Weekend Board Visit

Took an extra workday over the weekend to meet with Bill Hogan, CS Board member. We discussed the CSUS financial system and ways to improve it. It was great to hang with Bill, who really has a heart to serve the ministry and to reach surfers. Dean stopped by during Bill's visit, and we talked strategy and fundraising and other particulars. Bill showed off his Quiksilver/CS bookbag, pictured above.


In other news, there was a tremendous snow storm for pretty much the rest of the East Coast. The parents sent us some photos from Virginia Beach, which received between 6-10 inches of snow on Sunday. That's a once in a decade occurrence, the last time I remember snow like that was in 1996. Not missing the snow too much here in Florida!

Secret Spot Session

Surf Expo

I played hooky from Surf Expo, but Dean and a few other people from CS in Florida went out there, and I heard it was a solid event. We've tried to up our game each time, and serve the folks there in better ways each year. Beginning in 2009, we started helping the booths tear down, always the part of the Expo that the companies dislike the most. Last year, one vendor told us how much he appreciated us helping him carry his stuff out, nearly to the point of breaking down. Some things that we don't think much of can have a huge impact on someone else - you never know where they're at in their lives.

Palm Beach Trip

A little North swell was running today... so we did what any surfer would do that's freezing their booties off, we headed to Palm Beach! With 70 degree water and 6' of swell, it turned out to be a great call. The car was at maximum carpool capacity with Andy Butler, Kyle Linsly, Owen Murphy, and Troy Smith (in town on vacation from VB). Even though the water felt great, we were in fullsuits because of the 30 degree air temps. Well, all of us except Troy, who trunked it. Only bummer was getting a ticket - we parked in what appeared to be an open lot only to find out that it was private parking for a country club. There was a tiny sign behind some bushes at the far end of a the rectangular lot. I think they don't put up more signage on purpose to get more revenue. Guess next time we'll park at Carrie's house and walk in!

Christmas

Christmas is a big enough event that it should take two postings to tell all about it, right? Ezra is still a little too young to enjoy it, he spent most of his time in the other room playing with drink coasters. He did get a giant anamatronic dinosaur named Koda. It is so big that we couldn't fit it in the car with us, so it stayed in VA, guess we'll have to pick it up next time. Jen got mostly dance stuff and I got a Blu-Ray player. I'm looking forward to setting it up next time and seeing if there is any difference.

Christmas Gift - The Deuce

So.... the big gift this year was one Ezra got to open. It was a tee shirt that read, "I may be little, but I'm the BIG BROTHER." That's right, we are expecting a 2nd child sometime this summer!

More news / pictures / info coming as we find out exact dates and gender later into the pregnancy...

Twas the Week Before Christmas...

Getting ready to travel to VB for the holidays, lots of stuff to pack and fit in our little car. Don't know how we'll be able to do this should another kiddo be added to our family. We leave on Christmas Eve Eve, Ezra will be in the car all day long. He doesn't seem to mind until South Carolina or so. We try to hold off the videos, "use in case of emergency" instead of just keeping them playing. One of us sits in the back with him to read him stories and interact as much as you can in a car. 2000 miles in 10 days, glad we don't live any further away.

Free Time

Didn't do too much this weekend - after a busy fall with something going on each time we turned around, it's nice to not have much going on for a change. There was a bit of surf on Sunday afternoon, and CS member Caleb Randall shot some video of me and some friends off the pier:

New Chapter Training

Hadn't been to a new chapter training in a while, and got the opportunity to attend one pretty close - Ponce Inlet, to be exact. Ponce is a sister chapter of Daytona, which meets about 25 minutes up the beach road. Most of the leaders have been involved in the Daytona chapter for quite some time, so it's good that they already know what a chapter looks like. We held the meeting a local church, which had a beautiful chapel that had been around for over 100 years. Looking forward to a January kick off for the new chatper!

