‘I’ve just got a few stitches’: Surfing legend Tom Carroll suffers head injury

Surfing legend Tom Carroll says he is “A-OK” after suffering a head injury requiring a few stitches while surfing at North Narrabeen Beach.

Carroll was struck by his board about 10am on Wednesday and suffered a large gash to his head. He was strapped to a spinal board and treated by paramedics on the beach, before being taken to Northern Beaches Hospital.

“It’s OK, I’ve just got a few stitches in the head and a very sore neck, so some spinal, but I was cleared by the docs, and [I’m] A-OK,” Carroll said in an Instagram post on Wednesday afternoon, after he was discharged.

Carroll, a two-time world champion surfer and three-time Pipe Masters winner, was in the water a day after celebrating his 63rd birthday.

He has advocated the use of helmets while surfing to prevent head injuries, and wore a helmet when he won the Pipe Masters competition in 1987, after seeing a fellow surfer suffer a brain injury at Hawaii.

He told the ABC last year that helmets had saved his life at least twice in the surf, once in Hawaii and another time in Tahiti.

Carroll joined the world surfing tour in 1979 before becoming the first goofy-footed world champion in 1983. He was crowned the world’s best surfer again in 1984.

In 1988, Carroll signed a $1 million contract with surfing brand Quiksilver. The five-year deal was the biggest sponsor deal in surfing history at the time.

Carroll, from Newport on Sydney’s northern beaches, won the prestigious Pipe Masters three times – in 1987, 1990 and 1991.

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