Tom Lowe Stars in ‘Let Me Live’

“Big-wave chargers who come from abnormal beginnings. Those are the stories I’m psyched on,” filmmaker and CT veteran Keith Malloy told Stab last month.

Enter Tom Lowe: a big-wave surfer from Britain — a nation with zero big waves — who snugly fits the brief.

If you were to reverse-engineer a big-wave surfer, a solid 0/10 would pick St Ives, Cornwall as the starting point. A town better known for its meteorological misery and surfboard-sinking pasties. And yet, improbably, that’s where Tom Lowe came from — a non-sequitur that, in Keith’s eyes, offered storytelling gold.

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Raised in a caravan, by a disarmingly charismatic dad (rarely seen without a cigarette welded to his lip — possibly the UK’s answer to Kelly Richards) and a sweet, hippy mum, Tom had no right to end up in the same sentence as Dorian, Florence, or Long.

And yet, there he is — an Eddie Aikau and Vans Pipe Masters invitee, and one of the most respected Daves in circulation from Mullaghmore to Pe‘ahi and beyond. All while radiating a register of joy, openness, and warmth — none of which you’d expect from someone inked from his toes to his chin.

Speaking of which: why do the two best blokes in surfing always have the scariest tattoos? That’s Chippa Wilson too.

Let Me Live, directed by Malloy, chronicles Lowe’s story the right way: through the people who built him, cheered from the shoulder while he threw himself into oblivion, and catalogued every moment of it.

“You meet the guy and see the film… and instantly recognize how humble and charismatic he is,” says Keith. “He’s got tattoos up to his chin, and long blonde hair… but just the kindest guy you’ll ever meet. Never parties. His dad is in it too — who is such a character.” 

You can read our story of how he almost died in Tahiti this month here, and our Stab Interview with Keith here.