Thanksgiving Part 2 of 2

Got to lay low a bit early this week with no work or committments while in VB - nice to have some time off during your time off. Went to Grandparent Greene's house for Wed/Thurs. They had not seen Ezra in a year, so last time he was there he was just rolling around and not even crawling yet. Wild what a difference a year makes! Jen did the typical 4AM shopping on Friday - I made the mistake of going out with her once and that will not happen again so I stayed at the house. Attended Sawyer Bush's 1st birthday party on Saturday after a long morning in Williamsburg (ladies had not done enough shopping yet). KPC on Sunday, they are building a new building/center on 500 acres near TPC. Long drive home through medium traffic and lots of left-lane hangers.

Picture from Williamsburg, one of the many pretty pieces of architecture >>>

Thanksgiving Trip - Part 1 of 2

We decided to come to VA early this year, hoping to get a little more time with family than usual. This is one of our 4 VB trips in 5 months (Prep School in August, Missions Weekend at Atlantic Shores in October, Thanksgiving, and Christmas). Ezra survived the trip well (or maybe it was us who survived him?), despite only sleeping for 1 hour all day. The DVD player got a workout, thanks Carrie and Jose for getting that for us for Christmas last year! Next update will be the rest of the trip, complete with the obligatory family photo from Turkey Day...

This image is from the Hampton CS chapter's fundraiser luncheon >>>

Another Comp - NSB's Before the Fall

Went down to another contest this weekend - this time in New Smyrna Beach.  The local chapter of CS down there puts on arguably the highest level pro contest run by a christian surf organization.  The level of talent that enters each year rivals a WQS contest, and the just rewards of $2000 cold cash to the finalists ensures they'll show.  For the first time this year the event was covered by Eastern Surf Magazine, which is a feather in the cap for any contest director.  I didn't surf in it this year, but enjoyed helping out a little by doing some MC work.

Click here for the whole story by ESM...

Slater Invitational in Cocoa Beach

Was another busy weekend (seems like a lot of these lately?) for us, attending the Slater contest in CFL. We went down late Thursday night, in hopes to be on the beach and not miss any action on Friday. Funny how it works, though, ended up getting to the beach later than we would have had we driving from St. Aug that morning. Did have a pre-comp errand to run (new board - thanks Coil), so it wasn't just sleeping in. Well, Kelly wasn't at the contest much, evidently he wasn't feeling well and pulled out of the event. Bummer, as many of us came long distances to watch his heats in particular. So, no pics with Ezra and K-9 this year, just one of the contest setup and us at the tent.

Halloween

 Jen and I are not that in to dressing up, but of course we make Ezra and Slater do it.  Ezra is Yoda and Slater is a Court (cat) Jester.  Neither one of them wanted to keep their headwear on.  A few people didn't know what Ezra was, a few guessed a cow or a sheep (never seen either of those with green ears)!

It's warm enough in FL that we get to hang out on the front porch and hand out candy in lawnchairs.  A nice change from Halloween in winter coats in the mid-Atlantic.  Jen did visit the homes closest to us with Ezra - so, even though brief, this was his first official trick-or-treating experience.  Mom and dad still get to eat all the candy, though...

Hermosa Beach 2 0 0 9 Conference

Just getting back from 2 lengthy weeks of travel, and boy are we tired! Usually the conference in itself is tiring enough, but to add the ASBC Mission Weekend before it made us extra thankful to be home and in our own bed.

The conference went well - great to see everyone again and we happened to catch a good swell the entire time. The main trainers were Dave and Rennie Garda, who run Cadre Ministries, and are really sharp folks. Their training is all about building intentional relationships, which should be an important thing in all our of Christian lives. We're looking forward to seeing the results of the training and the conference for Christian Surfers in 2010.

Click this link to check out all the photos from the Hermosa Beach conference.

Missions Weekend at Atlantic Shores

We had a great opportunity to share about Christian Surfers this weekend. We had a total of 6 presentations/speaking gigs/booths setup, which made for little down time. Most of what we did speaking-wise was Q&A time - we had a list of questions and let the audience interject their own as well. Jen and I aren't really public speakers, so this was the best option for us rather than a 45-minute monologue. All in all, we were able to tell a lot more people about what it is that CS does, and get to know about other ministries as well.

