There is a very good reason why Tom Curren is a living legend. It’s far more than his three world titles—although those certainly are part of the mystique—but, as Chris Mauro wrote, “it was Curren’s humility, his shunning of the hype, and of course his ungodly natural talent that had the most influence.”
Even after all these years, Curren has retained a solid hold on the surfing public’s short attention span. His surfing speaks volumes, but it doesn’t shout. It is quietly powerful; an obvious understanding of an ever-changing environment on a level that almost no one else will ever get to.
He’s been in the public eye for his entire adult life, signing a record-breaking contract with Rip Curl and Ocean Pacific at the age of 17. Just a few years later, Curren, despite his aversion to the spotlight, found himself at the top of the heap when it came to influencers.
“By mid-decade, the handsome and reclusive teenager was an international surfing phenomenon,” wrote Matt Warshaw on the Encylopedia of Surfing. “Apart from his contest record, Curren developed an original wave-riding style—influenced in part by 1978 world champion Wayne Bartholomew—that was both functional and poetic. Using Al Merrick-shaped tri-fin surfboards, and with a style born in part from endless hours spent in the long perfect waves at Rincon, Curren planted his front foot at a 90-degree angle upon standing up, tucked his back knee in, and rarely moved his feet as he rode. The lines he drew across the wave face were alternately sinuous and explosive, each turn blending perfectly into the next. Although relatively slender at 5′ 8”, 150 pounds, Curren was able to synchronize his limbs, head, and torso so as to leverage maneuvers with deceptive power. He invented the “double-pump” bottom turn by adding a quick booster second turn while climbing toward the lip, resulting in greater torque and rotation during the following off-the-top maneuver. Curren’s style became the pattern for virtually every hot young surfer in the world during the 1980s and early ’90s.”
Above, you can see that Curren’s still got it, and he’s got it in spades.
