Article: Tom Carroll Live: Two Heats From a Third World Title, Then One Call
Everything Ocean Podcast
Tom Carroll Live: Two Heats From a Third World Title, Then One Call
Bonus episode: a live Q&A with two-time world champion and former Pipeline Master Tom Carroll, recorded at DY Salty Surf School's SurfAid Make a Wave fundraiser. The ruling at Pipeline that ended a three-year campaign, the breath that changed his surfing, the hard years, and a live breathwork session you can follow along with.
Everything Ocean Podcast — Bonus episode, a live Q&A with Tom Carroll: two-time world champion, former Pipeline Master, and Dan's own meditation teacher.
Content note: Tom talks openly about grief and addiction in this episode.
Two heats from a third world title, a ruling at Pipeline went against Tom Carroll and ended a three-year campaign.
What he found after that is the bit you don't get in most surf interviews, and it's why this one's worth your time.
We recorded it in front of a room at DY Salty Surf School's SurfAid Make a Wave fundraiser.
Listen or watch: YouTube · Spotify · search "Everything Ocean Podcast" on Apple Podcasts.
In this episode
- 06:20 — The first board. Christmas 1968, and who handed it to him.
- 17:40 — Falling off the cliff. Losing a world title on a technicality at Pipeline.
- 19:00 — 1989: the breath. What a Quiksilver creative director showed him that changed his surfing almost overnight.
- 28:40 — The hard years. A candid story about the toughest stretch of his life, and the daily habit that turned it around.
- 31:55 — Still charging at 64. How he's still surfing the biggest days on the northern beaches.
- 35:50 — Breathe with Tom. He took the whole room through a live breathwork session. You can follow along.
Falling off the cliff
Tom was two heats away from a third world title when a ruling at Pipeline went against him. It ended a three-year campaign.
“I had to go through the feeling of falling off the cliff.”
Tom Carroll
From there the conversation moves to 1989, when a Quiksilver creative director showed him something about breathing that changed his surfing almost overnight, and then to the hardest stretch of his life and the daily habit that turned it around.
Tom, on longevity
Still charging at 64
“The body is just a printout of our conscious state.”
His short list: sleep, hydration, protect your energy, and remember everything starts with a thought.
To finish, Tom took the whole room through a live breathwork session at 35:50. You can follow along at home.
Listen to the full episode
We recorded this live for SurfAid's Make a Wave Challenge, which funds clean water and sanitation for remote Indonesian communities. Thanks to everyone who came out and donated.
Catch every episode under the Podcast filter in From the Lineup.
