| Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly | |
| Birth Name: | Bernard Farrelly |
| Birth Date: | 13 September 1944 |
| Death Place: | Royal North Shore Hospital |
| Nationality: | Australian |
| Other Names: | Midget |
| Occupation: | Surfer, designer, shaper, board maker |
| Known For: | First world surfing champion. Farrelly Surfboards |
| Spouse: | Beverlie |
| Children: | 3 - Priscilla, Johanna and Lucy. |
Bernard "Midget" Farrelly (13 September 1944 – 6 August 2016) was the first world surfing champion.
Farrelly, was the first Australian to win a major surfing title, the 1962 Makaha International Surfing Championships, the unofficial world surfing championship of the day.[1] In 1964 he won the inaugural World Surfing Championship at Manly Beach in Sydney.[2] [3] [4]
Farrelly was also the first president, in 1961, of Australia's oldest surfboard riders club, Dee Why Surfing Fraternity, which still operates under the same name today.[5] He presented a ten-part television series about surfing in Australia, The Midget Farrelly Surf Show, for the ABC in 1967.[6]
Farrelly was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and into the Surfing Walk of Fame at California's Huntington Beach in 2007.[7] Farrelly died on 6 August 2016, aged 71, from stomach cancer and liver failure.[3] [8] [9]
Farrelly was posthumously inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours.[10]