Please install Flash® and turn on Javascript.
10th St., Atlantic Beach. Learned how to surf there, guys wouldn’t know me from the Poles or the Pier but I do surf the south jetties.
Jon Culbreth and Donny Oxley (first co-directors) are surfers who grew up in Jacksonville and worked in youth ministry as young married guys. They wanted to reach the people who didn’t feel comfortable in church and prayed for years about it. Jon stumbled on the Christian Surfers website back in around 1996. At 12:30 in the morning Jon called Donny and says, “You won’t believe what I found!” Along with them there was a whole group that had surfed together for years and they went ahead and started it. 10 years later I (Trey Brunson) moved to Jacksonville. I was in a discipleship group taught by Jon and got involved in Christian Surfers. When Jon’s mother started having health problems Jon handed over the chapter temporarily as the interim chapter director.
Asher Nolan, Steve Moore, Gabe Kling, Greg Taylor, Aaron Frosio, Jon Holmes.
His dad is a pastor at First Baptist Church Dallas and moved as a pastor to First Baptist Church Jacksonville. So I came to work on the business side of the church but it has morphed into working as an acting outreach director. I grew up in Virginia Beach as a kid but didn’t learn to surf until moving to Jacksonville.
We are a very diverse chapter. Jacksonville is a huge area, the biggest land mass of any city in North America besides Anchorage, Alaska. So you have people that come from different counties to the chapter.
Chapter member Lockwood could have been a pro wakeboarder, he was captain of the Furman football team and an amazing surfer. We range from him all the way to me, someone from Dallas that just started surfing three years ago!
Our chapter comes from all backgrounds and abilities and through the team there is no one that God sends across our path that we can’t reach! We really are a team ministry and we operate out of that strength.
Cal and Coral Fisher in 2007 or 2008 called for us to help with the National Kidney Foundation. We had 13 guys in one hotel room with all their boards and gear!
Back in August 08, we took a CS mission trip to Cuba. We got in 10 hrs. late, it was 1:30 in the morning. We had a full four day itinerary that involved surfing, teaching, giving away things, sightseeing etc. We met our Christian guides at the airport and they told us to divide into groups of two and each team was going to a different home to speak. We didnÕt see each other for four days! We didn’t know if everyone was ok but it all worked out. We found the local surfers from Cuba and gave them wax, leashes baggies, boards, showed Noah’s Arc in downtown community center. It was exciting to be able to work with surfers from the ground up.
I really have been catching the vision from Dean, around the flame you catch the heat. I started CS with the goal of wanting to become a surfer, but God broke my heart for surfers and for this community. I really view the beaches as mission fields and each group of people that localize those places as a tribe. My goal for Jacksonville is to have 4 or 5 guys in each surfing area that are Christian Surfers so there is a witness at every surf spot.
Also, we have 10-15 regular attendees at our monthly core team meetings and I want to see all of them raised up eventually to a place of leadership and influence.
I have 2 boards, depending on the size of the waves. One is a 9Õ2 Stewart veneer wood longboard and the other is a Paul Hires 7’5 thruster fish. Paul Hires is an amazing Christian shaper in the area and he glassed into the board a CS Who do you surf for? and a Celtic AFG, All for God!
Average air temp of 72 degrees. Coldest air it got to this year was 19 degrees! Water temp right now is 68-70. February is the coldest water month and this year we even surfed one day with high 40Õs water. My friend I was surfing with got to the beach and threw up after surfing he was so cold! I’m buying gloves and a hood for next winter.
For me, September/October/November. All the good surf comes through then, it’s all about hurricane season! There is so much excitement for me that comes with storms now, can’t wait to get in the water. The wind is howling, one hurricane last year we had sunglasses on because the hail was so bad while we were surfing.
We serve a great God and it is amazing to me that the God we serve creates the waves we love. In Psalms it says that God creates the waves! When waves are coming I know that they are from God’s love for us. But I also know that every time I am out God created the waves to give me an opportunity to share his love with others.
Website: www.christiansurfersjax.com
Email: csusjax@yahoo.com