Midget Farrelly

Bernard "Midget" Farrelly AM (13 September 1944 – 6 August 2016) was the first world surfing champion.

Bernard 'Midget' Farrelly
Born	Bernard Farrelly (1944-09-13)13 September 1944 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	6 August 2016(2016-08-06) (aged 71) Royal North Shore Hospital
Nationality	Australian
Other names	Midget
Occupation(s)	Surfer, designer, shaper, board maker
Known for	First world surfing champion. Farrelly Surfboards
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Spouse	Beverlie
Children	3 - Priscilla, Johanna and Lucy.

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]