Tom Carroll Admits Meth Addiction

Tom Carroll is a living legend. A former world champion who redefined surfing and even today chases the biggest waves on the planet.

But what few of his fans realise, it’s not massive surf that threatens to wipeout Tom Carroll, rather a long term, life threatening battle with drugs.

Now, Tom is coming clean.

It’s a story of triumph, heartbreak and addiction.

On 60 Minutes, Tom Carroll talks openly about the drug that nearly cost him his life, his ongoing battle to stay clean and the shocking family secret that would ironically help save him.

”It was killing me from the inside out,” Carroll tells reporter Liz Hayes of the habit, which he reveals became daily. ”I was a desperate addict and I didn’t stop there. I mean, there’s a powerful life force inside me that was trying to kill me. I felt this insidious need to take more of it.

”I was at a point when I had to use every day to be functional.”

Carroll left his family home as a 16-year-old to head to Hawaii for the international circuit and says he tried drugs as a shy teenager in an attempt to be more social. He says he first tried cocaine at the age of 18.

”I was one of those kids that was shy and I needed something to connect. The first time I actually took something in a social situation I realised that I could loosen up and connect.” But after years of abuse between 2002 and 2006 his personality completely changed.

”I was completely manic and my response to everything was fearful, and I was crazy,” he says.

”I was getting to that point where I was running around like a chook with its head cut off, like you do on amphetamines in general.”

In 2007, The Sun-Herald reported Carroll had checked in to a Curl Curl drug and alcohol treatment facility, South Pacific Private hospital, but he declined to comment at the time.

He was the first surfing millionaire when he signed to Quiksilver and was voted in at No.7 on a Surfer magazine list of the greatest surfers of all time. He won two world surfing titles (1983 and 1984) and three Pipe Masters (1987, 1990 and 1991) in Hawaii.

Earlier this year he and his former wife Lisa sold their Newport home for $2.2 million.

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Tom Carroll’s long- awaited autobiography TC, co-authored with his brother Nick, will be published November 1, 2013.

You can find a copy at all good book shops or visit www.randomhouse.com.au.

 Watch The Full Story Here  –  Tom Carroll 60 Minutes Interview ‘Wipeout’.

EXTENDED INTERVIEW:
Tom Carroll talks about mastering Pipeline and his most embarrassing injury.

Story Via 60 Minutes..