European Regional Conference

Onshore winds, no swell and 10 degree temperatures are not what one expects in South West France entering summer. Even more if you are driving 17 hours from Germany for the 7th European CS Conference. However for Jonas and four other Germans coming from the river wave of Munich, they were stoked to meet Christian Surfers and get some inspiration for surf mission. 

Phil Williams did a great job gathering 35 surfers from six nations to worship, share, learn and be refreshed for mission to their nations. Special thanks to our French host the gentle giant with an overflowing household of kids - Christophe Parenty.

We heard from Joseba about the media opportunities he has to break down Christian stereotypes amongst the unreached Basque people and set up a surf culture exchange with the Irish. There was Nuno from Portugal entering surf chaplaincy. Kock and Jaap continuing to impact the Dutch Surf Association and supporting CS Brazil with a SUP paddle fundraiser event held on the Rhine River! Marc and the Spaniards are growing into a national movement after their 2nd National Conference. Andreas from Switzerland reported on more outreach surf camps being organised. The video on the UK Jesus Surf Classic revealed the long term impact of 20 years of ministry. Mark shared the huge challenges of doing surf mission to a North African Islamic nation.

And the rain kept coming. Cold and raining. We went for a surf anyway first day then next day a large windswell poured whitewash over breakwalls and showered all who would play chicken with the sea. We had a small disaster as I put diesel into a petrol car (it did have a diesel glow plug light on the dash!) and we were stranded in Hossegor. Dave Reynard helped me borrow some hose from someone's yard?!? and it became a right of passage for the trip to siphon petrol and cop a mouthful of diesel that would be burped for the rest of the day. 

The theme Phil had set was "don't wait for perfect conditions" and challenged all that after we pray and reflect we then have to move! Gill reinforced this from Psalm 73 and Johnny Hillman gave a great word from 1 Kings and God's call to Gideon to "go with the strength you have" not the strength you don't have. 

As five lively Germans headed out in their yellow VW bus the sun broke through. It had been an inspiring meeting in one of our neediest continents. Surfing has grown yet the church has declined in Europe. 

Gill has joined me child-free for this trip (a very pleasant companion) and we head off to Bristol for the next phase of our Europe trip.

South Africa Visit

South Africa. For most surfers J-Bay springs straight to mind and we were heading there in time. But getting back onto a plane my mind was on the fact that Gill was sitting next to me! (No offense to Aaron who was seated two rows in front of us.) It has been some 12 years since she had travelled on a visit with me, and this our first without children. It seemed like a long date with 2 meals, 3 movies and people waiting on us for the next 12 hours! After 22 hours door to door we finally arrived in Cape Town and down with the Oberholzer's in Noordhoek near our 'home' of Kommetjie, where we lived 3 months back in 1999. We caught up with many old friends, ran a fundraiser for CS Africa Regional Coordinator Roy Harley and did a bit of tourist stuff including a perfect day on Table Mountain. Some friends had passed on in the time since we'd lived there, like Kirk Cotrell - in glory, others had simply moved towns, some had moved countries. Tragically a 21-year-old surfer was taken by a Great White Shark the day we arrived. The CS organisers of the Longboard Classic held a couple days after the incident polled the parents about whether they wanted the event to go ahead and offered to refund any nervous competitors...the same beach was within sight. Great to see Christian Surfers on the beach there in Strand and the Son Surf School powering along as a mission business with Mik at the helm - a perfect CS blend.  

Mark Edwards drove us 8 hours up the coast to J-Bay, with a short surf at Victoria Bay along the way, and increased his speed to 160kph like a horse heading for home, even overtaking a couple of police cars. "They have more important things to worry about than a little speeding." We happily settled in with  Roy Harley and his wonder wife Sharon along with the duracell bunny boy Nathan and quiet, artistic Cailyn. After two days of board meetings, we didn't even get to do our preferred 'board' meeting as J-Bay was flat. The Second Session Op Shop was pumping 6' offshore in its new premises. Gotta love that South African entrepreneurism as local people get cheap clothes and the CS national office has its costs covered.   

The National Conference had a mixed bag of 85 surfers and skaters, white and coloured, young and old...just like heaven...well maybe the paddle-skis aren't in heaven....just joking Francois, they have a special place. Like Jesus said '...the last shall be first.' Gill spoke so well about connecting with God in authenticity even in our doubts and despair from Psalm 73 then again on how to be reconnected in failure from Psalm 51. How good is it that Jesus comes from the line of David via his adulturous murderous marriage to Bethsheba, such is the grace of God for those who would sincerely repent. The music rocked and a worship mosh pit (is that an oxymoron?) was braved by only the courageous. A training day followed with 40 receiving the 'Foundations Training' with Gill, Snoek and myself.

