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Jeff Crawford, Matt Kechele, Kelly Slater, the Hobgoods, the Lopez’s and many more have honed their skills on the wedgy peak that is Sebastian Inlet. Widely regarded as one of the best, most consistent waves in Florida, it draws a crowd from all over the Southeast. This provides the nearby Vero Beach crew, headed up by Tripp Hernandez, with never ending opportunities for contest service! Here’s what was on Tripp’s heart during recent interview:
The chapter was started in 2001 by Dave Milton along with some other local Calvary Chapel guys. I took over as chapter director six months ago, having moved up from West Palm Beach 2 years prior.
I lived in Atlanta and would travel to Jacksonville to visit my grandparents and surf. I moved to Florida in ‘96 and have been here ever since.
We are really made up of 3 different areas, Melbourne Beach, Vero Beach and Ft. Pierce. All of these towns center around Sebastian Inlet. There isn’t really any surf in Vero Beach. We have guys that drive as much as 45 minutes to come to a chapter meeting so that’s pretty unique.
We don’t really have one, we have many! We have contest outreaches to Quiksilver, Volcom, NSSA, ESA, Hurley, RipCurl Gromsearch contests and others as well! Typically we have a tent with food, water, free DVD’s, Bibles, magazines, sunscreen and surf wax to hand out. There is at least one contest every month, usually more!
Not in Sebastian, we have probably 300 surfable days a year since we are north of the Bahama island chain, also not a far drive to surf in either N. or S. Florida.
I rededicated my life to the Lord 5 years ago and since then I have had a passion to reach out to surfers with the gospel. Some highlights have been handing a girl her first Bible and being able to connect with parents at surf contests that their kids are in. They see us and are excited because they realize there is another way than what popular surf culture is presenting that doesn’t involve partying and sleeping around.
Since October it’s been high 60’s-low 70’s, in summer it gets hot, we wear boardies a lot of the year. I like to support local Christian shapers, my favorite board right now is a 5’10 CT Taylor shaped quad fish, great board!
A couple things that stood out: the Sebastian Inlet members love CSUS because many have kids and they want their kids to see Christianity lived out outside the church and CS does that. Also, in talking to Tripp, the passion for evangelism and the desire to share the love of God and the good news is being lived out on the beach at Sebastian Inlet. Everyone is welcome to come volunteer!
Website: www.cssebastianinlet.com
Email: cssi@hotmail.com