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Wrightsville's own Ben Bourgeois was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in January.
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH SURFER INDUCTED
INTO HALL OF FAME
BEN BOURGEOIS, who went from a kid riding the waves off Wrightsville Beach to the pro tour, was inducted into the
East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in January.
He was one of 50 nominees for the Class of ’18, and one of 11 who entered the hall. The ceremony took place during
the Surf Expo in Orlando, Florida, on Jan. 26. He became the first local surfer inducted.
Bourgeois was born in New Jersey, and moved to Wrightsville Beach with his family when he was 8. Although he learned to surf
farther up the coast, it was in North Carolina that he honed the skills that eventually took him to the pro tour.
As the program for the induction ceremony put it, “Ocean City, New Jersey, might like to claim Ben Bourgeois as their own
(he was born there), but it’s Wrightsville Beach where Ben first made his mark in both East Coast, and global, surfing history.”
Bourgeois was a top amateur surfer, winning the 1995 Quicksilver Grom Invitation and the 1996 ISA World Junior Surfing Games
before becoming the first North Carolinian to qualify for the ASP World Tour in 1999. — Simon Gonzalez
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