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Tom Carroll made his name surfing monster waves off Hawaii in the 1980s, but it was a much smaller swell closer to home that upended the former world champion and left him strapped to a spinal board on North Narrabeen beach.
Carroll injured his head and neck after he slipped while taking off on a one-metre wave about 10am on Wednesday, tumbling head-first into his board.
“I think it was having sunscreen on my hands, to be honest. I slipped off the rail and fell on the board,” he told this masthead.
“I scorpioned myself … it was just the way I fell. I felt the strong impact and it went through my neck and sent off electrical charges right through the outside of my body.
“It all happened so quick, but I do remember everything – the crunch, and the feeling, and the loud sound within my head, and the fact this sort of shocked me, and I had to go in.
“It’s kind of embarrassing really. It was a wave of very little consequence, other than the fact I kooked it.”
Surfing legend Tom Carroll has been hospitalised with a head injury.Credit: Matrix
Carroll, a two-time world champion and three-time Pipe Masters winner, was in the water a day after celebrating his 63rd birthday.
He said his neck was immediately sore after the fall and when he went ashore, the lifeguards treated it as a spinal injury and called an ambulance.