World Champ Tom Carroll Rushed to Hospital With Head Injury

Australian surf champion Tom Carroll was rushed to the hospital after suffering a head injury on a small wave at North Narrabeen, a suburb north of Sydney. Lifeguards and paramedics carried him on a stretcher after they saw him walking awkwardly out of the water with a wound on the head. The two-time world champ suffered the injury on Wednesday morning at North Narrabeen Surf Lifesaving Club when paramedics were called to treat him just after 9am. He was taken to Northern Beaches Hospital for further treatment.

"It's all a bit of a blur but I must have hit something," Carroll told The Daily Telegraph right after the accident. "The impact itself scorpioned me over my board, which created a really bad electrical sound, which really concerned me.”

The incident is full of ironies. For one, he had celebrated his 63rd birthday just the day before. For another, Tom is best known for fearless radical surfing in big, heavy conditions. In 2012, he starred in Storm Surfers documentary where he hunted the world's biggest waves. When he got hurt this morning, he was surfing at his home break on a small day and the wave was less than waist high. And he’s been hurt numerous times before with much less fanfare.

Tom even told his brother Nick that he would “take the stitches to the head and a sore neck anytime over various injuries in his four decade career.”