but they’re probably going to be starting that pretty soon. We have a good trainer in Santa Barbara who works with a lot of pros. They do this, this ... I don’t know what they do but its not like when we trained and we’d go to the gym and do some weights and running and riding bikes. I don’t know, they’re doing something – I don’t know what it is! They told me once but I didn’t understand what they were talking about!

How often do you see your dad?

I see him once a year or so, usually. Hopefully. He’s living in Idaho, and he actually just made me a board which I’m pretty excited about, it’s a big, 10 ft modern gun, a thruster. For Waimea, Mavericks, whatever, so I’m pretty excited about that.

You have it already?

The board’s still in Cali but I was having trouble picking it up because the guy was hard to get hold of so ... but Dad’s still shaping, still doing good, skiing and stuff. X And you have some of his beautiful balsa/redwood guns?

“ [LAUGHS] I KNOW HOW TO PERFORM THE AERIALS, ALL THE DIFFERENT KINDS– IN MY MIND YOU KNOW–BUT TO ACTUALLY DO THEM, I CAN’T.”

ALTHOUGH TOM MIGHT MOCK HIS OWN AERIAL FANTASIES, HIS RAIL WORK WOULD STILL MAKE MANY MODERN PROS ENVIOUS. IN A HEAT EARLIER THIS YEAR AT RINCON, HE EVEN TOOK DOWN DANE REYNOLDS.

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