Chapter: 6
The Fortune Seekers
Shaun Tomson's Tunnel Vision
![Shaun Tomson, 1975. Photo: Jeff Divine](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/98295e8687ec9e3e8b56107e3165c3baa4178b4a-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Shaun Tomson, 1975. Photo: Jeff Divine
![Tomson (right) with Wayne Bartholomew. Photo: Dan Merkel](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/959290181e37ad1d53f5156a7e64adf7c0292127-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Tomson (right) with Wayne Bartholomew. Photo: Dan Merkel
![Shaun Tomson, Jeffreys Bay. Photo: Art Brewer](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/68c20bf4f94d1a89da26fcede85064ae94306c26-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Shaun Tomson, Jeffreys Bay. Photo: Art Brewer
![Shaun (left), Michael Tomson, John Whitmore, 1970](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/e768f7e8af68a0331a4704393b3f88f4b3d17cfb-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Shaun (left), Michael Tomson, John Whitmore, 1970
![Shaun Tomson, Burleigh, 1977. Photo: Dan Merkel](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/071d407026c2e2a5addd7ee84d173f7897369f81-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Shaun Tomson, Burleigh, 1977. Photo: Dan Merkel
How good was Shaun Tomson? At 19 he won the Hang Ten American Pro in perfect triple-overhead Sunset Beach, after a finals performance in which he out-pointed Jeff Hakman, Gerry Lopez, Reno Abellira, and Larry Bertlemann—Hawaii's entire starting lineup.
Shaun Tomson was the pro surfer of IPS founder Fred Hemmings’ dreams. To use a marketing phrase that was just beginning to catch on, Tomson was “the complete package”: bright and earnest, polite and dependable, a deadly competitor who was never anything less than a perfect sportsman. All that, plus he had an aristocratic blow-dried handsomeness that earned him modeling assignments from Calvin Klei...
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