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My first recollection of Tom Curren was from the mid 80's. Johnny Martinotti took me to see a surf movie which played on the side of the Lum's wall on St. Pete Beach. I think it was called "Adventures in Paradise" or something. Tom was hitting these perfect waves vertical like ten times on the same ride. In the late 80's we saw the epic Cali video "Captain Surf". Tom is surfing Sandspit and the barrels he gets are 6 seconds plus, just unbelievable. The OP Pro finals at Huntinton on ESPN back in 84'. His epic battles with Occy. His win at Bells in 85' when he took his 1st title. Those are great memories. We were so sick of getting beat by the Aussies that when Tom won his first world title in the mid 80's it was a major victory for American surfing. After a few more titles Tom disappeared off the scene. A year or so later, he turned up on a ESPN Surfer Magazine show in the early 90's. It was documenting his visits to see his father who was living on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Those pics of him surfing perfect head high right bowls all by himself in Central America made me decide to go to Costa Rica. It was those images of him surfing in that beautiful setting that pushed me to go there. During the mid 90's he did a lot of 'Search' videos for Rip Curl. He was like the first surfer to get paid for not competing. Just travelling and free surfing and making a good living from that. I have "Beyond the Boundaries" from the Search series. What a great surfing video. He surf's huge perfect waves in Indo on a 5'7 fish. He inspired everyone to start riding fish. This made my surfing personally affected. When I started surfing a fish, I had more fun.
Thanks Tom. Thursday January 6th was a big day for me. To finally see him surf and take photos of him and talk to him was like epiphany for me. (Epiph·a·ny :
an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking). When I was kid I used to watch him surf then go out on my skateboard and imitate all his moves, even the way he held his arms. Whenever me and my grom buds had mini surf contests at our local beaches I was always Tom Curren and they were Potter or Carroll. It was just so cool to finally meet him. He was really down to earth and nice. I wish I would have talked to him more. I am happy for him, he seems really content with his family and his wife living out in Santa Barbara, where it all began for him. Very inspirational. Thanks Tom!
