Tom Lowe discusses what he remembers from a wipeout that nearly ended his life. Photos: Screenshot//YouTube
Tom Lowe almost died in Tahiti on June 4. He surfs giant waves for a living so he’s come to expect brutal wipeouts, but his recent wipeout at Teahupo’o came unnervingly close to being his last wipeout anywhere. In this special two-part episode of The Lineup, the WSL’s podcast, Dave Prodan sat across the screen from the British big wave charger before and after that wipeout.
Lowe was found unresponsive in the lagoon in front of Teahupo’o after enduring a three-to-four-wave hold down. When Sage Burke and Vetea David, both on Jet Skis, picked him up, he wasn’t breathing and had no pulse that they could detect. They began CPR immediately and were able to get his pulse back before he was rushed to the hospital. It’s not his first close call at Teahupo’o. In 2023, he broke five ribs and punctured a lung there.
“In the first part of the episode, Tom rejoins us from Tahiti, still in recovery, right from the very place where he describes everything went very quickly from a dream to a nightmare,” the WSL wrote about the interview.”He walks us through the day it happened, at least all the moments he remembers. He recounts the locals’ heroics, catching a few mid-sized waves himself, gaining confidence, and feeling ready for a big one. He speaks candidly about the mental toll of this injury versus the physical, and the emotional weight of what he’s put his loved ones through. With striking vulnerability, he opens up about the recovery, the guilt, the gratitude, and the commitment to keep moving forward.”
Following that, the listener is taken back to an episode that was recorded in the days immediately prior to Lowe’s fateful trip to Tahiti. He was calm and focussed, and spoke about how he was ready to return to The End of the Road after his 2023 wipeout. It’s a powerful listen about the important things in life and just how quickly things can go very, very wrong.
