THE £250,000 surf sculpture was given a wave of approval after being officially unveiled in Newquay on Thursday afternoon.

Cherrilyn Keough from the Keogh Foundation handed over the 16-foot-high Surfer of the South bronze statue at the Killacourt to Newquay Town Council.

The piece has been donated to the town by The Keogh Foundation to celebrate Newquay’s surfing history.

Many of the surfers of the sixties were among the crowd in attendance including Dennis Cross, who founded Gul Wetsuits in Newquay in 1967, Gwyn Haslock, the godmother of British surfing and prominent surfing historian Roger Mansfield.

Cherrilyn said: “Surfing has had great importance for Newquay over the past six plus decades and I hope this statue will be here celebrating Newquay’s surfing heritage for many decades to come.

“Surfing began in Newquay Bay and with the statue on this site, overlooking the bay, it is a tribute not just to surfing but to the surfing pioneers those first brave men and women who ventured into the Atlantic rollers.

“My late husband Stuart and I had a surfing business in Newquay for many years, and on our travels looking for new products for our business we visited Los Angeles in the early 1980's and we visited Huntington Beach.

“This is where we first saw a surf statue, and we both decided there and then that Newquay needed a surf Statue.

“It was many years before we could even contemplate gifting a statue to the people of Newquay and six and a half years ago this project was first presented to the town council.

“I thank my late husband Stuart for his perseverance and dedication to this project and his attitude of never give up. Newquay now has its surf statue.”

The statue has been named Surfer of the South in the hope it will receive the same sort of exposure that the Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead receives worldwide.

The sculpture has been made by the Morris Singer Foundry where Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Nic Fiddian-Green cast their bronzes.

The Keough Foundation wanted the statue erected overlooking Towan Beach to honour the very spot where Australian lifeguards first introduced fibreglass boards back in 1962.

Mayor Drew Creek said: “Sixty years ago, Australian lifeguards paddled out on this bay with something nobody here had seen before — fibreglass surfboards. From that one moment, a whole culture was born.

“Surfing isn’t just something we do — it’s who we are here in Newquay, the UK capital of surfing and board riding. It’s in our economy, our identity, the way visitors picture us before they’ve even arrived. It’s given us jobs, friendships, and a way of life built around this stretch of water.

“This isn’t a small gesture. It’s a landmark for the whole town, gifted to us by the Keogh Foundation.

“We’re not just unveiling a statue. We’re marking sixty years of salt water, surfboards, and a community that’s never stopped chasing the next wave.”

Gwyn Haslock said: ‘The surf statue is awesome.

“It’s long overdue to mark Newquay’s surfing heritage.”