Eight Surfers Who Got Into Tom Carroll’s Competitive Marrow

Tom Carroll was never much of a tactical genius in heats. His World Titles were won more on wild tenacity and superior skill. When the strategists drew TC in a heat – so it is said – they licked their lips. Take audience* with the 2 x  World Champion and 3 x Pipeline Master, Thomas Victor Carroll as he recalls a select few who got into his competitive marrow…

Mark Occhilupo
Raw Attack
Occ came on Tour really strong right when I was walking around with my chest out and I thought I was The Man since winning the World Title. They started calling Occy the one to beat. When someone starts to break that confidence down almost overnight, it’s confronting. I remember at the Country Feeling Classic, it was perfect, eight to 10 feet J-Bay. It was all-eyes on Occy. He was getting so low to his board then jamming it along the lip while also getting his fins out the back and then transitioning perfectly. I had a few go-behinds with Occy in a free session and he was behind me and going up and around me and we got this dance going, it was an extraordinary feeling. I felt super safe with him and I remember thinking he was so on fire, so precise, it was all feeling. I thought, I’m ruined here, what am I going to do? I felt so stiff and awkward in comparison. It was a very humbling moment, he woke something up in me. It was an extraordinary gift.

Tom Curren
Cold as Ice
Curren came along and changed the way we rode a wave. I don’t think there was a defined technique for coming off the bottom, off the top, until Tom. He did it faultlessly every time and you didn’t want to compete against him for that reason. He could wait till the last moment of the heat, knowing a wave would come, he’d never fight against the ocean, that was very frustrating. He’d come off a win and show no emotion. In Japan in October of 82 in a giant typhoon swell, I was 21, he was 18, married and so sensible and he got me in the final. At the closing ceremony in Tokyo I walked over and said, “What’s wrong with you? Bloody celebrate!” But he was so centred and calm. It psyched me out. I tried to work him out, it was the worst thing I could have done. He opened up a world for us though. I changed the way I surfed, tucked in my back leg and started allowing waves to go by rather than jumping on everything.

Kelly Slater
Dedicated to Greatness
I met Kelly in 1983 in Florida when I was there to compete in a World Tour event. He was with his Dad and brother, Sean. He was really brown, as most Floridian kids are, and had that focused stare. He was stoked to meet me and Mark Richards but he was just this little kid, super polite and didn’t say much. I had no idea he’d go on to achieve what he has. No one did. The first time I watched him surf was at Off the Wall, he was about 13. He was super free and loose. The positions he got his body into were a lot like Curren in a way. My last year of really enjoying competition and Kelly being on Tour was in 1991. At Pipe that year he took a wave that blew my mind. I’ll never forget it. Two sections came together into a pointy wedge, it mutated and looked horrific. If it had unloaded on him he’d have been destroyed. But he came through the other side completely casual, it was easy for him. I knew after that wave he was for real, he had something special. He was already doing it in small waves but to do it at Pipe was incredible.

Rabbit Bartholomew
Mastermind
Rabbit was a calculated competitor and a really good strategist, which I was neither of. My strategy was basically to just surf and not apply any other strategy. It had holes in it everywhere. But knowing how good he was, studying him all the time, built up that intimidation. I didn’t rate him as the most radical surfer but I loved his casual approach in radical situations. He got me really applying myself.

Dane Kealoha
Pure Connection
Dane was an extraordinary surfer. He could dominate an event from the get-go with his power, strength and knowledge of the ocean. He could surf any wave and get high scores like Slater does, I’m baffled he didn’t get a World Title, absolutely baffled. He was a sensitive guy and got hit hard by how the system was. His connection to the ocean made him a frightening guy to surf against. Luckily I didn’t draw him too often.

Cheyne Horan
Blond Terror
It was my first State Junior Titles – the U15’s – and I knew I was going to surf against this bloke from Bondi named Cheyne Horan. He’d won the year before and Derek Hynd’s brother, Rod, was coming to meet me at Newport for a lift to the comp… and I didn’t show up. I hid. I felt like Cheyne was compete-at-all-costs, he was the best, and I didn’t have that animal in me yet. It freaked me out.

Barton Lynch
The Assassin
BL and I go way back. I was a little bit older than BL and he was always dangerous in a heat but I felt I had the upper hand in the early times. But then BL got better. He became a lot more assertive and built on his strategies. He was quite rebellious on Tour. He’s a different person now to what he was back then. He was quite brash and very intense. Today he’s got a different view and I think he grew a lot after he finished the Tour. BL could always move through rounds in any conditions but I always felt I had the strength on him in most conditions but of course, he won his World Title at Pipe on an amazing day.

Gary ‘Kong’ Elkerton
Animal Instincts
Kong came along, started applying himself and I felt we really battled in the areas of fitness and strength, even though he was a bigger guy than me. I think I had the edge over him but he was aggressive and tougher in big waves. They ran a Masters Series down the track and the bee under the bonnet was that big from that many second places, Kong got hyper competitive and very strong beyond the Tour. He started training, focused himself and won three of those events. You can see the animal was always there.

*TC is currently showing an exhibition of his photography from his life on tour.
1980-1985: Tom Carroll opens at Sun Studios, Alexandria on February 22 from 6pm.