Doug Warbrick

Last updated

Doug Warbrick
Born (1942-12-30) 30 December 1942 (age 81)
Queensland, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Other namesClaw
Occupation(s)entrepreneur, surfer
Years active1960–present
Known forCo-founder of Rip Curl

Doug Warbrick (born 30 December 1942) is an Australian businessman, founder of the Rip Curl brand and notable figure in the sport of surfing. [1] Warbrick is credited for bringing the longest running surf event in history, the Bells Beach Surf Classic, to the professional surfing circuit. [2] He is a founding member of the ASP World Tour, surf aficionado and athlete mentor. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Early life

Warbrick was born on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. He began surfing as a child in Maroochydore. Warbrick's family then moved to Melbourne, Victoria, where Warbrick attended Brighton Grammar School. [6]

Career

In 1967, Warbrick opened a surf shop at Bells Beach. [7] Two years later, in 1969, Warbrick founded Rip Curl with Brian Singer, shaping surfboards out of Singer's garage. [8] [9] Later, Rip Curl started producing wetsuits and moved into the famed 'Old Bakery'. [10] [11] Warbrick and Singer had discovered what Jack O'Neill had learned a few years earlier: cold-water surfers need wetsuits. [12] In 1980, Rip Curl moved to its current headquarters on the Surf Coast Highway in Torquay, Victoria. [6]

The name "Rip Curl" was taken from a vee-bottom surfboard that co-founder Warbrick bought in 1968, upon which he'd written "Rip Curl Hot Dog." The words didn't mean anything, he later admitted. "Except ripping was groovy; surfing the curl was groovy; we wanted to be groovy – so that was it."

— Matt Warshaw, Encyclopedia of Surfing [13]

Warbrick was an original member of the Australian Surfing Association (now Surfing Australia) in 1963 and was a committee member and vice-president of Surfing Victoria in the 1960s and 1970s. He was also a founding member of the ASP World Tour and the Surfrider Foundation Australia. [5] Warbrick was responsible for bringing the Bells Beach Surf Classic (now known as the Rip Curl Pro), held during Easter each year at Bells Beach, to the professional surfing circuit. Warbrick has mentored notable athletes such as Tom Curren, Michael Peterson and Mick Fanning. [14]

Awards

In 2008, Warbrick was inducted into the Brighton Grammar Hall of Fame. [15]

In 2010, Warbrick was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly Slater</span> American surfer (born 1972)

Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship Tour victories. Slater is also the oldest surfer still active on the World Surf League, winning his 8th Billabong Pipeline Masters title at age 49.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bells Beach, Victoria</span> Town in Victoria, Australia

Bells Beach is a coastal locality of Victoria, Australia in Surf Coast Shire and a renowned surf beach, located 100 km south-west of Melbourne, on the Great Ocean Road near the towns of Torquay and Jan Juc.

Rip Curl is a designer, manufacturer, and retailer of surfing sportswear and accompanying products, and a major athletic sponsor. Rip Curl has become one of the largest surfing companies in Australia, Europe, South America, North America and South Africa. Globally, Rip Curl is considered a successful member of the "Big Three", of the surf industry alongside Quiksilver and Billabong.

Thomas Roland Curren is an American former professional surfer, and the first American surfer to win the World Surf League Title. He won three World Titles in 1985, 1986 and 1990 to complement 33 event wins in his career, the 2nd most of all time, bettered only by Kelly Slater. He achieved notoriety for his competitive drive and for his surfing style. He made a decision to retire from competitive surfing in the mid-1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofía Mulánovich</span> Peruvian surfer (born 1983)

Sofía Mulánovich Aljovín is a Peruvian surfer. She is a 3-time World Surfing Champion, 1 WSL and 2 ISA world championships,. She is the first Peruvian surfer ever to win a World Surf League World Championship Tour event and the first Latin American woman ever to win the World Title, which she did in 2004 In 2004, she won three out of the six World Championship Tour events, and finished the season as Absolute World Champion. Sofia is the only one Latin-american surfer to win 2 ISA World Championships. Sofia won the ISA Championships, 2004 in Salinas-Ecuador and 2019 in Miyazaki-Japan. Her main sponsor is Roxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taj Burrow</span> Australian retired professional surfer

Taj Burrow is an Australian retired professional surfer. Taj retired from the WSL World Tour in June 2016 where he left a legacy of power and impressive surfing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mick Fanning</span> Australian surfer (born 1981)

Michael Eugene Fanning is an Australian professional surfer who was crowned champion of the Association of Surfing Professionals/World Surf League (ASP/WSL)'s World Tour in 2007, 2009 and 2013. In 2015, he survived a shark attack by what is suspected to be a great white shark during the J-Bay Open finals in Jeffreys Bay.

