Brett Davis - founder of Christian Surfers shares how Christian Surfers came to be. And how ‘Living the Call’ all those years prior catalysed a global movement of surfers spreading the good news of Jesus in lineups around the world.

The Cronulla House Revival. It was 1982 and I had been struggling along helping lead our fledgling CS group for some four years and we had grown it to about 15 ragtag groms.

To be honest, my biggest struggle was self-doubt as a leader. I was so reluctant as I believed that ‘leadership’ was a personality type, a BIG personality, and I didn’t have that.

We were suburban surfers, four train stops from Cronulla beach and in that sense didn't see ourselves as true ‘locals’. So, it was a huge step when our leadership team decided to step out and start renting our first apartment as a kind of Christian Surfers drop-in centre.

We quickly outlived The Gosport Street unit when groms were caught peeing on the neighbours’ lawn and moved to a free-standing house on Elouera Rd. The garage was converted to a surfboard storage rack and kids started piling in. Then we were astonished when the Kingsway house became available, and we sensed God’s miraculous timing and favour. We were now on the major intersection of Cronulla with Northies pub and Jokers nightclub across from the CS house.

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15 kids became 30 then 60, then 120 until some 200 teenagers were using our home and CS club nights were pushing 80 noisy groms. I realised that God has to grow us as leaders before he could grow through us and we needed to be faithful in small things before we would be entrusted with greater things, and greater things they were!

All kinds of young surfers came through our doors and found a home at the beach, regardless of their surfing ability or what they rode. We were the only Boardriders club to include bodyboarders and girls.

Weekends were packed with Bible study and worship on Sunday along with ‘beach witnessing’, sharing our faith with random people on the sand. Kids who would never go to a church ended up in the CS house and there were many reckless antics and bold discipleship.

Many kids became Christians, some went on to train for ministry, others fell away. Other kids just rode on our hospitality and never embraced the faith. Some ended up in jail, some died but most recall fondly their CS days as their only Christian encounter.

The entire surf community knew we were there and perhaps it was best summarised by emerging hot local Mark Occhilupo (who went on to win a world title) who said in his first ever interview in Surfing World magazine “….in Cronulla they're either drug addicts or Christians”.

What a difference one small group of guys could make, by simply opening their home and their hearts.

In a hedonistic sport, God raised up a group of culture shifters - surfers who lived the call and, in doing so, catalysed a global movement of surfers being salt and light in lineups around the world.

Today, Christian Surfers exists in nearly 50 nations, united by the vision of giving every surfer the opportunity to know and follow Jesus.

We need your help to keep this mission firing.

Right now, we’re working to raise AUD$15,000 to fill a critical funding gap and ensure we can keep moving forward.
Join us in living the call—so we can continue reaching surfers with the revolutionary message of Jesus.

Join us in living the call