Living on a 14m boat for the first few years of your life gets you in touch with the ocean pretty quickly. You could say that Tom has literally grown up on the water.
At a young age, Tom was exposed to kiteboaring when Manolo Barley, a local kiteboarding star at the time, jumped over Tom while he was windsurfing. It was at that point that he made the decision that kiteboarding was the sport for him.
In 1998 he began kiting on a 2 line kite, and by 2005 he was competing professionally alongside his sister, Sarah. After competing on the KPWT for a few years, he grew tired of the low level of competition and decided to fully join the PKRA because of the higher level of difficulty.
After all these years competing, he still has the desire to compete because he is happiest in the water.
ben benieuwd wat hij dit jaar gaat doen, want vorig jaar ging hij het hoogste!