Ben Bourgeois (October 30, 1978-)

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A 2-year-old Ben Bourgeois told his mother flatly, "I wanna be a surfer." And he hasn't wavered since. Far from being blessed with an ideal surfing environment or an inordinate amount of natural talent, he used the attributes he was given -- a supportive family and a will to succeed -- and rose to the elite in competitive surfing, the Top 44 in the world, restoring Wrightsville Beach's place on the international map.

Benjamin Charles Bourgeois was born in Ocean City, New Jersey, to a businessman father (Chuck owns a surf shop in Wrightsville since selling a highly successful sporting goods chain) and a waterborne mother (Priscilla was a platform diver and taught swimming at Camp Lejuene, where she met Chuck). Ben was immediately immersed in the water, and by age three, he was surfing. Unable to hoist his board to the ocean, Priscilla became his caddy as he entered and won contests as a tike in New Jersey. On land, he played baseball and soccer and tried to avoid the wrath of his older twin sisters. In 1986, the family relocated to Wrightsville Beach, site of a string of world tour events in prior years, but generally forgotten since.

A sleepy, college town in southern North Carolina, Wrightsville offered Ben a sparring partner in best friend Mark Hunt and relative isolation in the average East Coast surf. Together Ben and Hunt explored the coastal barrier islands by boat and soloed the 50-degree surf in winter. "He would always swing by and pick me up and take me to the good spots," says Ben. "We were always really competitive." Twice an East Coast and once a U.S. champion, Ben's initial international exposure came with winning the 1995 Quiksilver World Grommet Contest in Bali. Despite the showing, he was still a relative unknown in 1996 when he overcame Taj Burrow, Andy Irons and the brothers Hobgood to capture the juniors' division of the I.S.A. World Games at Huntington.

Longtime supporter Quiksilver upped the ante and Ben set out to navigate the WQS juggernaut. His first two years were lackluster, inching from 98th to 67th, still miles from qualification. In 1999, with his act in four-man heats honed to precision, he rose to 16th and secured a position on the WCT. Far from taking the tour by storm, his first season in the big leagues was an educating experience. "I learned a lot about surfing man-on-man heats," noted Ben. But a knee injury midway through didn't help matters, though he did manage to avoid the dreaded 33rd in half the year's events. Fortunately, his mastery of the WQS system meant retaining his WCT seed, allowing him to refocus on 2001, where he would eventually make history -- if not necessarily as he intended -- as the 9/11 attacks shortened that WCT season to just five events, leaving 10 surfers with a title shot going into to the closing contest at Sunset Beach. With all of them losing by the second round, Benny took down Danny Wills in Round 3 to hand CJ Hobgood his ASP crown. Ben, however, still finished 33rd and found himself back 'on the slog.'

For the next six years, Benny would travel the world, competing from Sebastian Inlet to Sao Paulo in search of ratings points, coming within mere heats of requalifying before finally returning to the WCT in 2008. When asked about his determination in the face of such adversity, Ben later said he felt he needed to prove he could do it again "for North Carolina if not the East Coast." Ironically, halfway through 2008, he just as quickly decided he'd done enough. That September, he announced he had no intention of trying to re-qualify, citing the huge traveling circus of competitors, organizers and support teams - and the comparative lack of good waves and surf time. "I want to surf more than ever," he explained. "I just don't want to win as bad as a lot of those guys. [Next year] I'll be going to new places and getting good waves away from everybody."

At the time of writing, he'd done just that. In 2009, he'd gone from the Caribbean to Central America and scored three hurricane swells in his home of North Carolina. And while he also owns a house in San Diego, he's rarely in either place. Instead, he roams the planet chasing swells while still competing whenever the mood strikes. And though he often takes home the top trophy -- winning high-rated comps from 2008's Nike 6.0 Lowers Pro to specialty events back home -- his focus is pursuing the less tangible rewards: those once-in-a-lifetime worldly experiences that only come with the job title of "pro surfer."

"I know how good I got it," the 31-year-old said in October 2009 while on a short California visit between El Salvador and Hawaii. "I also know it won't last for ever, so I'm going to keep doing it as long as I can."

-- Jason Borte (updated, December 2009)