Courtesy photo
SANTA BARBARA — Former world champion surfer Shaun Tomson joined Westmont students, faculty, and staff on April 23rd for the unveiling of a special piece of artwork.
Inspired by Tomson’s February workshop with about 80 of his classmates, recent Westmont graduate Jacob Grant created a piece of art representing the personal commitments made as part of Tomson’s challenge to students to “Write the Code for Your Life.” Each student was asked to write 12 simple statements all beginning with “I will”, followed by aspirations for their future.
Grant and Tomson unveiled the chalkboard art piece during a reception at Westmont’s Kerr Student Center on April 23rd, and were joined by other members of the Westmont community, including campus pastor Scott Lisea and Director of Career Development and Calling Paul Bradford. Tomson and Grant both shared a few words about their experiences during the workshop.
Grant’s artwork will now hang in the lobby of Westmont’s Career Development and Calling offices on campus.
About Shaun Tomson: Shaun Tomson founded, managed and sold two successful clothing brands – Instinct in the 80’s and Solitude (co-founded with his wife Carla) in the 90’s. He is the author of the best-selling books “Surfer’s Code” and “The Code – The Power of I Will” and the co-writer and producer of the award-winning documentary film Bustin’ Down the Door. He is a Business Administration and Finance graduate from the University of Natal and has a Master of Science in Leadership. He is a World Surfing Champion, an inductee in the Jewish and South African Sports Hall of Fame, the US Surfing Hall of Fame, and has been described as one of the greatest surfers of all time (Surfing Magazine 2004) and one of the most influential surfers of the century (Surfer Magazine 1999). He is a board member and ambassador for Surfrider Foundation, the world’s largest environmental group dedicated to protecting the world’s oceans, waves and beaches, and he received the SIMA Environmentalist of the Year Award in 2002. He currently lives with his wife and son in Santa Barbara, California and still finds time to chase the perfect wave.
Shaun is an internationally acclaimed leadership speaker and talks about activating the power of purpose to improve individual engagement and team performance. An attitude of Commitment and Positivity is the basis for his unique empowering business philosophy based on his “Surfer’s Code – 12 Simple Lessons for Riding through Life”. He has spoken internationally and inspired and touched the hearts of audiences as large as 3,000 people, has shared the stage with well-known personalities including Sir Richard Branson and Malcolm Gladwell, and inspired corporations like General Motors, Cisco, Price Waterhouse, Gap, Disney and Google.
For more information, visit shauntomson.com