LIVE YOUR CODE
#1 Speaker on Purpose
Shaun Tomson brings the perspective of a world champion surfer, author and keynote speaker to leaders, teams and individuals navigating change. Through THE CODE—a practical method built around twelve I will commitments—he helps people clarify purpose, strengthen connection and turn intention into action.
1977 World Surfing Champion Best-Selling Author Entrepreneur Environmentalist Leadership and Motivational Keynote Speaker
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In a fast-changing and uncertain world, leaders, teams and individuals can lose clarity about what matters, how to move forward and how their daily work connects to a larger purpose.
When that connection weakens, engagement can fall with it. People may feel detached from their work, their colleagues and the mission they are meant to share. The effect is human as well as organizational: uncertainty and disconnection can make it harder to choose a direction, sustain commitment and act together.
Purpose offers a practical point of orientation. It helps people define what they stand for, connect choices with values and move from intention to committed action. Shaun’s work brings that idea to life through THE CODE, a method individuals and teams can use to express purpose in clear, personal language.
THE CODE is a practical method for turning purpose and values into twelve written commitments. Each line begins with I will, transforming an idea about what matters into a personal or collective promise that can guide choices and action.
THE CODE is academically validated and focuses on core components of organizational wellbeing and performance: purpose, values, resilience, commitment and connectivity.
The process moves through reflection, visualization and commitment:
01
Identify the values, relationships and responsibilities that matter most.
02
Picture the direction you want to take and the positive change you want to make.
03
Express that purpose as a twelve-line Code, written as clear I will statements.
04
Use those commitments as a practical reference for decisions, behavior and action.
For an individual, a Code can create a clearer connection between values and everyday choices. For a leader or team, creating a Code can make shared purpose more explicit, strengthen connection to a mission and give people language for the commitments they want to uphold together.
THE CODE is not a slogan handed to a team. Its value lies in the act of thinking, writing and committing. The goal is a concise statement of purpose that people can remember, use and put into practice—in the workplace, at home and beyond.
Explore THE CODE Method Download THE CODE WorksheetGallup defines employee engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.
When people feel disconnected from colleagues, leaders or organizational purpose, the cost is not only measured in performance. It can also be felt in wellbeing, clarity and the quality of everyday working relationships.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report provides a current global view of that challenge using data collected in 2025. The findings below describe employee experience and the economic context of low engagement; they are not research findings produced by Shaun or proof of a guaranteed outcome from THE CODE.
In 2025, 20% of employees globally were engaged. Gallup categorized 64% as not engaged and 16% as actively disengaged.
Source:
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report — 2025 data
In 2025, 40% of employees globally said they had experienced stress during a lot of the previous day.
Source:
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report — 2025 data
Gallup estimates that low engagement cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity in 2025—equivalent to 9% of global GDP.
Source:
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report — 2025 data
These figures show the scale of the human and organizational challenge. Shaun’s response is practical: help people articulate purpose, connect it to shared values and translate it into commitments they can act on.
Creating a Code of purpose can help reignite personal and collective engagement, strengthen connection across a team and support improved performance. The human measure matters too: purpose can contribute to a more flourishing and fulfilled workforce.
Shaun works with organizations, leaders, teams and event audiences through speaking and facilitated experiences focused on purpose, leadership, resilience, connection and committed action.
Drawing on stories from surfing and the principles of THE CODE, Shaun creates an energizing keynote for audiences navigating uncertainty, challenge or change. The experience connects personal perspective with practical commitments people can carry into work and life.
Explore Motivational KeynotesFor leaders and teams, Shaun explores how purpose, values and clearly expressed commitments can support alignment and action. THE CODE gives participants a practical way to connect individual intention with a shared mission.
Explore Leadership KeynotesBring Shaun’s keynote to distributed teams and remote audiences through a virtual experience built around purpose, resilience and THE CODE.
Explore Virtual KeynotesIn a facilitated THE CODE workshop, participants move through reflection, visualization and commitment to create a personal or collective twelve-line Code they can use beyond the session.
Explore THE CODEShaun’s speaking has reached audiences in business and higher education. Their words show how his surfing stories and THE CODE can connect with people far beyond the sport.
