📍Manly NSW 2095, Australia
1950 – 1964“I was born Bernard Farrelly in Paddington, Sydney, in September 1944, and when I was six my uncle, Ray Hookham, a well-known board rider, took me out into the surf at North Bondi for the first time. My family moved around Australia, New Zealand and Canada in my early years, but by 1956 we were settled back in Sydney, and Manly, with its long beach, Norfolk pines and great surf, became my home. I hauled an old hollow wooden paddleboard down to Manly Beach on a homemade trailer to go surfing, and I was in the water every day. I was small, so they called me Midget, or Midge. As a child I learned ballet with my sister, and I used that balance to develop a quick, light-footed style on the board. The Malibu boards arrived from California in the late 1950s, and surfing took off, and by sixteen I was the Australian champion. In 1962 I went to Hawaii and won the Makaha International, the first outsider to win it, surprising the Hawaiians and the Americans. In May 1964 the first World Surfing Championships were held at Manly Beach, my home break, and in front of tens of thousands of people I won the men's title, becoming the first world surfing champion. I kept competing through the 1960s, finishing second in the world championships of 1968 and 1970, and I became a pioneering surfboard shaper and designer. Manly has honoured me with a statue on the beachfront, showing me forever surfing at Manly.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today