Our original surfing dude

South African surfing legend, Shaun Tomson (now 52), won the Gunston 500 (now known as the Mr Price Pro) six times in the 1970s. It is the longest running pro surf event in the world, and Shaun's father was one of the founders in 1969. In 1977 Shaun won the world surfing championship. He got his first surf board at the age of 10 and was soon a regular at Bay of Plenty, along with his cousin Michael. Shaun now has a film out, Bustin’ Down the Door, which is being released by Nu-Metro in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban on July 4. He spent a year working on it. The title comes from Wayne (Rabbit) Bartholomew ­who used it in a surfing article he wrote in 1976. It is the story of the six surfers from South Africa and Australia who arrived in Hawaii in 1975 and started a surfing revolution. The film is narrated by the actor Edward Norton, himself a surfer. The film was one of the most popular at the recent Santa Barbara Film Festival. A coffee-table book about the film will be released in December. Shaun has also written an inspirational book called Surfer’s Code: 12 Simple Lessons For Riding Through Life. He plans on making more films. He lives in Monte Cito, California, with his wife Carla. They moved there in 1995 and own a clothing business. After retiring from pro surfing, Shaun and Carla concentrated on their clothing label Solitude. They've recently bought back the Instinct label, which they oroiginally started in the 1980s. Michel started the Gotcha label. Two years ago Shaun's son died in an accident in South Africa.