“Shaun’s contribution was amazingly inspirational and captivating and left the 600+ audience speechless. One of the best, if not the best, speech in all the 10 years of the RSM Leadership Summit.”
Steef Van De Velde
Dean And Professor Of Operations Management & Technology
Rotterdam School Of Management, Erasmus University
“While I am not a surfer, I found Shaun’s explanation of his code imparted lessons that applied to life far beyond the sport. Shaun Tomson is an eloquent, thought-provoking, and entertaining speaker, and our office greatly enjoyed his talk.”
Joe Johnson
Google
“Our dealers really enjoyed Shaun’s presentation. His surfing stories were humorous and very relevant to our business environment. The tone was just right, and the overall message was extremely motivating. I didn’t hear anything but positive comments!”
Melanie Maddux
General Manager – Marketing
General Motors
Shaun does not speak about purpose, resilience and commitment as abstract ideas. His perspective was shaped by a life in surfing: learning to read changing conditions, make decisions under pressure, recover from setbacks and commit fully when the moment arrives.
That experience extends beyond competition. Through his books, film work and THE CODE, Shaun has translated lessons from surfing into ideas that individuals, leaders and teams can apply to change, connection and purposeful action. His speaking brings those strands together through personal stories, a practical method and a clear invitation to define what you will do next.
The result is a perspective grounded in lived experience—one that connects sporting achievement with the human work of choosing a direction and acting with purpose.
His experience extends from competing in some of the world’s most dangerous waves to building international brands and navigating profound personal loss. Together, those experiences helped Shaun find a new direction: inspiring, uplifting and uniting people in business and higher education.
About Shaun Tomson Explore Shaun's Surfing Story Explore Books & FilmsSurfing is more than Shaun’s history. It is the lived foundation of his ideas about perspective, resilience, commitment and the next wave of possibility.
AGE 9
Shaun caught his first ride at age nine at the Bay of Plenty in Durban, South Africa. The feeling of stoke from that first wave became an enduring part of his life and the beginning of a journey into professional surfing.
FIRST COMPETITION
In his first competition, Shaun placed third—out of three surfers. As a boy, he experienced it as success. The story stayed with him as a reminder that perspective shapes how people understand progress, setbacks and possibility.
AGE 17
At seventeen, Shaun won his first professional event, the Gunston 500—a contest created by his father at the Bay of Plenty. He went on to win the event five more times in succession.
1977
During a sixteen-year professional surfing career, Shaun won the World Title in 1977 and nineteen major professional events – achievements that established his defining authority as a world champion surfer.
Top 10
Shaun’s groundbreaking performances at Pipeline and Off the Wall helped redefine modern tube riding. He has been admitted to South African, Jewish and American surfing and sports halls of fame, and Surfer has named him one of the ten greatest surfers of all time and one of the most influential surfers of the century.
Shaun is the best-selling author of three books: Surfer’s Code, The Code: The Power of “I Will” and The Surfer and the Sage. His books and film work carry lessons from surfing into wider questions of purpose, perspective, resilience and how people choose to live.
Surfer’s Code presents twelve lessons drawn from surfing and applies them to life beyond the ocean. Its stories connect the world’s beaches with everyday choices, personal growth and extraordinary challenges.
The 20th anniversary edition includes a new introduction and revised and updated material.
The Code: The Power of “I Will” develops Shaun’s central idea that purpose becomes more powerful when it is written as a clear personal commitment.
The Surfer and the Sage continues Shaun’s exploration of the ideas and perspectives that shape a purposeful life.
In the winter of 1975, South African and Australian upstarts Shaun Tomson, Rabbit Bartholomew, and Mark Richards arrived in Hawaii with little else than their surfboards and their love of surfing. With courage, skill, and raw ambition, they not only set a new standard for wave riding, but also succeeded in transforming surfing from a casual lifestyle into a professional sport.
Double Shakka is Shaun’s expression of gratitude and giving back. One shaka means stoked and grateful; two shakas mean twice as stoked and twice as grateful.
As a surfer and environmentalist, Shaun’s relationship with the ocean connects his sporting legacy with a wider commitment to gratitude and giving back.
Explore Double ShakkaExplore Shaun’s writing on purpose, leadership, resilience, surfing and the choices that shape how people move through change.
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