Tommy Tant

Jen and I were at the 10th annual Tommy Tant this weekend. The contest is a benefit event for a scholarship fund. Tommy was a Flagler Beach, FL surfer than died of a brain aneurysm in his early 20s. His brother, pro surfer Will Tant, and parents now run the contest each year.

CS had a booth on the beach giving away free food and drinks. We have sponsored the contest in the past, but only financially due to it's proximity to our own Turkey Classic contest. This year we wanted to truly help out and actually have a presence on the beach. We helped with site setup and had a security team that slept on the scaffolding. It was a great event to be a part of that was blessed by ESE groundswell courtesy of tropical storm Henri.

To the right is a photo taken off the Eastern Surf Magazine website - check the CS tent in the foreground...

New EPC Pictures

What everyone wants to see - 18 month pics of Ezra...

CS International Council in St. Augustine

The council of Christian Surfers Int'l are in St. Augustine for their annual meeting. They/we are hashing out all manner of agenda - everything from governance to individual projects that are happening across the globe. It is really neat to hang out with and learn from all the people from a variety of countries.

Only bummer is that the surf has gone nearly flat. Well, flat for them and still somewhat rideable by FL standards. We have had waves for nearly a month and it had to go flat eventually, but I was hoping it would stall for another week and bring these guys some waves during their stay.

In attendance - Richard Agius (AUS), John Mak (AUS), Stewart Hunt (AUS), Brett & Gillian Davis (AUS), Cal Fisher (USA), Roy Harley (ZAF), Alan Vink (NZL), Aaron Hughes (AUS), Phil Williams (UK), Sergio Busatto (BRA), Marcus Judge (AUS), Steve Bailey (AUS), Dean Plumlee (USA), me (USA)

Missions Weekend at Atlantic Shores

On October 17-18, Jennifer and I will be participating in a missions conference in Virginia Beach. The weekend is being hosted and held at Atlantic Shores Baptist Church, and has four different events within it. First, there will be a Saturday AM breakfast, with the church staff in attendance. Next, Saturday evening will be a few 20 minute "breakout" meetings of sharing what our ministry is all about. Sunday morning we'll have a booth just outside the sanctuary, and be speaking to the middle and high school groups. Lastly, Sunday night will conclude the festivities with a talk at 757 Connect, a 18-30s singles group.

It should be a great weekend of sharing what the Lord is doing in Christian Surfers, and meeting some new people that may have a heart for reaching surfers.

Surf Lessons at the Pier

Was asked by PIT Surf Shop to help out with surf lessons at the pier this past Saturday. It was for of the 50th anniversary for St. Augustine Beach, not to be confused with the 500th anniversary of St. Augustine proper. The weather wasn't great, so not that many people showed up. The good news was that there was a lot of surf, so having a smaller group was better than too many in the rough seas. There might be a video of all the events coming soon, I'll post a link if I can find it...

1.) Ezra and me hanging out
2.) The second batch of surf students

Labor Day

We got a call early this morning that there was an event that CS Jacksonville was doing in the middle of the state. Since we travel inland so rarely, and the surf wasn't all that great, we decided to spend Labor Day in Lake Hampton, FL. We got to wakeboard and skurf, something Jennifer and I had never done before.

Another video is posted on CS' YouTube channel.

Want to Serve?

The annual Eastern Surfing Association Championships are right around the corner. Held each year on the Outer Banks in September and drawing a few hundred competitors from Puerto Rico to the Great Lakes, Easterns are a great opportunity to serve the surfing community. 2008 was our first year for this, and we helped out by directing traffic in the Lighthouse parking lot. While not our typical area of service, this is what the ESA requested and told us was their biggest area of need. This year the dates are the 20th-26th of September, e-mail info@christiansurfers.com if you want to be put on the list to serve.

Little Billy Interrupts Surf Expo

Got great swell all weekend thanks to mega-Hurricane Bill. Got to get out there each day and had a great time enjoying how nice it can be when a storm stays offshore. The Bill swell did happen to occur on about the worst weekend of the year for the people in the surf industry - Surf Expo. CS had a booth there, and some of the volunteers said that the show was pretty empty on the last day (Saturday). That was the best day of the swell, so many canceled their business meetings and went out instead - typical surfers!

