A graduate of John T. Hoggard High School and resident of Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Bill Curry rode a wave of success – literally – during a highly-decorated career in surfing. He was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Legends Hall of Fame in 2004.

Curry’s breakout year came in 1979 when he won the East Coast Longboard Championship and he became the first surfer from North Carolina to rise to Men’s Division Eastern Surfing Champion in 1980.

Curry then placed fifth overall at the U.S. Amateur Surfing Championships in 1981 and captured the first of many Iron Surfer Awards. In 1982, he was named the outstanding surfer at the East Coast and U.S. Surfing Championships.

He competed for Team USA in 1988, finishing third in the Open Longboard competition in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, before earning a spot on the United States Surfing Federation’s 1993 team, where he captured first place in the Longboard Division and Senior Longboard Division.