SHAUN
TOMSON

Shaun Tomson was born and raised in Durban, South Africa and began surfing at age 10. Tomson utterly dominated the South African competition scene, and in 1973 won the first of six consecutive titles in the Durban-held Gunston 500, the biggest international pro event outside of America and Australia. But Tomson made his biggest mark on the sport the following winter on the North Shore of Oahu, pioneering a groundbreaking riding style no one had ever seen before. Tomson rode in a wide stance, and instead of making weight shifts over his board by moving his feet, he simply leaned backward or forward. He introduced his weaving tube style in late 1975 at Backdoor and Off the Wall in Hawaii, where he rode deeper than anybody, and with greater frequency and control. He was just as groundbreaking with his backside approach at Pipeline, standing nearly straight up in the tube when the wave allowed, or dropping to a crouch and bringing his right shoulder forward in a prototype of what would later be called the "pigdog" stance. Tomson's thrilling new moves were captured beautifully in the era-defining surf movie Free Ride. The following generation of surfers, especially Dane Kealoha and Tom Carroll, patterned their tube-riding on that of Tomson's, and present-day techniques are almost all based on lines Tomson worked out in the mid-'70s.

This board is on loan from the Spencer Croul Collection and Shaun Tomson.
Portrait photo © Shaun Tomson