Christians take Faith to Surfers at Jesus Surf Classic

|PIC1|After two weeks of flat ocean conditions, Christian Surfers UK felt God provided waves for the Saturday running of the 15th Jesus Surf Classic event earlier in the month.

Christian Surfers have used the event to serve the UK's top surfers, build friendships, and share their faith with the competitors, their friends and families.

The Jesus Surf Classic was blessed with the only waves all week, for what is now one of the most popular events on the contest calendar. Despite discouraging surf predictions of flat seas by most of the best known surf forecast web sites, the first part of this year's Jesus Surf Classic was run off in good clean 2-3ft waves during the day on Saturday 8 September.

The 'Jesus', due to its increasing popularity, was split this year between the traditional event at Croyde, Devon, and the Jesus Longboard Classic to be held at Polzeath, Cornwall, over the weekend of October 6 and 7. With over 130 contestants registered for the Croyde event, and the very gloomy swell forecast, it was decided to postpone the Masters, Men's Open and juniors to the weekend of September 22 and 23.

Conditions for the remaining four categories were an answer to the prayers of the organisers, starting off on Saturday morning with a slight off shore wind and sets of around 2ft. With two peaks running, progress was swift, and by the time the tide begun to turn with sets now slightly bigger the semi finals and finals enabled all the surfers a great platform to produce a very high standard of surfing, said event organiser and head of Christian Surfers UK, Phil Williams.

In the Youth event (under 14), the final was between 3 Newquay-based surfers, and a local Beau Bromham. In a tight final, Bromham took the title ahead of Leon Mansfield, Tom Good and Jack Hughes.

The Junior Women's division (under 18) had the highest number of entrants so far, and Swansea's Beth Mason took the title from fellow Swansea resident Gwen Spurlock. Croyde's own Kathleen Spears came third and Katie Oakley from Morthoe fourth.

Tom Good from Newquay, was fourth in the cadets, just beaten by Braunton's Alex Baker, but the division was won by Woolacombe's Stuart Campbell, ahead of Luis Eyres, currently living and training in Portugal.

The women's final once again saw Beth Mason and Gwen Spurlock up against each other, and joined in the final by Croyde's Karma Worthington and Izzy Burke. This time however it was the turn of Gwen to get revenge on Beth, beating her into second place with Karma third and Izzy fourth.

Half an hour after the event was completed the conditions worsened, and a couple of hours later it was flat again, said Williams.

"This was a tough week where we felt God calling us to put our faith on the line, and with prayers around the Country, and with CS groups around the world, God did not let us down."

Christian Surfers said they were "pretty stoked" for the event to have been held in some great conditions and great weather for the younger age groups, and that they were looking forward to hosting the remaining 3 divisions later in the month.

Apart from the surfing, the activities around the event kept everyone entertained with a big marquee as the base for the plasma screen showing surf movies, food, and exhibition of the work of both Christian Surfers and Surf Relief UK.

The Saturday and Sunday skate contests both drew good crowds around the park, built especially for the weekend, with the overall winners being Jamie Mather Over 13 both days, and in the Under 13s Jake Rush (Saturday) and Dominic Heyland (Sunday). Tom Walker won the over 18s.

The Surf Relief Board signed by 120 WQS surfers was on display, and raffle tickets sold. The draw will finally take place in November, and it is hoped around £800 will be raised for the work of Surf Relief UK.

In addition to the Jesus Surf Classic this year, Christian Surfers are organising the 'Jesus Longboard Classic' based at the newly transformed church called the 'Tubestation' at Polzeath over the weekend of October 6 and 7.

"This should be a great weekend, and we are so pleased to be given the opportunity," said Williams.