Bernard “Midget” Farrelly was born on September 13, 1944, and died on August 7, 2016.

He 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.

During 1964, Midget won the inaugural World Surfing Championship at Manly Beach in Sydney.

He 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.

He 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.

Midget Farrelly passed away at 71 years old.