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Unprecedented. Photo: Encyclopedia of Surfing
Date: December, 1991
Place: Banzai Pipeline, North Shore, Hawaii
The Moment: On his way to his third Pipeline Masters victory, Tom Carroll makes one of the most memorable top-turns on a steep face of a 12-foot wave, furthering his status as one of the sport’s best-ever tube riders.
“I’ve always thought that’s where you see the true T.C. — alone in that utterly silent moment of freefall down the face of the wave, the impossibly accurate first turn, the perfect stillness and control in the midst of chaos.” – Nick Carroll
The goofy-footed Australian was wearing a black helmet and riding a bright pink board, so needless to say, he was already the center of attention. But an aggressive top-turn would make Tom Carroll’s powerful performance at the 1991 Pipeline Masters a thing of surf lore.
“The snap heard around the world” came in the semifinals, when Carroll – who was widely recognized as one of the strongest tube riders on the planet — steered up and into the steep face of 12-foot Pipeline wave for an almost impossibly aggressive off-the-top that had everyone in awe. The tour veteran’s line, not to mention overall command of the intimidating reef break, required a boundary-breaking level of commitment. That wasn’t the way the wave was supposed to be ridden. Pipeline was meant for barrels, and deep barrels. But carving out a top turn, with a snap, no less? That wasn’t supposed to happen. But Carroll didn’t care. And he continued not caring in the later rounds: Carroll would go on to surf against Derek Ho in the finals, cutting off the Hawaiian legend (who had both position and priority) with a fearless drop into an enormous barrel — the way it was supposed to be ridden — that he would stall under, get shacked, and be blown out into a perfect 10 and his third Pipeline Masters win and only Triple Crown.
Even though Carroll’s career was plagued with injuries as well as drug abuse, the sturdy 5’6” charger always found his way through, even overcoming a debilitating meth addiction that had chased him from his professional days all the way to 2006, when his brother, fatherhood, and a more complete life finally got through to him. Now nine years sober, he has turned his life around. Now that he’s able to truly enjoy a memorable career, one that saw him finish his world tour reign with 26 victories, nine top five finishes (with two world titles and additional ranking highs of second in 1986, and third in 1985, 1988, and 1991), his most definitive competitive moment surely came at the wave he conquered during an era in which he had no equal.