It was a clear flight home and again, I was treated to sitting next to Gill for another 12 hour date! Aaron stays on for another two months doing his work there...and scoring great Supertubes...

Africa is a wild perplexing continent. Such beauty, violence, gentleness and poverty. Surfing is for the affluent, but there also exists pockets of local kids all over the continent that Roy and the CS team are wanting to target. They host an Indian Ocean meeting for Reunion, Mauritius and Madagascar next month and a team is heading to Namibia this week.

CS Australia 29th Conference

I don't know what happens in 'normal' church over Easter. Since 1983 we have held our national leadership conference and it is a tradition that has continued. This year's 'National Gathering' as it is now known was so encouraging. India went up early with friends and Taylor flew up alone on the day before. This is probably the 'spiritual highlight' of the year for them. Gill and I attended just a couple of days as we are heading out to South Africa ten days later. How encouraging to see CS Australia going strong with over 200 people attending. The highlights for us included a great guest speaker, the Sunday morning paddle out forming a giant cross shape of surfers, so many new faces I had never seen before, passion for Jesus and a great National Team. Who would have thought this could have ever come to this when you considered our first National Conference in 1983. I have been writing up a history book of Christian Surfers and here is an extract from that first national gathering...

"How about we do a National Conference?"

I don't even remember who first said these words, but I do remember laughing out loud. Somehow combining something as organised as a 'national conference' with our raw 'Christian Surfers' mission seemed worlds apart. However, the appeal of having us all gathered together in the one place appealed and it was for me to follow up on this crazy idea with the other groups we were connecting with. "At least we can whip those Maroubra guys," said Hank still smarting after being beaten last expression session in a heat with them.

You have to remember that at this stage of things we were all aged between 19-25 and the national network was very sparse. We had not even personally met many of our contacts who had corresponded with via letter. However, it did seem futile to me to have us all independently developing the same needed resources and strategies. We became gripped with the idea that perhaps God was moving us to meet and maybe help us form some sort of national identity. The more this idea was floated past others the more it was affirmed.

Easter 1983 at Stanwell Tops Christian Conference Centre was set. We figured we needed more than a weekend for interstate surfers to drive and Easter always got good waves! I figured that unless we could prove we were serious about our mission, no one would treat us seriously enough to come along. Thommo drafted up the first ever conference brochure "Come and hear about what God is doing around Australia, meet some great people and surf some hot waves!" To try and get everyone there, I gave everyone a job and planned out every detail! If we were going do this, it was going to be done right! We agreed on excellence for this conference to show that Christians, even Christian surfers, could organise things as well as, if not better than any secular event.

As Easter grew near I grew more anxious. Was this really God's idea? Would they come? Who would really take this Christian Surfers seriously enough to invest the time and money? The conference centre called again to make it clear they were taking a risk with a group of surfers and I would be held responsible to pay for the whole centre at a peak booking time! I made phone calls all over the country. We sent reminder letters. We all prayed. It was like herding cats. Port Macquarie had a couple involved so we got the Hadfield's application first thanks to an organised wife. Then the Gold Coast crew sent theirs with some stickers about the Jesus Surf Classic. The Vic boys wrote, "The Mexicans are coming, Cronulla beware!" The Newcastle mob announced they would be there...and show the 'nulla boys how to surf! Coffs Harbour had no real idea who we were but sent one. One-by-one application forms came in. The week before Easter I opened a letter containing the application from Mick at Bondi - I couldn't believe it, one week out and that was EVERYONE! We had 40 surfers confirmed from every surfing ministry we were aware of. Not one was missing!

Good Friday came and one-by-one, ragged surfers and their equally ragged cars made the track to Stanwell Tops. They would be greeted by the Cronulla girls dressed as grandmothers of all things, it seemed like fun at the time?

"Mate, my kombie nearly karked it at Batemen's Bay and I'm using a heap of oil" said Grant Moresi joined by Peter Leonard, the Dell boys, Mal and the team from Melbourne.

"Greetings brothers, anyone got a spare finbox screw, my thread is stripped on this?" said Steve Bligh joined by Koala, Rob Lamont and team from Maroubra.

