As a skinny eleven-year-old shivering on a Cornish beach, Tom likely didn’t foresee a future that would lead him into some of Northern Europe’s heaviest surf. He eventually settled on the western shores of Ireland, where he shares a small cottage with his family, charges barrels and shapes custom sleds for County Clare’s magical string of coldwater slabs.
Career Highlights
First real surfboard, WA, 1996
First Irish surf trip in 1999 with sister, Jo
First proper tube at D-bah New South Wales, 2000
First tropical reef rash, Uluwatu, 2000
First snapped board, Uluwatu, 2000
First taste of big waves, Punta Lobos, Chile, 2004
Drop into Aileen's for the first time, 2006
Big Aileen's barrel, 2007
Two wave hold down, 2008
Two wave hold down with broken rib, 2010
10 consecutive duckdives through the set of death at Aileen's, 2010