Why Colorado? Last year, all the staff guys surfed too much. There was a hurricane coming up the coast, and the best few days of surf in Rhode Island in 2008 happened to be when we were there. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty much the whole time, so the ladies were inside a lot watching the kids. This year, we decided that we needed to go somewhere without surf (although we did talk about river surfing), to make sure we showed love to our wives. Praise God we got a great home to stay in (thank you Speed family), and Colorado Springs was a beautiful place to spend a week. The weather was wonderful, warm but dry, and the mountains were incredible. You can check Jen's Facebook page for more photos and some videos, too.

Also, if you are ever in Denver, check out Grace Chapel. Senior Pastor John Zivojinovic drove 2 hours each day to share & teach us each day about living missionally and being "the church."

Prep School Review

Had a really good time at Prep School over the weekend. It is always good to meet people face to face that you have been contacting through e-mail only. It's amazing how many of our relationships are built online first, then we finally meet them. But about Prep School - Had about 25 people there, all from the East Coast, do do 12 hours worth of training on being intentional when building relationships with our friends. So often we have only a surface-level friendship with people, and never drill down to see where they are spiritually. The training was all about taking it to the next step with these people, even if the next step is just hanging out and getting to know them better. There should be a link up in a few weeks from the CS site, but in the meantime, check this...

link to about 500 more photos on Flickr

Ministry Update Meeting in Virginia Beach

It was great to see so many people during our trip to VB and during our ministry update. Sorry that Ezra was sleeping during the whole thing - if you stayed later he did get up eventually! We got to premiere the new CS video, which does a really good job showing why it is we are involved with this ministry. We should be home again during the holidays, if you missed us then we'll see you then...

Conference Video and Photos

Had a great time in El Salvador for the last week. Kinda ready to get home and see the wifey and kiddo, too. Met up with a lot of CS folks from around the world, even our international director Brett Davis was there. BD founded CS in Australia 35+ years ago, and began linking the other countries together in the mid 1980s. I don't think he ever thought he'd be at a reginoal conference with 80 people there! Waves were really good the whole time, too. The trip coincided with a big south swell that all the surf website were documenting, so we were certainly blessed.

Now just one more week and we'll be in Virginia for the Hatteras Prep School. We're going up a few days early so that we can hang out with our support team and visit our home church Atlantic Shores. Looking forward to being in the area for the first of many trips this year...

5 minute video...

group photo at the rock

dinnertime at the hotelpraise and worship

conference coordinator salvador with local groms
local kid surfing out front of the hotel
link to more photos (over 500, with more videos, too)

El Sal Here I Come...

Figured it was a good time to write, as I'm sitting in the Miami airport with an hour left until my flight takes off. I'm headed to Playa Tunca, El Salvador through Guatemala City. Why fly to Guatemala, you ask? Well, I was trying to get a cheap flight and the closest was there. But, looks like now that the guy who was supposed to pick me up can't make it anymore. So, that leaves me using all the money I would have saved and spending it on a rental car. Oh well, guess I should have picked the simplier journey over saving a few hundred dollars.

Many pictures and maybe even some video of the trip coming next week.

ESA Contest

After 4 consecutive postponements, the Eastern Surfing Association finally had their third contest of the year. CSSA was on site to serve food and drinks, and just to have a place in the shade for people to hang. We did our usual morning devo right there, and it turned out pretty good with many of the competitors coming over to check it out.

>pic of some groms about to go out in their heat >

Happy 4th!

We celebrated Independence Day a day late this time around. A church just outside our neighborhood, Turning Point, was had a big event yesterday night that included fireworks. We saw the Richardsons there, our friends that own the PIT Surf Shop. In fact, we found out from their website that the event was happening. Ezra didn't like the fireworks too much until we put him in the car and the sound was muffled enough for him to enjoy the visuals.

