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| About Tom | |
| Biography | |
Tom was born in Watford, London on the 15th May 1980. He lived with his parents in London until he saw the error of his ways only a couple of years later whereupon his family moved back to his father’s homeland of South Wales. It was inevitable that he would be drawn to the sea since his grandfather had been a top lifesaver and his father a successful competitive surfer ‘back in the day’. |
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| Tom began surfing at the age of 11 and moved to the seaside town of Porthcawl at the age of 13. He saved up for his first custom surfboard at the age of 14 after doing a milk round for 27 weeks (=270 pounds!) working from midnight until five AM every Friday night, under the watchful eye of long-time Porthcawl Point local Gez McKay (who has since joined the police “‘cause it gives you even more water time than a milk round”). By the age of 16 Tom had gained a place on the Welsh Junior Surfing team and British Junior Development Squad. |  |
| After finishing school Tom began to travel abroad as much as possible in search of better waves. During a degree in English at the University of Glamorgan, the Student Loans Company funded a large proportion of the travel which went on to form the basis of the Magic Carpet storyline. |  |
| He still had to get the odd job though and has done just about everything, including such ‘trades’ as golf caddy, caravan cleaner, bailiff, suit salesman, dishwasher, ice-cream bike operative, barman, line-feeder at a Sony factory, private investigator, canine dental machine repairman and obviously surf shop assistant. |  |
| His interests away from surfing include making so-called terminally ill cars last an extra 23,000 miles (and still counting, thank you Nissan!), watching the Welsh Football Team and Arsenal (be it at a dodgy foreign bar, in the stands of the Millennium Stadium or at Highbury/the Emirates Stadium), longboard-skateboarding, poker, basketball, reading and writing and scheming for other ways to fund more surf travel. |  |
Tom’s favourite authors include: Salman Rushdie Jack Kerouac Gabriel Garcia-Marquez Jonathan Raban C.S. Lewis George Orwell Thomas Pynchon His favourite book of all time is Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The white whale has plenty in common with the perfect wave, unfortunately! |
His surfing heroes are: 7x world Champion Kelly Slater (soon to be 8x, we hope!) Ross Williams Rob Machado Taylor Knox He also greatly admires Taj Burrow, Dane Reynolds, Occy and Luke Egan, and outside of surfing Michael Jordan, Arsene Wenger and Thierry Henry. Tom’s friends would describe him as a natural storyteller, always ready to spin a yarn. Magic Carpet includes many of Tom’s tales full of humour, adventure, insight and sticky situations. He also assures us that there is plenty more to come… |
Tom Loves…
SURFING! The Simpsons Punk Rock |
But he Hates… The Friends Reunited web site Larger louts and boy-racers Wasabi Sauce and coffee-flavoured sweets The guy from Busted’s new band |
Wales and France 
Here's a couple of shots of Tom surfing in his favourite part of the world, Southern France (thanks to top Euro lensman Cedric Barros):
©Tom Anderson 2007