Bill Bailey (27 September 1933 – 28 April 2009) was known as "the father of British surfing" for the crucial role he played in the development of the sport in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. He set up the first surf company in Britain. Bailey grew up in

Inglesbatch Inglesbatch is a small hamlet within the civil parish of Englishcombe in the Bath and North East Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its nearest town is Bath, which lies approximately north-east from the hamlet. Inglesbatch Farm has an acre ...

, in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

where his father withdrew him from school at age 14 due to his behaviour, and placed him in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

. There he trained as an engineer working on

Short Sunderland The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North East ...

flying boats A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged aircraft, fixed-winged seaplane with a hull (watercraft), hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a ...

and taking postings overseas. It was while working on air-sea rescue in Sri Lanka that he developed a love of the sea, quitting the air-force at the end of the 1950s and moving to

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast ...

to work as a lifeguard. Bailey began building life-saving equipment including a

surf ski A surfski (or: "surf ski", "surf-ski") is a type of kayak in the kayaking "family" of paddling craft. It is generally the longest of all kayaks and is a performance oriented kayak designed for speed on open water, most commonly the ocean, althoug ...

in 1961, designed to be used by lifeguards with paddles. While tinkering with the design he met two Australians on their way to the US, and was impressed with the foam core and fibre-glass construction of their surf boards. He bought one and learned to use it, becoming one of the first native surfers in Britain. In 1964 he began constructing surf boards himself and the following year formed a partnership with Bob Head to set up the European Surfing Company. Under its surfboard brand, BilBo, it produced around 12,000 boards over the next eight years. In the late 1960s A Bilbo shop was opened outside the train station of Newquay, which was quickly becoming the UK surfing capital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Bill English surfers Surfboard shapers People from Bath and North East Somerset People from Newquay 1933 births 2009 deaths