>>> the picture isn't of the fireworks, it's my desktop image on my computer, but it's the closest thing I had to a fireworks picture to post >>>

Commissioning Service at Family Worship Center

Father's Day Weekend

After a whole year of being a dad, this Father's Day felt more official than the last one. We didn't do a whole lot, Ezra was sick so we didn't go to church, and Jen had to work in the afternoon. I did get a few neat things:

• Swedish Fish (the big bag)
• Best of The Colbert Report
• Remote Control Mouse (to annoy the cat)
• A New Surfboard

The last thing requires a little explanation. I was competing in an online contest a local shop was putting on. They have 8 challenges, and for each challenge they are giving away a surfboard. I won the first challenge after working on it for 6 weeks. They did a little interview with me and posted it on their website. The picture to the right is me picking up the board on Saturday.

July Trip

Just got the OK to book my tickets to the 1st "Americas Conference" to be held in La Libertad, El Salvador. I haven't been out of the country for a Christian Surfers International (CSI) event since Brazil in 2006, so I am excited to see everyone again and catch up. The picture to the right was the 2007 Latin American Conference. The idea this year was to name it differently so that all the entire hemisphere knew they were invited to attend. I will be representing the US during the policy meetings before the conference starts. Special thanks to the donor who made this trip happen (you know who you are)!

MOSH

Bank of America has a deal for it's cardholders that you get in free to a variety of museums during the 1st weekend of each month. Jen found this out and this past weekend we went to MOSH - Museum of Science & History in Jacksonville. Ezra is still a little young to really understand the exhibits, but he likes to watch all the kids run around, and he also likes anything that moves. There were some critters on display, but his favorite thing was the dinosaurs. They were animatronic, so they moved around and made noises and had Ezra entranced. Probably if he was a little older he might have been scared, but he didn't know that he was supposed to be...

Pic 1 - Ezra relating a bit more to the baby Stegosaurus

Pic 2 - Ezra got his first introduction to snakes this week, but not at the museum. There was a 2' garden snake sunning itself on our driveway when we got home from some errands the other day.

Pic 3 - This was the only turtle that wasn't asleep inside his cage. Ezra slapping him 5.

Jen's Recital

Jen had her yearly recital this weekend, this time held at the beautiful Flagler Auditorium. She was in 3 pieces and choreographed 2 others. If you didn't know Jen taught classes, you can check out her studio, On Pointe Dance Center. Jen really likes teaching, so it's nice that the studio is only a few minutes from our house in the World Golf Village.

Ezra liked a few of the dances, most notably the belly dancing number. Must be all the clinking and bright colors, or maybe the older women, we're not sure. For the rest of the show, he ran around in the empty balacony and had a lot of fun taking a night on the town.

The picture on the left is just an overview of the auditorium, with a dance number that Jen is not in. The second picture, of course, is a closeup of Jen that the photographer took of her during the dress rehearsal.

Writing...

Continuing the "I'm famous" line from last week...
One thing I've wanted for a while was my own handwriting as a font. Well, Jen found a site Font Grinder, where you can do that for $14.95 (some others cost $50 or more). So that was a birthday present this year, along with a George Foreman Grill JC found for $20 (a whole 'nother story on that one). I guess the people on the site liked my crazy person handwriting, so they asked if they could use it on their Examples Page.

RBC Poster

check me out - I'm famous

;)

Baptism

There was a baptism during our local chapter meeting this past Saturday. It was neat to see a whole crew of surfers out there supporting the baptizee, Denny. Denny is a California native that has been exposed to truth for a while, and recently made a decision to accept Christ as his personal savior.

We had to leave right after, but I heard Denny went out with his baptismal robe and tried to hang 10 on a longboard!

Many blessings to you, Denny, as you take a step of faith and publicly acknowledge Him!

More Road Trips...

Since Carrie & my 29th b-day was on Tuesday, we wanted to get together this weekend. Instead of either of us staying the weekend at each others houses, we decided to meet in the middle in Melbourne. The weather was great and it was a nice beach day, although the waves were small.

It's funny, every year Jen asks me what I want to do for my birthday, and all I ever say is that I want to do a beach day. So often when I surf it is for a limited time because of work or family duties, so I really long for those 8AM-8PM beach days I used to be able to do when I was younger. It's a great feeling to get really "surfed out" so much that your legs feel shaky when you get out of the water. That didn't happen this weekend, but at least we tried...

