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Tuesday's Final Word
An Australian surfing legend has been stretchered off of a beach after suffering an apparent neck injury.
Tom Carroll was pictured clutching at back of his neck while surrounded by lifeguards at Narrabeen Beach, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, about 9am on Wednesday.
The 63-year-old managed to get himself back to shore while carrying his surfboard , and then had his neck examined.
He was treated by paramedics before being placed on a stretcher. carried off the beach and taken to Northern Beaches Hospital.
It is unclear how the injury was sustained by Mr Carroll just a day after celebrating his birthday.
Waves at Narrabeen were about 1.5m high; a fraction of the size of waves the former world champion chased as a big-wave surfer after his retirement.
Having won a string of youth championships, Mr Carroll became the world’s first goofy-footed world champion in 1983 at the age of 22.
He repeated the feat the following year before becoming surfing’s first millionaire in 1988 with a massive sponsorship deal with Quiksilver.
Australian surfing legend Tom Carroll has been taken to hospital with head injuries sustained while surfing at Narrabeen Beach on Wednesday (pictured)
The 63-year-old former world champion was carried off the beach on a stretcher before after being examined by lifeguards and paramedics (pictured)
His illustrious career, which ended in 1993, featured 26 event victories on the world tour, including the illustrious Pipe Masters on three occasions.
He was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Australian Sport Hall of Fame just two years later.
Mr Carroll later opened up about his struggles with stimulants, including methamphetamines, during the early 2000s.
He turned to drugs after facing personal and professional struggles but placed himself into rehab in 2006 after spiralling out of control.
Mr Carroll won back-to-back world championships in 1983-84 before becoming the first millionaire in professional surfing thanks to a massive deal with Quiksilver in 1988
‘It wasn’t me that started to emerge,’ he told the ABC in 2015.
‘It was someone very angry, someone who was toxic, someone who was falling apart emotionally and trying to hold up.
‘I was lucky to get help at the right time and be open to it.’
He warned that even casual use of the drug can severely impact not just the individual but those around them.
‘It doesn’t just tear the family, but the ripple effect goes right out to the whole community and it just destroys us from the inside out,’ Mr Carroll said.
More to come.
