http://www.surfline.com/surfnews/article.cfm?id=2545
While this is in no way related to surfboard design, it quickly brought a tear to my eye.
Words will never do justice to what this family is feeling right now.
Deepest respect and sympathy.
Very sad
My father was lucky to have survived nearby Hilton college, which was an extremely barbaric place, not at all the bastion of civilisation which it purported to be. My uncle Lynn in South Africa just lost both his sons in seperate violent incidents quite recently. We keep away from the place.
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mathew tomson’s death had nothing to do with violent crime…he hanged himself.
that just makes it all the more saddening.
Even sadder, what a waste. Hanging oneself is a violent crime though, but who knows what is behind it .
I couldn’t speak of this sooner but now that it is public information let me say that, Mathew Tomson was a great kid. And one whom I had the pleasure of watching grow up. Recently he had gotten into Downhill Mountain Biking. And as some of you may know, this is a particular pass time of mine also. This winter I had the chance to spend some extra time with Mathew, while he was visiting the North Shore with his dad and my close friend, Shaun.
We talked Shaun into driving my truck and taxiing us on some shuttle runs so that Mathew and I could do some screaming down hill runs together on the Wa’ahila Ridge Trail here on Oahu. Wa’ahila Ridge was home to a Word Cup Race several years back and is a good test of skills that my broken femur in 2001 will attest to. I loaned Mathew one of my Intense downhill bikes and I was impressed with his emerging abilities as a rider. He also quickly recognized his need for a better bike than what he had been riding at home. Shortly after I built him up a new Santa Cruz, VPFree which he took with him to South Africa. While there, he met Greg Minnaar a World Champion Downhiller and got into riding with him. In many ways, it seemed like he was on a blessed course. We were communicating regularily via email and phone, I will miss him dearly.
I can tell you with all sincerity that he was a great kid with a bright future. His loss, as I also told Shaun as he was leaving on the plane to South Africa, leaves me shocked and utterly speachless. By the grace of God, I have raised two daughters safely up through the social wilderness of the North Shore, and yet I can’t fathom the unspeakable pain of this loss to Shaun and Carla. I am sure all your prayers are with them as are mine
absolutely tragic for sure .
my deepest sympathies to Shaun and the whole family .
The word that disturbs me in that report is “prank” . That is usually something played on another person , in my understanding .
I just hope to god that is wrong reporting , because if other people were responsible for Matthew’s death , or watched it happen , then my god . That is beyond tragic …
ben
Aloha Bill, I spent a lot of time with Matt when he was young, my good freind KIm Robinson lived a couple of houses away from Shaun, and Kim and Teresa would babysit Mathew . We had a good day at Hammonds reef last summer, just freinds and Mathew and I shared a couple together. I hadnt seen him in awhile , glad we had good surf together. My heart and prayers goes out to Shaun and Carla.
Shaun Tomson was the surfing icon that all surfers in South Africa aspired to be like, he is a wonderful man and was instrumental in advancing the fortunes of a friend of mine who still is surfing professionally for O’neil, 9 years on. It is so tragic that such a tragedy like this should befall him and his family, not to mention all those that know them closely.
Last year close friends of mine had a son who had done fantastically well in his Matric exams do the same thing after 6 weeks at Rhodes University, without, seemingly, any reason at all…Absolutely devastating.
My thoughts go out to the Tomson family and those close to them.
Simon