The Rip Curl Pro, formerly the Bells Beach Surf Classic, is a WSL World Tour surfing competition held in and around Torquay, Victoria and sponsored by surf company Rip Curl. The event is based at Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia. The event winner is awarded the prestigious 'Bell' trophy. It is the longest running professional surfing competition in the world.

Phyllis O'Donnell is an Australian surfer who became the first Women's World Surfing Champion. O'Donnell won the championship in 1964 at the age of 27. At the time, surfing was dominated by men, and her championship was regarded as a step forward for women's recognition in the sport. O'Donnell also won the women's division of the Australian National Titles in 1963, 1964, and 1965.

Bernard "Midget" Farrelly was the first world surfing champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Fitzgibbons</span> Australian surfer (born 1990)

Sally Fitzgibbons is an Australian professional surfer on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour (2009–2013). In June 2019, she was ranked No. 1 in the world for women's surfing after winning the Rio Pro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surfing in Australia</span>

Australia is renowned as one of the world's premier surfing destinations. Surfing underpins an important part of the Australian coastal fabric. It forms part of a lifestyle in which millions participate and which millions more have an interest. Australian surfboard-makers have driven innovation in surfboard design and production since the mid-1960s. The country has launched corporate giants such as Billabong, Rip Curl and Quiksilver.

Donald Moke Takayama was an American professional surfer and surfboard shaper. Originally a longboard surfer, Takayama won the Master's division of the United States Surfing Champions in 1971, 1972 and 1973. Hawaiian born, Takayama learned to surf at Waikiki Beach and moved to California in the mid-1950s. Takayama died of complications from heart surgery; he is survived by his wife and four daughters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriano de Souza</span> Brazilian surfer

Adriano "Mineirinho" de Souza is a Brazilian professional surfer and also the 2015 WSL World Champion. He has been competing on the World Surf League Men's World Tour since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikki van Dijk</span> Australian professional surfer (born 1994)

Nikki van Dijk is an Australian professional surfer. She has been a touring competitor in the World Surf League, the top flight of international professional surfing.

Barton Lynch is an Australian former professional surfer known for his competitive prowess and style. In 1988, he was crowned ASP World Tour Champion. He also won the 1991 Rip Curl Pro. In 1998, he was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame, and in 2000, he was inducted into the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame. The video game Barton Lynch Pro Surfing is named after Lynch.

Damien Hardman, known as The Iceman, is an Australian former surfer from Sydney. He won the Rip Curl Pro twice in 1988 and 1993, and was runner-up three times in 1989, 1991 and 1997, and in 1987/88 and 1991 he won the ASP World Tour. In 1999, he was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame in 1999.

Matt Warshaw is a former professional surfer, former writer and editor at Surfer magazine (1984-1990), and the author of dozens of feature articles and large-format books on surfing culture and history.

Sidney Robert "Bob" Cooper was an American and Australian surfer, shaper, surf shop owner and surf commentator. He was regarded as being one of very few surfers and shapers to be majorly influential in surf history on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

References

  1. ↑ Greenblat, Eli (7 October 2014). "Rip Curl pumps". Australian Business Review.
  2. ↑ "Interview: Doug Warbrick". Surfline. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "Australian Surfing Awards".
  4. ↑ Gordon, Michael (5 December 2008). "Solitude is swell in the Mentawai Islands". traveller.com.au.
  5. 1 2 3 Coastalwatch (21 February 2010). "Doug "Claw" Warbrick Inducted into Australian Surfing Hall of Fame". Coastalwatch. coastalwatch.com. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  6. 1 2 Baker, Tim (2019). The Rip Curl Story. Penguin Australia.
  7. ↑ Baker, Tim (25 March 2019). "How Rip Curl went from garage brand to global empire". www.executivestyle.com.au/. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  8. ↑ Tan, Gillian (17 September 2012). "Australia's Rip Curl". Wall Street Journal.
  9. ↑ Gluckman, Ron (30 November 2016). "Australia's Silicon Valley of Surfing". Forbes.com. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "The Short History of Wetsuits". Surfingworld. 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  11. ↑ Greenblat, Eli (25 September 2013). "Surfing buddies who rode rich wave step ashore". Sydney Morning Herald.
  12. ↑ Warshaw, Matt (2011). The History of Surfing. Chronicle Books.
  13. ↑ Matt Warshaw (2005). The Encyclopedia of Surfing. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 508. ISBN   0-15-603251-1.
  14. ↑ Stoltz, Greg (23 March 2018). "Mick Fanning is heading to Bells Beach for his final competition wave". Courier Mail. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  15. ↑ "Brighton Grammar Hall of Fame". brightongrammar.vic.edu.au. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.