Global Nomad: My Travels Through Diving, Tragedy, and Rebirth

by Tom Haig

As a youngster growing up in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, suburb, Tom Haig ran wild with the neighborhood's kids. By seventh grade, the thirst for adventure and fearlessness he learned from them led him to springboard diving. "When I was older and experienced, I would feel, deep in my soul, that I was a diver." After graduating from the University of Illinois, Tom flew to Luxembourg on his first international trip. Despite being broke, hungry, and far from a flight home, he and his brother Dan headed to Venice, Italy. "Without any warning, the greatest and most powerful epiphany of our lives unfolded. We looked back at the paths we'd chosen to get to this starving moment, and concluded that not only had we made the right choice to stretch things to the limit, we were committed to continue to make those same kinds of decisions the rest of our lives." And so began The Bridge to Venice Rule. Living by that pact, Tom started work as a performance diver in Missouri. Several times a day, he climbed to a small platform, lit himself on fire, and dove seventy miles per hour into a shallow lake. Soon he was traveling all over the world, including to the 1989 Acapulco Cliff Diving Contest. In France he fell in love with cycling and carried a new passion back to Portland, Oregon, until one Sunday morning in September 1996. He crashed headfirst into a truck and found himself living a very different life from a wheelchair. His recovery--mentally, physically, and emotionally--was excruciating. "I'd been in car accidents, fallen from water towers, and landed flat on my back from 70-foot multiple somersaulting dives. No crying. I used to swear, jump up and down, and tell jokes. Anything but cry. I was going to have to learn how to cry again, or I wasn't going to survive. Then again, I wasn't sure if I wanted to survive."
In Global Nomad, Tom shares his early free-wheeling life with its exciting cities and colorful personalities, and his extraordinary post-accident return to The Bridge to Venice Rule--racing in marathons, traveling solo in some of the world's poorest countries, meeting the Dalai Lama, jamming with jazz great Oscar Klein, holding disability seminars, and starting the International Rehabilitation Forum with his physician brother, Andy. In the process, he bares the unvarnished aftermath and heartbreaking vulnerabilities that follow permanent paralysis, and inspires us all to take risks and live remarkable, generous, lives.

320 pages, Paperback

Published December 21, 2022

Reviews

[Narisafari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Haig's three part autobiography, Global Nomad, tells his story of starting as a ruffian in Glendale, Wisconsin who found his passion in diving. Through years of pushing his early life limits both physically (inventing the Mifflin Street Dive and launching himself upside down off a 2'x2' ladder at 70 feet high) and mentally (discovering through the self-proclaimed Bridge to Venice rules), he was tested once again when his life-altering bicycle accident changed everything forever. Or did it? Rethinking his post-diving life, he went back to school for Communications and discovered a new round of "how can I do that, only this time in a chair?" His zest for travel and audacity led him to subsequently form a non-profit organization with his physician brother, allowing him to teach video production and live among disabled people in low-resource countries.

This does not strike me as a "woe is me" type of book. It seems when given a circumstance, he would tackle it; mostly with abandon and sometimes not, and we hear his voice in all of it. His musings and shake-your-head adventures will make readers want to consider their own Bridge to Venice rules, no matter what they may think they can't do.

With multiple photos and maps, I was sucked into the life of this storyteller, traveler and yes, daredevil, even on four wheels. Sometimes two.

Check out his website, tomhaig.com to see his videos.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so Tom is my brother - clearly colors my review. But I join the dozens of others who have read the book and commented on social media: His life has been an amazing journey that is fun to read about, even the difficult parts. He faced challenges as a world-travelling clown diver, then as a world-travelling, wheelchair-bound disability advocate for the International Rehabilitation Forum - and somehow retains a crazy sense of humor and independence (still hoping he gets his hair cut at some point...!). You'll wonder what his life would have been like if he hadn't gone through this, and you'll begin to appreciate your own life a bit more. https://www.tomhaig.com/

[Sheri Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Tom in college at the University of Illinois. Loved this book! Reading the book I heard his voice in my head and during the funny parts his laughter. For this reason I hope he puts it out in audible format. He’s an entertainer after all!

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this through WSU Press publications. This guy is an extraordinary individual!

4.5