"Can anyone fix this rail ding, our occy strap broke and we lost a board at Taree?" said Geoff VanderVliet who had limped in from the Sunshine Coast.

"Hallelujah, praise God, lets pray and cast out any evil spirits from this anointed place!" says Kerry Ridley along with Brenton Osborne, Lestor Meadows and Pete Reidyke of Christian City Surfers.

"We got a bit lost through the city, I've never seen so many cars!" drawled Port Mac’s Luke Hadfield.

"Praise the Lord, did you see the lefthander down the end of the beach?" says Coffs Harbour's Ken Semmens.

"Hey Graveldick, what room you in?" teases Beek to Newcastle's Ian Sandecock

Finally we were able to draw all the loose threads together. We get to hear the journey of each. Some raised in conservative churches wanting to bust out. Some radically saved from drugs and alcohol. Some feeling misunderstood by their surfing community, some misunderstood by their beach community...some misunderstood by both! But all of us were feeling excited. This was a place we really did 'belong'. These were a people we felt connected with. The atmosphere was one of raw excitement. Most of us were under 25-years-old and full of energy. It was half high school camp, half mission conference, with surfing thrown in. Practical jokes ran wild as guys sought to out do one another. Andrew Dell's entire suitcase of clothing ended up hung out in a tree as I recall. There was busy competitiveness in the surf, with kneeboarders being the butt of our jokes, after all it was the 'pre-bodyboard era'. But be assured there was a very serious side to it all. Guest speaker was Richard Thackray, a former professional footballer from my church at Gymea Baptist and on staff with Student Life. Richard contrasted the world's view of the 'Messiah' vs God's view of 'Messiah' and how this should be reflected in our character and leadership particularly. I still recall this to this day. A full program was printed with talk outlines and graphic art resources included. Seminars were planned and prepared for all aspects of surf ministry.  

Passionate worship, practical workshops, exciting reports. Here we were. Christians, surfers, with a common mission to the surfing community what could possibly go wrong, right?

.........wrong!

I was quickly alerted to the fact that whilst we did look like we had a lot in common, we were, in fact, very different. The first cracks showed when the organised morning prayer meeting attended by most was disrupted when it was discover that some Pentecostals had begun another prayer meeting at another time. I remembered seeing our Brethren brothers from Victoria with hands firmly in their pockets as Christian City’s Kerry Ridley danced up a storm in worship exhorting us to raise our hands. When we decided to go out beach witnessing in pairs to approach strangers, the Anglicans and other conservatives seriously doubted the validity of this and grumbled. Some of the Baptists enjoyed the odd hymn thrown in and challenged our worship leader to divert from the more charismatic choruses. His response was to bait them with, "Sure we can accommodate you Baptists, how about 'O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing'?"

Now the conference really began to fragment into various factions. We were all relatively young Christians who had been saved and raised in the one church tradition and knew nothing of others, except the typical caricature we had been fed by our culture. Some 'knew' that all Anglicans were dead in their liturgy and apostate in their infant baptism. Others 'knew' all Pentecostals were rabid, emotionally charged heretics. Still others 'knew' that anyone from the Uniting Church was liberal and misdirected with their social concern. I was in turmoil as the organiser. Some wanted more of this, others more of that. More Bible, less worship. Less program, more surfing. More structure, less structure. Some wanted me to stop the worship leader (actually some wanted to punch him), others wanted me to free him up more. Was there too much 'Holy Spirit' or not enough...surely that is obvious looking back now! But at the time - not."

"Groundswell - the Christian Surfers Story" will be released in October 2012. Stay tuned.

CS History Book

I'm currently working on CSI's first book publication, the history of Christian Surfers, to be released in time for our International Conference in November.

The writing process has been an exciting reminder of all that God has done - come along for the ride! This is the draft of the preface to whet your appetite, more coming!

Photo of CS Australia leaders at the first Easter National Conference at Stanwell Tops, Sydney in 1983.

Christian Surfers History
"Groundswell"

PREFACE

25 August 2010
Seminyak, Bali

The swell began somewhere out in the Indian Ocean.

Several days and hundreds of kilometres later, it rolls up over the coral reefs in the warm shallows, gathers momentum and rises up briefly before collapsing into a breath-taking 6' surf on the beach at Seminyak.

It is a clear sunny day and the offshore breeze is heavy with the scents of coconut, incense and salt. Outside, the lawn is strewn with boardies, bikinis, towels and rashies. An assortment of colourful boards lean against trees and fence posts.

