Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey (27 September 1933 to 28 April 2009) was known as the father of British surfing for the part he played in developing the sport in the United Kingdom, and he set up the first surf company in Britain. He grew up in Inglesbatch in Somerset and was placed in the Royal Air Force at fourteen, where he trained as an engineer on Short Sunderland flying boats and served overseas. While working on air-sea rescue in Sri Lanka he developed a love of the sea, left the air force at the end of the 1950s and moved to Newquay as a lifeguard. In 1961 he began building life-saving equipment, including a surf ski for lifeguards, and after meeting two Australians whose foam and fibreglass boards impressed him he bought one and became one of the first native surfers in Britain. From 1964 he built boards himself, and in 1965 he formed the European Surfing Company with Bob Head, whose BilBo brand produced around 12,000 boards in eight years.