Iconic news broadcaster shamed after running three-year-old Tom Carroll head injury story!

"Four days ago," says Tom Carroll, "my fin collected me in the head."

A few days back, an item appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s news site, repurposing an Instagram story where the two-time world champ Tom Carroll recounts a terrible head injury at Off the Wall.

“So there’s my nicely broken, beautiful, six-five Rawson TC Impala…a beautiful quad fin that I broke at off the wall about four days ago during a wipeout, just pulling in. You know, pretty standard, pull in, jump forward, the board broke, the tail followed me in the barrel and the fin collected me…”

Here Thomas, who will turn sixty-two in November, peels off his helmet, which he wasn’t wearing in the wipeout to reveal a skull half peeled open with stitches from forehead to crown. 

“…just there! It would’ve been covered had I been wearing this puppy. This is a soft serve helmet which would’ve done the job. Even though it’s kind of annoying to put something on your head when you surf it’s not a bad idea. It would’ve saved me!”

Thomas, vividly described as “small and well-muscled with huge energy-storing thighs” and “a power surfer with uncommon finesse” then moves into some criticism of the helmet, some believing it might’ve made things worse. 

“See, the edge of this, there’s a little impression on the edge of the cut. Some may say that it could’ve lifted the edge of this up and possibly forced the board back into my eye. I’ve talked to some people about this…and…deliberated, as we do as humans, we like going over things, right, fact is, I’ve still got an eye, thankfully, and I’m wearing this more often!” 

I used to be a surfer once, and during my belle epoch years even travelled every year to the North Shore, and so a little alarm bell chimed in my head when I saw the piece. 

September? A little early to be getting decapitated at Off the Wall, no? And when was the last time Tom hit the North Shore so early? 

Turns out ol Tom got sliced in February 2020, shortly before a terrible pandemic shook the world off its rocker.

More poetry on Tom from you know who,

“In waves from four to 20 feet Carroll was a marvel: planting his back foot squarely over the tail section of his board and assuming a fencer’s stance, he adapted perfectly to the given surf break, drawing long and sinewy lines across the bottom-heavy rollers at Sunset, or hooking fiercely under the curl at Bells Beach, or flying arrowlike through the tube at Pipeline.”