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