Tom Myers: Four Months, Two Lifetimes

Tom Myers is a 33-year old fireman and part-time chippy from Freshwater on Sydney's Northern Beaches. He's also a family man; Tom's got two kids with a third on the way. 

Yet most people will have heard Tom's name following the incredible wave he caught at Queenscliff Bombora back in April. It was a wave that had surfers the world over singing high praise. A wave that most surfers will never catch. A lifetime wave.

On Tuesday morning, it happened all over again. Saying 'lightning struck twice' makes it sound like luck. Perhaps there's an element of that, but there's also an element of engineering. It wasn't luck that Tom was in the spot when the wave went under the pack, or that he had the equipment and fitness to ride it.

Swellnet chatted to Tom a day after the latest lifetime wave, adrenalin still coursing through his veins.

Swellnet: Back in Easter you caught what was then considered a lifetime wave at the bommie.
Tom Myers: Yeah, it really felt like that.

Yet just four months later, here we are again. Let's talk about this one. How did yesterday’s session stack up against the Good Friday swell?
Yesterday was way better. There were so many more waves, they were heaps bigger, and there was more energy. You could just feel it as soon as you paddled out.

That wave I got on Good Friday was just a unicorn. Like a gift from God. It came out of nowhere. But yesterday had consistent 12 foot sets with the odd 15-footer thrown in.

Conservative estimate..?
There are places around the world where you'd call it a lot bigger. There's one photo of Benny Serrano's board going over the lip, he was on a 10'6", and the thing is like a toothpick.

To give some scale, we're calling it 12 to 15 foot, but I think a lot of places you'd be saying, "That's a lot bigger than that."

This morning I had to look sideways at people in the carpark calling wave size six to eight foot, when it was clearly much bigger. Sometimes I dont know what scale they’re using.
100%. You look at some of the photos from, say, Mavericks, and they're calling the waves 40 foot or 50 foot. It's obviously bigger than what we're surfing, I'll give them that, but it's not that much bigger. 

Not five times bigger.
Sometimes you don't even realise how big it is. You ride a wave and casually think, "Oh yeah, that was pretty big." But then you're paddling back out and you see your mate on a wave and go, "Holy shit that’s big. Am I doing that too?" 

Ha ha…you are.
The perspective is so different. But anyway, yesterday was just the best day I've ever had out there, I think.

Tom's latest wave at the bommie (Drone footage by Patrick de Teliga)

I imagine the consistency came from the proximity of the low to the coast. The Good Friday swell formed very close to New Zealand, while this one was mid-Tasman. This one also had a few degrees of north in it. Do you think that might’ve helped it out?
It was interesting because what it seemed to do was make it wrap into one big horseshoe bowl. So we're taking off right out near the shark buoy but the best ones were wrapping back into a big bowl, whereas that east swell day that we had on Good Friday, it was actually like split peaks.

You can see that wave, which I thought of as a combination wave - there was a south element and an east element. 

It's hard to say which one's better, but both those waves I got were almost identical in the fact that I wasn't sitting the deepest on the peak. I scratched wide and chased it down. 

Yeah, that’s obvious in the latest drone footage. You chased it, no-one else did. Did you see something that no-one else saw?
Literally a minute or two before the wave, I was talking to my friend, James Woods, real quietly 'cos I didn’t want the whole lineup to hear me. But I said, "Mate, there's a couple of nuggets going just past the boys." 

Like anywhere, there's a bit of a pecking order and guys like to sit in the deepest and hold the inside. But I said, "Just fucking watch these sneakers. Come with me. Just come with me." 

Anyway, we paddled down there, went over the next wave, and there it was.

The only surfer that was possibly near me was Sam Jones. Thankfully, he saw that he was just a tad too deep and gave me the go ahead. I think I was yelling. I was making sure that everyone down the line knew I was going.

You knew it was going to barrel?
I thought so, yeah.

It looked to me that your board was a little bit smaller than the Easter Friday session, or were you riding the same board?
I had the same size board, man.

Maybe just the wave making it look smaller.
Yeah. I've only got the one, so I might have to put that one on ice. Maybe hang it on the wall. I don't know.

It's working well for you.
It's been too good to me. I don't know what to do with it, actually. It's shaped by Nick Blair. So just a local shaper and I'm just trying to scrounge together a few coins to hopefully buy another one soon.

Dimensions..?
Ah, it's 8'6” long… and the rest of the dimensions I couldn't even tell you, I'm sorry.

Tom with his work tools. For those who are curious the dimensions are 8'6 x 20 1/4 x 2 7/8 x 49.6 litres. 

Well if you were to get another one, what would you do? Would you go longer?
I'd get exactly the same board! It seems to be working. If it's not broke, don't fix it. That shape has been good to me. 

It’s hard to tell from the footage, but were you wearing a vest?
Mate, I had two vests! I had a springy impact suit and I had a vest impact doubled up.

No inflation?
Just the impact. Not the pull cord one. There's not many places in the world where people are getting huge tubes with no jet ski there to save you, first of all, and no pull cord vests either. The scene around here is pretty wild. There's no plan B. If something goes wrong, the outcome might not be too good. Fortunately everyone sort of looks out for each other.

Who else got good waves out there yesterday?
The standouts were Sam Jones, as usual. Every swell he's just on it...man, he can do no wrong. Also Chris Lougher, who got that crazy wave at Deadman's from a few years ago. You'd remember that one…?

I do.
Plus Benny Serrano and Billy Langley. 

Billy Langley…wooo…[exasperated]...he doesn't have any Instagram, fully flies under the radar, but he's one of the coolest guys to surf with. He's the apex predator. There's no-one I respect out there more than him.

How did they respond when they saw your wave? 
They seemed genuinely happy. I don't know if it's starting to piss people off [laughs]. I'm just trying to keep my head down so they don’t think ‘fuck, not this guy again.’

You know, everyone's competitive, we all want to get the wave of the day, there's no denying that, but you got to be a little bit stoked for your mates. They all seemed pretty happy for me. I'm almost hoping it's them next time.

Almost…
I don't think I can ever get another one. It’d feel wrong. 

Between the bommie and Deadies, even Winki on the right swell, Manly’s undergoing a bit of a heavy water resurgence.
Mate, it seems crazy, but I guess this has always been happening. As you know, the guys like Kai Otton, Dayyan Neve, Vic Levett, they've been surfing these waves for thirty years or more, but with social media these things are now getting documented so it feels like it’s got momentum

But really, it's always been there. I guess now you’d say there’s more people so the push is growing.

And it’s not just shallow slabs, there’s also a real appreciation for deep water bommies and the skillset required to surf them.
Totally. It’s unreal what these guys can do…the surfers I just mentioned. I'd love to see more support for guys like Chris Lougher and Sam Jones. I see some guys from overseas who get paid to surf and they’re living the life, yet in my heart I know that these guys surf heavy waves as good as anyone.

Can someone please just give these guys wetties or boards or a couple of trips a year?

Let's leave it on that note. Congrats Tom.
Thanks, mate.