Tom Dixon-Smith is everything a teenage surfer should be, and wants to be.

Hailing from New Zealand, he is exceptionally talented on a surf board. He’s young, good looking, media friendly, and very switched on. Basically he typifies the new wave of upcoming teenage surfers.

At 16 years old, he is living the dream, free surfing the perfect tropical waves of the Mentawai Islands. His global following of kids around the world is growing as they all live their dreams through his life.

Thomas Dixon-Smith is the youngest, and only kid living and free surfing the Mentawai Islands. He’s on ‘the search’ and a mission to set up his surfing career. This is his apprenticeship for the World Qualifying Series. It was at the age of 4 that Tom caught his first wave and from then on, it became everything in his life. Not knowing anything about contest surfing, at the age of 9, he entered his first competition. It was the New Zealand National Primary Schools event and he won first place in the division for the u10s. It was a significant victory because from that moment, Tom knew what he wanted from life – a career in pro surfing. Being a regional representative for 5 years consecutively in other sports, he gave everything up to pursue his surfing goals.

Now, 7 years on and Tom hasn’t lost the passion, drive or desire to succeed. If anything, now that he is closer to his goal, he has become more focused and more determined than ever before. After that initial contest, Tom went on to compete in the New Zealand National surfing circuit, racking up a number of personal victories. Representing the Gisborne region, his first complete year on the New Zealand National circuit was in the u14s, where he finished 5^th place overall. Tom soon got used to being a finalist at most events. Following that as a young 15 year old competing in the u17s, he finished in the top 12 for two years in a row. In those two years, he was Gisborne region’s highest ranked male surfer on the national circuit.

Tom now joins Graham Smith boards team in NZ, riding GSB and G-Force surfboards. You can follow Tom on social Facebook: Thomas Dixon-Smith or on Instagram: tomdixonsmith

All photos credit to Vere Dixon-Smith