1. Shaun Tomson was born on 21 August 1955 and is a South African and American professional surfer and former world champion, environmentalist, actor, author, and businessman.
23 Facts About Shaun Tomson
1. 2.
Shaun Tomson has been listed among the top 10 surfers of the century, and was the 1977 World Surfing Champion.
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Shaun Tomson's father Ernie Tomchinsky, was born to Jewish parents, with Shaun's grandfather, Samuel Tomchinsky fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire Latvia in the early 1900s.
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Shaun Tomson had his Bar Mitzvah at his familial shul, Temple David, a Reform congregation.
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Shaun Tomson was educating in Durban, first attending Clifton Preparatory and then completing his high school education and matric at Carmel College, a Jewish High School.
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Shaun Tomson later enrolled at University of Natal, where he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Business Finance.
7.
Shaun Tomson graduated from Northeastern University with a Master of Science in Leadership with a focus on social change.
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Shaun Tomson learned to surf in the beachbreaks in and around Durban under the watchful eye of his father Ernie, and alongside older cousin Michael Tomson and brother Paul Tomson.
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Shaun Tomson went on to dominate amateur surfing competition in South Africa and began venturing over to Hawaii in the late 1960s, courtesy of a bar mitzvah present from his father.
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Shaun Tomson won 19 major professional surf events, has been listed as one of the 25 most influential surfers of the century and as one of the 10 greatest surfers of all time.
11.
In 1975, Shaun Tomson was an integral part of the "Free Ride" generation.
12.
Shaun Tomson won the highly coveted International Professional Surfers World Championship in 1977.
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In 2014 Shaun Tomson was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
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Shaun Tomson has been inducted into the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, the South African Sports Hall of Fame, and received the SIMA Environmentalist of the Year Award and the Surfrider Lifetime Achievement Award.
15.
Shaun Tomson founded, managed, and sold two multi-million market-leading clothing brands, with the Surf focused Instinct in the 1980s, and Solitude in the 1990s.
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Shaun Tomson is currently an inspirational speaker for some of the world's largest companies and talks about the influence of positive values on success in life and business based on his own experiences of overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges, in and out of the surf.
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Shaun Tomson has spoken internationally and inspired and touched the hearts of audiences as large as 3,000 people, has shared the stage with well-known personalities, including Sir Richard Branson and Malcolm Gladwell, and inspired corporations such as General Motors, Cisco, Price Waterhouse, Toys R Us, Sasol, Disney, Google, Primedia, MTN and Adcock Ingram.
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Shaun Tomson was joined by his mother Marie, sister Tracy and brother, Paul.
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Shaun Tomson is a board member and ambassador for Surfrider Foundation, the world's largest environmental group dedicated to protecting the world's oceans, waves, and beaches.
20.
Shaun Tomson co-founded and remains affiliated with the environmentally active celebrity surfer organization Project Save Our Surf.
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Shaun Tomson has appeared in many films, including Free Ride, Fantasea, Many Classic Moments, and In God's Hands.
22.
Shaun Tomson co-produced an award-winning full-length feature film about the benchmark mid-1970s surfing era called Bustin' Down the Door, which premiered in early 2008.
23.
Shaun Tomson wrote and narrated a documentary about Jeffreys Bay called A Pure Line.