Bill Sharp
HB Surf School Instructor/Director

Bill Sharp began surfing as a young grom at the breaks in Durban, one of South Africa’s world-renowned surf breaks. He began competing at age 14 and turned pro at age 25. Along the way, other surfers asked Bill for help to improve their skills and before long he was coaching and teaching surfing at his home break in Durban. He is a founding member of the South Africa Professional Surfing Association.

In 1989, he became the coach of the South African national surf team and saw his team succeed in dozens of competitions including the ISA World Games. Bill led the South African national team at the 1992 ISA World Games where, after 14 years of isolation from international competition, his unseeded team competed against 36 countries and finished an impressive third place.

In 1998, Bill was recruited by Surf, Dive & Ski to develop a surf school and run beach retail operations for the company’s seven stores on the island of Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands. In four years, he built the surf school program from a dozen students to more than 2,000 students each summer.

As a coach, Bill has specialized in teaching competitive structure and counts numerous pro surfers as his former students including former world champion Martin Potter and current phenom Jordy Smith.  As a former judge on the competitive circuit, Bill understands what surfers need to do to win contents. Surfing is also about having fun and Bill has been helping the Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguard’s surfing program for the past five years.

Sharp has been a resident of Huntington Beach since 2001.