Today's guest has been a professional surfer for longer than anyone that I've ever interviewed on Surf Splendor.

Tom Carroll received a surfboard for Christmas from his mother at the

age of eight, and very sadly, just a few short months later, she would actually pass away from

pancreatic cancer. But Tom discovered surfing through that gift, and also with it, a compulsion to be

in the ocean. He won his first Australian National Junior's title

and his pro-junior title in 1977, a time where there really was no financial security

associated with being a professional surfer. He won his first world title in 1983 and then his

second in 1984. He also won the Surfer Poll Awards that year. And although

world championships are highly regarded, he might best be known for his blistering performances

at Pipeline, where in 1991 he did a, quote, snap heard round the world that is still being

regarded as the single best turn ever done at Pipeline. His decade-long championship

tour tenure was plagued by injuries, including a surfboard-inflicted stomach rupture, a concussion,

two-knee injuries requiring major surgeries, and a perforated rectum suffered after being speared

by the nose of his surfboard. In 1988, he became the first

million dollar surfer, signing a five-year contract with Quicksilver at a million dollars per year.

Carol retired from the world tour at the end of the 1993 season, again at a time where there

wasn't really a known path to have a professional surf career

without competing, but he developed a new phase of his surfing and career and set out to

surf the largest waves around Australia with tow partner Ross Clark Jones.

Those exploits were turned into a documentary film called Storm Surfers.

In 2013, Tom released a tell-all autobiography written with his brother, Nick

Carroll, wherein Tom revealed that he had been a habitual drug user through his adult life,

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