dude catch a wave.

this is my sport's hero.
i think this is one of the best surfers in the world.
his name is Tom Curren.

a short biography took in a web page:

Once or twice in every generation a surfer comes along with such natural talent and consummate skill that new performance benchmarks are set for the entire sport. When Tom Curren burst onto the scene in 1980 by winning the juniors division of the World Amateur Surfing Championships, it was already obvious that he was the one who'd set a new standard for the rest of the decade.

With a smooth and powerful style and a fresh new approach to the waves that combined big moves with eloquent tube riding, Curren appeared destined to redefine high performance surfing. Plus Curren had a natural affinity for the ocean that seemed to place him always in the perfect position at exactly the right time. Even in his mid-teens, Tom Curren's surfing suggested experience that was impossible in one so young.

By the time he won his first professional World Title in1985, still only 19 years old, Tom Curren entered the record books—the first ever American to take the world crown since the pro tour began back in 1976. He went on to win two more World Titles, the last in 1990 a nearly miraculous comeback that had him winning the crown as an unseeded competitor.

Today, Tom Curren is back home in Santa Barbara and making another improbable comeback in his late 30s. But for all his illustrious contest appearances—he has still won more world tour events than any other surfer—and for all the magazine articles and photos and television interviews, Curren remains an enigma, a mystery man, a soul surfer, incredibly famous but not at all well known.

It is known however that Tom Curren, son of respected big wave pioneer Pat Curren, is an amazing surfer, a being born of the sea and its waves, as much of a mystery as the ocean itself — and a name that will be recorded forever in surfing's rich and colorful history.