Surfin’ the Code with Shaun Tomson

The Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival marks its fifth year of cinematic celebration of the area’s rich surf history and surf culture, as well as supporting ocean conservation, in a packed weekend of screenings and other events September 26-27 at the Lobero Theatre. The 2025 festival specifically focuses on showcasing films about iconic surfboard shapers and some of our local surf stars, including presenting the festival’s Legendary Award to Carpinteria shaper Matt Moore, whose more than half a century of watercraft shaping are an integral part of Santa Barbara’s surfing history. His Rincon Design boards have been ridden by surf icons around the world, as well as by Santa Barbara’s own Chris Brown and Tom Curren. 

The Shape of Things: The Dick Brewer Story, chronicles surfing’s “Da Vinci of design,” while Shaping the Future chronicles the life of renowned surfboard shaper Lance Collins, and his brand Wave Tools, covering how his design innovations impacted a generation of surfers. 

Among the short films screening over the weekend are Making Waves: The Lakey Peterson Story, about the Santa Barbara native who won the Open Women’s National Title in 2009 and 2010, landed the first-ever aerial maneuver in women’s NSSA competition at age 14, and qualified for the ASP Women’s World Championship Tour at 16. Local filmmaker Hunter Martinez’s 17@20 documents an extremely rare and sizeable west swell that hit Ventura, while The Big White House, which had its world premiere in Hollywood at the Dances With Films LA festival in June, is a very personal documentary 20 years in the making that chronicles director Chris Riel’s open family home in a 100-year-old Victorian Montecito house, where swarms of youth found sanctuary and made surfing among their adrenaline-inducing pastimes. 

Also on the lineup: A special multimedia presentation from South African surf legend Shaun Tomson. 1977’s World Surfing Champion, Tomson’s aggressive technique for riding inside the tube was a radical innovation, and made Tomson part of the movement that became the foundation of modern professional surfing – an historical moment chronicled in the film Bustin’ Down the Door (which had its own world premiere at the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival). 

But Tomson’s presentation on Saturday afternoon is much more than a series of awe-inspiring surf clips, as Surfer’s Code: Stories of Courage and Commitment combines visuals, personal stories, and, most importantly, interactive participation to take the audience on a journey of transformation. The event is based on the surfer-turned-author and globally renowned motivational speaker’s “The Code,” a simple yet profound set of 12 commitments that empower individuals to make better choices, build resilience and navigate life’s challenges with hope and purpose.

The book began as a shorthand presentation for students at Rincon Beach more than 20 years ago when the world-famous surf spot was facing an environmental crisis where septic tanks overflowed into the river and then the ocean, sickening surfers and ocean goers. Surfrider Foundation, surfing’s biggest surfing environmental group – and one of three ocean-centric nonprofits along with Heal the Ocean and Surf Happens Foundation that will benefit from a portion of festival proceeds. Tomson became Surfrider’s first pro surfer member and ambassador back in 1984, and the leader of the local chapter asked him to share some thoughts with the youth to make them aware of environmental issues. 

“What I came up with was 12 lines each of which began with ‘I will…’,” Tomson recalled. “I wrote it in 15 minutes, called it Surfer’s Code, printed the statements on a little card. They were metaphors from surfing – ‘I will always paddle back out,’ about perseverance and resilience, and ‘I’ll never turn my back on the ocean’ about passion and committing to an environmental path.” 

The card proved popular, burgeoning interest inspired Tomson to write the book, and over the years, turned it all into a presentation that enables people to come up with their own 12 lines. 

The loss of his 15-year-old son whose accidental death happened while playing the “Choking Game” almost 20 years ago led Tomson to channel The Code toward young people to “empower them to make positive choices in their lives,” he said. “It’s about how you find the commitment to make the right choices when that time comes.” 

But Tomson has also delivered the interactive ‘Writing Your Code’ presentation around the world in an array of settings – everywhere from prisons to executive meetings to top-ranked universities.

“It’s a very transformational process,” he said. “It’s about the values that surfing can teach you about life, and healing our broken and divided world. It’s simple, it doesn’t cost anything. And anybody can do it in 15 minutes.” 

The process makes a huge impact, Tomson said. 

“The goal is to create this positive wave of hope and purpose across the globe. It might seem like a kumbaya, airy-fairy process, but it’s incredibly powerful. When people write the code, they look inside themselves and they find the best version of themselves and they publicly commit to it. And they also commit to help others be better, and come up with lines like ‘I’ll be the light in the darkness. I’ll volunteer. I’ll be a mentor.’ They read their lines aloud and inspire each other.” 

The interactive film presentation features footage of massive wipeouts in Hawaii and other exciting surfing clips, but in the context of surfing as a metaphor rather than an incredible sensory experience, he said. 

“I’m looking at surfing as more of a kind of spiritual experience and what it can teach you about life,” he said. 

While Tomson has worked the process with hundreds of thousands of people over the years, the one audience he hasn’t experienced is one full of surfers at a surf film festival. 

“Normally, 99 percent of my audience knows nothing about surfing. Absolutely zero,” he said. “But for the festival, I’ve added more expert surf content.” 

Still, Saturday’s event will be a first for Tomson, who moved to Montecito 30 years ago after first surfing Rincon and related areas in the late 1970s.

“I honestly don’t know how the surf community is going to respond. I have no idea,” he said. “It’s uncharted territory for me. I’m excited and I’m a little bit nervous – like I’m paddling out at a brand-new surf break for the first time.”