Inside I am standing with over two hundred people, surfers from over twenty nations from every corner of the planet. By boat, plane and even dodgy motor scooter, they have travelled to this, our 9th International Conference.

I look around the room at the sea of faces. It is like a family reunion. Different ages, different colours, different languages, different shapes and sizes. So much difference and yet so much in common; ordinary people in ordinary circumstances trusting God to do the extraordinary.

Earlier that day we had been welcomed by the flutes, drums and gongs of a traditional gamelan orchestra. Young girls performed the legong, a traditional Balinese dance known for its delicate finger movements and complicated footsteps. Ado and his team anointed us with 'holy water' in Jesus' name. Surfers from Nias served us fruit and pineapple juice for communion. It was a happy start to a great gathering, a gathering of the tribes.

Over the next days we would sing, pray, talk and encourage. There were talks and testimonies, mountains of banana pancakes and nasi goreng and in between the sharing and strategy sessions we would rush out to surf the long left reefs and punchy beachbreaks. We heard the testimony of Silas, a Niasan surfer who thought all surfers were immoral, drunk and far from God, until he met with Ado from CS and understood the truth about Jesus for the first time. All this on a Hindu island in the largest Muslim nation on earth. Who would have thought?

Standing there that day, my mind drifted back over the past 18 years, about how we have grown into a true global organization running missions and leadership training all over the world. We've got a surfer's Bible translated into different languages. We even have our own t-shirts! We've met in Hawaii, New Zealand, California, Australia, France, Brazil, South Africa and now exotic Bali. It is a surfer's dream to surf in these countries, but more than that, we've seen another dream fulfilled; the dream of taking the gospel to the surfers of these countries.

What an incredible journey it has been since me and 7 teenaged mates met in the loungeroom of my mum's old green fibro cottage in Gymea, Australia back in 1977, wondering how surfing and faith could fit together.

It's quite a story, and it's about time we told it.

So here it is...the simple story of ordinary people, in their ordinary circumstances, trusting God to do the extraordinary.

This is Groundswell, the story of Christian Surfers.

Foundations Training Day

Most of CS leadership training is via osmosis...hang around long enough and let it seep in! Now there's some real validity in this, but we have thought for a long time we should also be more intentional. CS Foundations Training is exactly that. Core foundational entry level training that we would hope any Christian leader would have clear in their head. We have run foundations training days and weekends throughout the world to test drive this and through the last year our Australiasia Regional Coordinator has been using this for training emerging leaders in Taiwan and Sri Lanka.

So it was great to take it for a spin with our local mission leaders for South NSW last Saturday. 20 crew from Batemans Bay up to Maroubra came to the lovely Coledale Rainforest Retreat to engage in 3 of the 8 topics. David Lovell the Central NSW RC chose 'Gospel Content' (the seed), 'Surf Culture' (the soil) and 'CS Fundamentals' (the sower). It was a great day with Dave covering the overview of just what CS is, myself doing surf culture (including an experiential surfing history experience in the pool) and Gill Davis covering the gospel in words. We had a 5-star meeting area, and for those who stayed over night, it was 100-stars under canvas! Special thanks to Tim and Kath for hosting us yet again.

Comments included:

• "Fantastic training, I wish the rest of our leadership team had made it!" Mick May, Batemans Bay
• "I've really got a handle on how CS works now." Paul, Maroubra
• "Such practical, well-written material...I had never been challenged to really surrender my surfing like this!" Mal MacCullum, South NSW interim RC
• "I'm so glad I came and have a refreshed vision for our mission." Joel Peterson, Shellharbour
• "So good to be reminded about the basics!" Paul Campbell, Stanwell Park
• "So stoked to get this training, it was excellant and I hope to be able to share with our team." Andrew, Ulladulla

If you have not had a chance to have some Foundations Training, talk to your mission coordinator, and soon it will all be available via video online as well, check out the beginnings of this at http://training.christiansurfers.net.

Peru

Well, I disappeared in Peru for a while and it seems a bit of Peru disappeared in me as well! I have just spent 36 hours on a drip being rehydrated after a couple of days of severe sickness upon my arrival home last Wednesday. Once I started passing blood, I was sent to ER and I was not going anywhere! It had been a long trip.

