00:00So good afternoon everyone, what an afternoon we've got, standing here on the Killer Court,
00:05looking down over Towan Beach behind me, standing on the exact spot where it all began.
00:1260 years ago, Australian lifeguards paddled out on this bay with something nobody here had seen
00:18before, fiberglass surfboards. From that one moment, a whole culture was born.
00:25Newquay was never quite the same again. Local pioneers like Roger Mansfield, I see Roger's here today,
00:32Alan McBride, Dennis Cross and Trish Scarlett, our town's first female surfer, picked up that spirit and really ran with
00:40it.
00:42Stuart Keogh opened a surfboard factory at Holywell Bay, then his own surf shop here in Newquay on 4th Street
00:49with his wife, Cherry, beside him. It became the Newquay Surfing Centre, a name two generations of surfers will remember.
00:59That's the thread running through everything we're making here today.
01:04Surfing isn't just something we do as a town, it's who we are here in Newquay,
01:09the UK capital of surfing and board riding.
01:13It's our economy, it's our identity, the way visitors picture us before they've even arrived.
01:19It's given us jobs and friendships and a way of life built around this very stretch of ocean.
01:26Which brings us to why we're here today.
01:28Behind me stands the Surfer of the South, a 16-foot bronze cast at Morris Singer Foundry,
01:37the same foundry that cast work for Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.
01:42This isn't a small gesture, it's a landmark for the whole town, gifted to us by the Keogh Foundation.
01:54Sadly, of course, Stuart Keogh didn't live to see this day, he passed away a couple of years ago,
02:01but his vision is standing right here, looking out over the very break where it all started.
02:06Gerry, on behalf of everyone here in Newquay, thank you.
02:11Thank you for believing this town deserves something permanent,
02:15something that tells our story to everyone who walks up here for years to come.
02:20So today we're not just unveiling a statue,
02:23we're marking 60 years of saltwater surfboards and a community that's never stopped chasing the next wave.
02:30Whether you've surfed this bay for 60 years or you're here visiting for the first time,
02:36welcome to the home of British surfing.
02:39It is my honour as Mayor to unveil the Surfer of the South.
Comments