Defining Moments with Tom Lowe
"It’s a fresh October morning in Ericeira and Cornishman Tom Lowe is standing on a windy clifftop whirring with nervous energy. Just below, a solid autumn swell is detonating noisily on the slab known as Cave. While a few clicks south, several dozen surfers are already jostling in the dawn glow, here, Tom will be paddling out alone."
"Despite almost two decades of chasing the world’s heaviest waves, Cave still presents him with a nasty proposition. Riding slabs on your backhand is always dicey. If you end up too high on the face, you’re getting pitched forward headfirst into the flats. But at Cave, the flats are just a shelf of rock, barely submerged at the best of times and frequently dry as the tide drains out. “If I do this,” Tom tells me solemnly, waving his hand in the air, “call the ambulance.”
By the time I finish contemplating how I might explain to a Portuguese paramedic that their services are required several kilometres down a heavily potholed track to treat a man who’s plunged head-first into a rock, Tom is already halfway down the goat track."
"When we catch up the following week, that morning’s ruler-edged swell is already a distant memory, replaced by stormy seas and howling onshores. It’s mid-morning, but Tom has already been up for hours; cycling through the driving rain in his 6mm on his way to practise breath holds in the local pool.
“It’s definitely not living the dream,” he says, “you know, like doing rock runs at Waimea in your boardies and getting a sun tan. But, I’m doing it to feel uncomfortable.”
A desire to embrace discomfort is the essence of a fruitful career in freezing waves of consequence and something Tom has had more practice at than most. It all began for him in the winter of 2007, when he set off for Ireland on a whim, joining forces with local lad Fergal Smith and a crew of bodyboarders, to pioneer some of the Atlantic’s heaviest waves.
It was an iconic era, immortalised by photographer Mickey Smith, that launched Tom’s career. However, the bits in between the famous photos proved equally formative."