Starting with my train being delayed to the airport back on February 1 I missed my flight and had to return the next day $220 poorer for a ticket change. At least I took Gill out to the movies as an unexpected date! Late that night I was stressing as my revised plane ticket had not been sent and the office of LAN Airlines was closed. Thankfully at 5am it arrived and I headed for the airport on the train - round 2. "I'm sorry Mr Davis we can fly you to Auckland, but the flight to to Santiago is oversold by 14 seats so you won't be able to get on that flight, do you really still want to go?" Already my crazy 6 day trip has been cut to 5 so I press on...and get on. I was reading in Revelation 3 that God calls himself the one who opens things that no one can close and closes things that no one can open, so I figure if God wants me to go, there's no closing me down! Good faith building stuff, even if a bit stressful. 

I connect with a Peruvian surfer on the flight and we strike up a great conversation as he lives just around the corner from CS Peru friend Muelas. Amazing connections. I get to share my Jesus story and he believes our meeting was 'fate'. He gives me the email address of an Australian Catholic surfing priest who has been there 5 years, can you believe that? I finally see Sergio Busatto and Aldo Ventura's smiling faces at Lima airport and they have had an extra day speaking Spanish and Portuguese without me. We are transitioning the leadership for South America from Sergio to Aldo and we all sense God's hand in it. There's ceviche to eat, salt water to wash off the jet-lag and Estella, Antonella and Camilla's wonderful company as Aldo's supportive wife and daughters. I'm always struck with the grey beach-scape around Lima, the color green does not exist here unsupported. Then there's the desolate poor houses set in the dirt of dirt poor people. Some of them are surfing now. 

We leave the upper middle class and go to a local CS meeting at Pacochi's place, a radiant 57-year-old surfer with his sons and his grandchild. I'm told I would not have recognised him just 6 months ago before he received Christ. All his life he had been a dope smoking surfer hanging out on the beach selling ceviche and having his share of hard times. We are invited to his cafe next day and he insists on plying us with raw fish and mussels cooked in lime juice and a range of chillies and onion. The surf is crowded, some 40 out at Caballeros and they are surfing well. Peru has just won the ISA World Games Open Teams Title as well as the ISA World Junior Title taking out the Aussies as they are quick to tell me. This has to be the most consistent surfing location in the world. The huge Chilean swells head up north and are met with still, dry conditions. Punta Hermosa must have 12 reefbreaks in 10km and it is never flat. Pico Alto can hold 30' waves and somewhere will hold everything in between. 

The fog descends. I'm out in the lineup with the new Peru National Director Antonio 'Toñito' Farfan and we are jostling with the 20 strong crowd of 35+ year olds out before work. The lineup is just the same as anywhere in the world. I don't speak Spanish but I do speak the language of the lineup and soon take a back seat to the locals. The fog is getting thicker. Cold water and warm air combine. There's a shout from a tiny wooden fishing boat 200m out to sea. It is CS Peru founder John Chuman. I paddle out and he is greener than the color of the boat he is in. Diving overboard and resting on my board we catch up. Bobbing about in the sea with the mist swiriling about, the birds calling and his mate pulling the bottom net up and separating the fish. I leave and paddle back...but the fog has really descended. No visibiitly beyond 50m and soon I cant see anything in any direction. Straight away I think of what my life would be without Christ. Lost. Aimless. Fogbound. I hear a bit of Spanish banter and see the startled faces of some guys who see a strange gringo emerge, a gorilla in the mist. Each night is an amazing sunset with a blood red sun setting over the coastal islands.  

Heading into Lima we are able to attend church and conduct a commissioning service for Aldo and his family. Pastor Lucho is a passionate communicator and though I can't understand anything, his antics and conviction are obvious and the audience responds. I like to worship in another language and sense the community spirit of God's people as they join together. I get to meet with Bruce and Marsha Blackwell and tribe who are Aussie missionaries dedicated to teaching the Bible and are on the CS Peru board. Such a big step to live cross culturally. Outside the Lima traffic is chaotic, there are four lanes of traffic for the two lane road and we get stuck between two narrowing buses at one stage and I thought we were gone. Horns honk continuously and somehow everyone gets by. Inside with the church service it is a small oasis of peace and community. 

All the way I have taken Skegman the mascot for the 2012 International Conference and he features in many photos for his upcoming Facebook page. A final night with John Chuman and family and I am whisked off to the airport, barely five days there. So I find myself back home and recovering. I love the Peruvian food, but maybe it didn't love me back. "It was LAN Brett. Those Chileans don't know how to cook!" explained John on Skype today. The Peru/Chile rivalry runs high!