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 First Girls Group. Surfing in the 70s was very much a male-dominated sport, and girls were not welcome…..well not in the surf anyway, but certainly for any sexual encounter in one’s vehicle. Girls were a surfer’s ‘accessory’ to be on the beach in a bikini waiting for ‘the man’ to come in.

The few girls who bravely paddled out were met mostly with scorn and not given any waves.

It was brutal and sexist.

Our local beach gave birth to the novel ‘Puberty Blues’ which says it all. “What do we do with the girls?” was asked early on with the opening of the Christian Surfers house in Cronulla as suddenly all kinds of beach girls were turning up.

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The CS club was struggling to maintain its credibility as a legitimate ‘Board riders Club’ and the early leaders were wondering if ‘beach girls’ would jeopardise this?

However, a core group of young girls were also surfers and learning to surf, and the decision was made to welcome them (as Jesus does!) and be unique in including all kinds of surfers (we eventually included bodyboarders as well, another notorious step!).

However, the charged adolescent environment made us realise we needed a separate girls group, and house for them to go deeper in their discipleship.

Wendy McKern & Anne Loftburgh. Cronulla. Circa 1984

Gill was the obvious leader to take this on, and just was there was a thriving guys house, she launched a women’s house with the girl leaders.

Gill reflects on this era…“There was such a derisive culture around women in surfing and we wanted to show a different way, God’s way. Even though the guys initially struggled with having girls there - CS began as a male groms ministry- we all came to see that Jesus’ mission was inclusive and girls were an important part of the surf culture.

So many girls found not only a safe place to surf and safe guys to hang with, but also found Jesus and a dynamic life with him.

The girl’s house was regularly filled with women exploring faith and life issues and finding a new way of living.

The girls got their own heat in the contests and special teams challenges and wore the identifying CS clothing. We did experiment with regular mixed CS nights, and they were wild attempts of impressing one another with mixed results - including being banned from every Pizza Hut in our immediate area.

But overall, we set a whole new culture for women (and men!) that eventually permeated the movement of CS. It’s quite remarkable what God can do when a handful of girls take the risk and become culture makers.”

p.s. Gill went on the marry BD and together they pioneered CS Australia and CS International.

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