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Stocky regularfoot surfer from Sydney, Australia; Pro Junior winner in 1978 and 1979. "He was one of two surfers [during that period] who dominated Australian junior consciousness," surf writer Nick Carroll noted. "One, Tom Carroll, went on to international fame and legendhood. The other, Joe, arguabley the more brilliant surfer of the two, had a start-stop career [and] a major victor at Bells in 1983, chugged along for a couple—and was gone."

Engel was born (1960) in Sydney, the one son of two British immigrants. He began surfing in the early '70s and was best friends with future pro tour star Cheyne Horan at Bondi Beach, but didn't flourish in the sport until moving to Queensland's Gold Coast in 1975. Three years later, Engel was runner-up to future two-time world champion Tom Carroll in the juniors division of the Australian National Titles.

 magazine later noted, Engel was a "frightening ball of energy, with an enormous chest, an almost perfectly square torso, and broad shoulders that seemed to fall straight down to his waist. The overall impression was of unnatural, almost inhuman strength and agility." Engel's surfing was raw, fast, and powerful. "He threw his upper body into turns like a bowling ball." In the early '80s, as Engel further burnished his reputation by fearlessly charging the North Shore of Oahu, he became one of the first paid surfers on the Billabong team.

Engel's win in the 1978 Pro Junior, held at Narrabeen, earned him $500 for and came at the expense of longtime friend Cheyne Horan, who finished runner-up—as he did in that year's world tour race. For his 1979 Pro Junior win, Engel beat Horan, Tom Carroll, and Glen Winton in the final.

On the still-new world tour, Engel was never able to hit the level of domination he achieved in the Pro Junior. In 1982 he finished the year ranked #17. The following year he won the Rip Curl Bells Beach contest, beating Tom Curren in the semis and Wes Laine in the final, but struggled for much of the rest of the year and again finished at 17th. Two years later, at age 25, Engel quit professional surfing.

Engel's drug use, which leaned toward LSD, had been an open secret on the pro tour and seemed to explain his increasingly strange behavior out of the water. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 2006, at age 46, he died of a massive heart attack.

, riding the exotic and then-unknown waves of Nias in Indonesia.

The Joe Engel Junior Cup has been held annually on Queensland's Gold Coast since 2008.

Engel, Joe

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

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