Charlie Baldwin
Born and raised in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Charley Baldwin rode his first surfboard at the age of 13 and entered his first surfing contest two years later. Though he played baseball during college on a scholarship from the University of South Florida, he quickly returned to surfing — his true passion — after graduation.
Baldwin won the Florida State Surfing Championship in 1968 and the East Coast Surfing Championship in 1971. Following that win, Baldwin went pro, competing for almost 20 years, winning another East Coast Surfing Championship and two U.S. Surfing Championships.
He left the tour in 1990, but returned to the U.S. Surfing Federation stage in 1996 — this time as a proud father. His two daughters, Lindsay and Marcy, competed on the national stage. Together, the family has racked up an impressive number of regional and national titles. Baldwin nurtured his daughters’ surfing passion with long days on the water near their Florida home. “If we aren’t surfing, we are sailing or fishing,” Baldwin said. “We are always out in the water. It’s just a way of life. We just can’t help ourselves.”
When Baldwin isn’t on the water with his family, he’s pursuing his various surfing enterprises. In 1980, he opened Inlet Charley’s, a beachside hotdog wagon in his hometown of New Smyrna Beach. The business would eventually grow into Inlet Charley’s Surf Shop, which came to sponsor professional competitions and surfers.
Baldwin sold Inlet Charley’s in 2004 — which was then rebranded as a Rip Curl store — but he has stayed involved through his other surfing business venture, CB Surfboards. Baldwin has shaped more than 20,000 surfboards at this factory, which distributes boards up and down the East Coast. He also owns New Smyrna Beach Motors, the long-time family business started by his dad. Baldwin was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 2000.
