Surfer's Code

by Shaun Tomson

This 20th anniversary edition of Surfer's Code by world champion surfer Shaun Tomson features a new introduction and revised & updated material, sharing stories and insights he's gathered from decades of surfing--with lessons from the world's beaches that translate powerfully to everyday life and extraordinary challenges.

In Surfer's Code, world champion surfer Shaun Tomson shares the life lessons he's gathered from decades of surfing--from his boyhood adventures in South Africa to the world tour in the late 1970s to the business world today. For Tomson, surfing is a hobby, a sport, a religion, an obsession, and more--it is a way of life. Tomson's life lessons have guided his career to the top of both professional competition and the world of business. These lessons are born of the collective wisdom of the surf community and are a powerful source of inspiration in the face of extraordinary challenges of everyday

1. I will never turn my back on the ocean

2. I will paddle around the impact zone

3. I will take the drop with commitment

4. I will never fight a rip tide

5. I will paddle back out

6. I will watch out for other surfers

7. There will always be another wave

8. I will always ride into shore

9. I will pass along my stoke

10. I will catch a wave every day

11. All surfers are joined by one ocean

12. I will honor the sport of kings

Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 28, 2026

About the author

Shaun Tomson was the 1977 World Champion on the International World Surfing Tour. A native of South Africa, he spent fourteen years on the Tour (1976-1989), nine of which in the top six. With twelve contest wins, including a record setting six year winning streak in the prestigious Gunston 500 in Durban, South Africa, he was considered one of the world's finest surfers.

He has been featured in more than forty surf videos, was profiled in an Outdoor Life Network (OLN) documentary series in 1998, and starred as a surf journalist in the major motion picture from TriStar/Sony Pictures 'In Gods Hands' in 1998.

Additional honors include nine appearances on the covers of Surfer and Surfing magazines, as well as being an inductee to the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame. He has most recently been listed as one of the 25 most influential surfers of the century by Surfer magazine(1999) and as one of the 16 greatest surfers of all time by Surfing magazine in 2004.

He is currently Chairman of the Advisory Board for The Surfrider Foundation and owns the apparel company Solitude in Santa Barbara, California. He lives with his wife, Carla, in Montecito, California and continues to travel the world, reaching out to surfers of all generations, with his innovative surfing and world renowned tube-riding style.