Shaun Tomson interview
Back in the 1970s, a group of antipodean surfers descended on Hawaii with an aggressive new attitude that helped take surfing from a counter-culture hobby to a lucrative career. HUCK talks to Shaun Tomson, one of the main protagonists of this movement and star of Bustin' Down the Door - a film that documents this pivotal time in surfing.
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HUCK: I understand you were executive producer of Bustin' Down the Door, what was your motivation for making the film?
Well, I approached Jeremy Gosch, the director, a few years ago about telling the story of a pivotal time in surfing that really changed the sport, and I thought it really deserved a wide audience. We decided to go ahead so my wife and I funded the project for the first six months. We went and shot in Hawaii and sourced a lot of the old footage from my personal collection – a lot of which hadn’t been seen before. Based on an initial 15 minutes cut we managed to get Edward Norton to narrate it – and then we were away.
The central angle of the story is that you and that small group of surfers helped invent modern pro surfing. How much do you credit yourself with that?
Well, it was a group effort. There were six of us, all from the southern hemisphere and all with a vision for a different type of surfing. We came to a different environment with a different philosophy. Yeah, surfing was a lifestyle but we also saw it as a sport. At the time, it was a revolutionary idea that you’d be able to make a living out of it. Today, in the context of a $16.5bn surf industry, it seems a very long time ago.
Back when you first went to Hawaii, there was a lot of hostility to you from locals. Could you tell us a bit more about that?
It wasn’t because of where we were from. There was just a perception that by us coming over to Hawaii with a different attitude, talking ourselves up and promoting the sport, that it was disrespectful to Hawaiian surfing and culture. Some people just thought that it wasn’t the way things should be done. That generated a tremendous amount of antagonism. We had a certain group that wanted to kill us. Literally. We had to get shotguns for protection. Ultimately, it was all resolved peacefully. It was a very aggressive and scary time. Thankfully, Eddie Aikau rode in on his white horse and rescued pro surfing before it even began.
Being one of the first profesional surfers, when you look at the surf industry now, is there anything that you think is wrong with it?
I like the way it has evolved but I think more money should have filtered down to the surfers themselves. A lot of surfers deserve a lot more money than they are being paid. Also, a lot of surfing brands need to become more environmentally aware. They’ve got to put more back into the sport than just opening more stores and sponsoring surfers. But there are some brands that are certainly doing the right things, getting across the lifestyle art form that surfing is.
You established the Surfers Code as part of this, could you tell us some more about it?
I wrote it in a book a few years ago. It’s about inspirational philosophy and spirituality and the central concepts that surfing has taught me about life. Now I travel the world giving talks about it. Last week, I gave a talk to 2000 people about the spirituality of surfing. That’s why we started surfing, yeah, we made it into a sport but that’s just one chapter in the life of surfing.
Bustin' Down the Door will open at the BFI Imax on September 4.
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Shaun Tomson interview (text) by is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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