Words: Julien Morel, Jersey Evening Post Photos: David Ferguson/Archive
David Grimshaw was not only one of the founding fathers of the Jersey Surfboard Club, serving as the club’s president for many years, but he was the instigator and driving force of the British Surfing Association, being appointed its first president in 1966.
He became secretary general of the International Surfing Association, organising the ISA World Championships for ten years and was a key member of the European Surfing Federation.
The British team of Barry Jenkins, Charlie Williams, Steve Harewood, Gordon Burgis and David Grimshaw in their team blazers on their way to the ISA World Championships in Puerto Rico in 1968.
“Grimmo” began surfing in St Ouen’s Bay in the early-1960s, alongside friends and fellow pioneers such as Dave Beaugeard and Gordon Burgis. They became leading figures in the Jersey Surfboard Club and it built a reputation as a well-organised outfit. Mr Grimshaw became a committed surf administrator, organising Jersey’s first competitions, which boosted the sport’s credibility across the British Isles and internationally. He recognised the need for the sport to be organised under its own governing body and worked with surfers in Cornwall to form the BSA.
By the 1970s, he was Britain’s most experienced surfing official and he travelled the world attending meetings, events and social occasions. In 1975 he was appointed vice-president of the European Surfing Federation and in 1983 he washe was made secretary general of the ISA.
That year, he was also made an honorary life president of the JSC. He played a leading role in bringing the World Championships to Britain in 1986. In recognition of his immense contribution, Grimmo was given his own page and described as ‘“the architect of British surfing” in Roger Mansfield’s landmark history of the sport in Britain, The Surfing Tribe.
Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, and all those who knew him.
