Tom Myers Takes Out Men's Ride of the Year in 2024/25 Big Wave Challenge
Freshwater Boardriders Club president Tom Myers has won the Men's Ride of the Year in the 2025 Big Wave Challenge.
The awards ceremony were held at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach, California on September 13, 2025 US time, with Bill Sharp as MC. Bill is co-producer of HBO’s 100-Foot Wave, which collected two Emmy’s last week, one for Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program and another for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Tom Myers accepting his award from Bill Sharp
“I work two jobs,” Tom laughed as he accepted the award. “Not really the time to be chasing swells. So for a purple blob to pop up, to call in sick to work and just go surfing — for that to happen like this is just absolutely incredible. Thank you so much to Bill Sharp and all you legends for putting this evening on and keeping the lights on in big wave surfing.”
Tom's two jobs, as a carpenter and as a firefighter, won Men’s Ride Of The Year at the 2025 Big Wave Challenge for the first of the two massive waves he caught at the Queenscliff bombie, which also secured him deals Florence Marine X, Pyzel and Veia, all associated with BIG waves.
Tom took out the Manly's Aloha Surf Shop Wave of the Winter in the last week of August. After the presentation, in an interview with Sydney Surf Daily's Steve Harrison, Harro asked ''where does it start for Tommy Myers to be a big wave legend, is there one session you can pin it on?''
Tom said, ''just getting pumped at Deadies over and over and realising it's not as bad as you think it is and you can do this. You just get flogged so many times that your mind tells you it's not as bad as you think it is and you realise you can do it.''
The video, shot by Essa Staszewska, went viral in April, records him conquering a 5m wave on Good Friday this year, in one of the biggest swells to ever hit Manly's Queenscliff at Deadman's.
Deadman's is known for powerful, hollow, heavy waves. It only breaks on large swells, sometimes only a few times a year, and is considered one of Sydney's gnarliest and most unforgiving waves, requiring highly experienced and committed surfers.
The 33-year-old dad of two, with another on the way, said in a recent Stab magazine piece, “It’s nice hearing nice words about you, but I’m not about to start a YouTube channel,”
“I love my family, and I love surfing, and I just want to keep my head down. Though if I could get a sticker on the nose of my board that would help me chase a few more big swells, well, I wouldn’t knock it back, would I?”
Tom had had a contract with Quiksilver when younger but said, although he loves big waves, he couldn't see a way to make a living out of it.
“There were no Nic von Rupps, Nathan Florences, or Chumbos buying sick pads with big contracts. Eventually, I gave up on that dream, trained as a carpenter, joined the Fire Brigade, bought a house, and just focused on family, work, and the waves at home. Ten years on, it’s come full circle.”
At the Saturday evening awards presentation, Tom first sent his love to his two youngsters and wife Jess (they will soon have 3 under 5 years of age) then said he can't believe the names his is now etched into history alongside and he is 'so honoured to be a part of this.
He also thanked his new sponsors, and hoped they'd allow him to see more of the people he was among that night, surfing big waves around the planet.
Tom closed in saying, ''Thank you to all my family and all my friends and everyone watching back home in Sydney. The outpouring of support has just been amazing, so thank you very much.''
Other winner’s at the awards included 23-year-old Slebir who won the Biggest Wave honour for the wave at Mavericks which has been touted as possibly the biggest to ever be ridden.
A number of waves at Jaws (Maui) took top honours including Wilem Banks’ Biggest Paddle award, Ty Simpson-Kane’s Wipeout of the Year and Michaela Fregonese’s Ride of the Year and Biggest Wave honours.
Big wave stalwarts Lucas ‘Chumbo’ Chianca and Justine Dupont were honoured with Surfer of the Year Awards.
Full list below.
But first - that wave!