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Spring is the best time, it’s flat the months of June and July. We are used to more windswell than groundswell. Groundswell comes from an approaching front. Fall and spring it will blow onshore hard for three days and then switch to offshore winds. If the offshores aren’t that strong the swell will stay for 2-3 days max. If the offshore is strong, the swell can be blown completely flat in 2 hours.
I’d say it would be 200+ days a year. But it can be completely flat
for 2 months at a time.
The chapter started about six years ago around July 03.
My freshman year of college I came across the website of a Christian Surfers chapter in New Jersey. I contacted them and they put me on to the National Office. I wanted to know if there was any CS chapter in Texas. They told me no one was there. I was attending school 400 miles from the beach at the time and couldn’t start anything new.
I literally forgot about it for the next three years and when I moved back to the coast I suddenly remembered Christian Surfers. So I called the National Office again and got it in touch with Buck Waters and Warren Johnson who just happened to be doing an Outsiders movie showing in Texas.
That’s actually a really funny story. We were at the Outsiders movie showing and Warren Johnson came up, stuck a video camera in my face and said, “This is the new Christian Surfers chapter director in Texas!” I was startled, like what are you saying?! It ended up happening and my friends Jacob Price and Andy Quillan helped me start it.
95% of everyone who surfs here on a regular basis is chill and stoked on each other. For the most part it is really cool. There is a really tight knit group of surfers that actually live at the beach. Also, there are a bunch of surfers from Houston and really all over Texas that will drive hours to surf. The ones that drive are all connected in their little regional groups that surf.
99% of surfers have never surfed supertanker waves in Texas!
One of the most unique things is there are just a few of us that go to the same church. We have so many churches represented in our core group and members. Our group has never been formed out of one church, everyone is really open with each other and doesn’t let denominational differences interfere. The unity is amazing!
It was crazy, we do most of our surfing in Galveston and Surfside. It was really strange, there was a weirdness, a surrealness after the storm hit. A few chapter members had to gut their house, the water damage was that bad. Most of our members live inland so they weren’t as directly affected.
It really knocked the wind out of our sails, we do a lot of ministry at the local contest series and there was no way we could hold a contest. Since the storm, we just held our first contest two months ago.
We pieced meetings (Bible studies) together here and there, it was hard. We are just now getting back on their feet. Hurricane Ike came and we hadn’t had a storm like that in 20+ years.
The surf spots changed, the sand changed, one pier was completely gone, one is being torn down to be rebuilt. We didn’t have power for three weeks after the storm and no running water for quite a while either.
I like to keep it pretty simple, I started serving Jesus and surfing in seventh grade. Through Christian Surfers I can still do both, and the original inspiration was that there wasn’t anything in Texas at the time. I wanted to reach everyone in our surf community.
I recently got a job as a youth pastor farther away from the beach and our core leaders stepped up to help out. They have been amazing! Four of the same guys have been on the core team for four years and we recently added a few more that are really contributing!
Local shaper Terry Davis shaped me a red 5’11 twin fin. I got the idea from Shane McIntyre paddling it in a canal in Italy on On Surfari, a TV show on Fuel TV.
Winter temps will get into the upper 40’s and right now in the middle of summer it is 91.8 degrees!
Guys will go out really early or right before dark. The wax will melt off your board it’s so hot.
Fall and spring. The most consistent.
Never doubt what God can do for the local surf community. We have been really blown away by what God is doing and how God can open doors in the community.
Four years ago I tried to get an idea of how many people in Houston were interested in CS. I found out that there were people from all over Texas, probably enough right now for 10 chapters!
Co-directors: Jay and Jamie Blackburn
Email: jtownsurf@yahoo.com
Website: www.csgalveston.com