Tom Lowe

More information on Tom Lowe

Speciality

Surfing

Sponsors

Relentless Energy Drink, Rip Curl, Vans, Skull Candy

Starting out

Well it’s a combination of things I guess, like where I live has a big part to play in being a surfer. Cornwall is surrounded by beaches, so coming from there it's hard not to love the sea. But it's more than that. It's not just going surfing to be a surfer, or cool dude, as some people may think. It’s getting away from it all, the real world, or whatever, I personally think surfing makes me more in touch with reality than anything else, I feel like an alien if I don't surf to be honest. Seriously, I don't know how I would have turned out if I wasn't in the water all the time. You are so in touch with nature, it’s as real as you get. A nine to five job was never me, will never be me. I will get up at dark, warm up, stretch, at four in the morning if the surf's good, then surf for eight hours. It doesn't feel like a job though, so I couldn't be happier.

The road to success

Check out our movie - Powers Of Three - that’s pretty much it. I met friend and photographer Mickey Smith, and Fergal Smith. We were a force that pushed each other in surfing further than we ever imagined. This was all documented by Mickey, so people took notice, sponsors took notice, and the rest is history.

I mean I have worked up to the point of meeting those guys my whole life, I’m not young, 26 now, so I was 22 when I met them. I surfed all around the world in some heavy waves - Canaries, Hawaii, Mexico, Indo, Australia. I felt the need always to get out of my comfort zone in whatever I was doing, surfing just felt natural. I am still cruising with Fergal and Mickey today, and we continue to find new things to do - new waves, new board designs...so who knows what’s going to happen in the future.

Career highlight to date

Being the first European to be on the cover of Surfers Journal (the most respected magazine in surfing) so both myself and Mickey were over the moon.

Quote that inspires me

'Eat hearty, for tonight we dine in Hell', Leonidas in the film 300. He amps me up to go crazy! Me and my mates quote him on a regular basis.

On a more serious level, Mickey’s new film Dark Side Of The Lens is awesome and some of the real shit he says in it such as, 'although I may only scrape a living, it's a living worth scraping', that's inspiring.

Motto I live by

I don't know if I have one. I’ve been injured so many times, so the classic saying, 'what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger' seems to keep popping up!

If I wasn't...

I can’t keep still for more than five minutes, so if I didn’t make it at cricket or tennis I'd try and be a personal trainer. I love amping people up to push their limits, and I’d bet you get a great positive buzz from the clients.