Lifelong Wrightsville Beach surfer Bill Curry, who helped bring East Coast surfing into the limelight, will be inducted in the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame in 2026.
Just after his family moved to Wrightsville Beach, Bill Curry started surfing at age 11 because he wanted to keep up with his older brother, Mike, and his friends. At age 73, the champion surfer is proud to still be doing what he loves best.
“I’m surfing my brains out,” he says with a laugh. “It is my passion. It’s my lifestyle. It keeps me young, fit and motivated to keep going.”
Curry will be the second champion surfer honored by the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame (GWSHoF) at its 20th anniversary celebration in May 2026. Benjamin Bourgeois was the first, inducted in 2010 for an outstanding career in the 1990s through 2008.
Curry’s big break in competitive surfing came in his late 20s. In 1979 he won the East Coast Longboard Championship. In 1980 he became the first surfer from North Carolina to rise to Men’s Division Eastern Surfing Champion. He 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. Curry also inducted into the East Coast Surfing Legends Hall of Fame in 2004…