2008 Report

At the beginning of each year, we ask each chapter to report on the previous year. We're just at the point now where we've collected just about every stat from '08, so were putting that into the Annual Report. One figure, which will appear in the May Newsletter for CSUS, was pretty astonishing... Last year, there were 1369 outreaches/chapter meetings. These were events where truth was shared and love was shown to surfers. As a result, many people have come to know the Lord, or recommitted their lives to Him. Look for the online version of the Annual Report to be on the web in about a month.

Local Contest

Our local chapter of Christian Surfers did a contest over the weekend. This is in addition to the Turkey Classic we do every year, but a lot smaller and trying to reach a different crowd. The contest has a waiting period of an entire month, so we were set only to happen when the waves got good. This is opposite from most contests, which run on specific days. Changing up the format, we hoped to hang out with and serve some of the sponsored and professional surfers, most of which do not surf in the Turkey Classic. If you want to see a full report on the event, and lots more details, click here for the contest website.

Gulf Day-Trip

Got to go on a mid-week surf trip on Wednesday, something that doesn't happen all that often. But you've got to go when the boss orders it! Not really, but Dean organized the trip and the transport, I was responsible for picking out the spot. Don't know if it was good news or not, but we ended up probably the most crowded spot in the Gulf. I think about 1/2 the crew out there were East Coasters, which probably bums out the locals a bit. Oh well, they come over to surf this site pretty often too, I'd imagine. Here's a few links:

photos i took photos of me and the guys i went with video of some pros at the same spot

"Spring Fling" contest in Ormond

I've been trying to make it down to the Daytona chapters' contest for a while now. Last year, Ezra had just been born, and in '07 I was signed up but twisted my ankle and couldn't surf or be much help. This year, PC came down with me and we helped out by judging most of the day. The event was scheduled to run Saturday and Sunday, but they didn't get the amount of entries to do that so they finished up on Saturday only. The Turkey Classic in November was similar, we were a bit off the previous year's attendance, we're thinking due to economic reasons.
Here is a shot of the park where the event was held, where everyone stows their gear in between heats...

1st B-Day

A year ago, things were a lot different...

Ezra's was born one year ago today - at 6AM.

Here are some photos from his birthday party this weekend...

(family photo on the jungle gym)

eating the birthday cake

alligator cupcake

car ride with balloons to look at

Christian Surfers St. Augustine Beach Event

Now that the weather has gotten warmer, the local chapter is starting up again...

We just did our first of many beach "surf & study" sessions. We meet at the beach and do a quick devo, with a surf session either before or after. Our first time out we had a pretty good crowd in attendance. Hope the trend continues, and we are able to impact a lot of surfers with the Gospel in '09.

First Steps

I'm writing this one day after the date on this post - I couldn't wait until next Monday - Ezra did his first steps on Tuesday evening. I had set up a little course for him in the TV room so that he could walk all the way around the room while holding onto the couch and coffee table without having to crawl. He must have really gotten the idea (or maybe it was the inspiring film, "Rudy" playing in the background), and he took 2+1 steps. The first 2 were real, but the +1 was on the way down already.

Bummer is that Jen was at work at On Pointe Dance Center, so she did not see it in person. I called her immediately and left a voicemail, though!

The video to the right is us trying to recreate the event the next day. (oops - no video - got deleted - but it was just us holding Erza up to walk but he only wanted to lay down and crawl)

ESA Event

The local ESA (Eastern Surfing Association) had an event this weekend at Bill MacDowell's house. It was an oyster roast (or fry, or whatever you do with oysters, I dunno, I don't eat them), with about 50 ESA members in attendance. Bill called me about a month before to see if CS would donate it's projector and sound system so that they could show a surf movie during the night. We got it all set up and they showed "Surf's Up" for the groms. Even though our projector and screen cost a lot of money up front, they have proved invaluable for local events and partnering up with other organizations.

More Friends in Town

Seems like we have had quite a few visitors lately - this week it was Toni Eichhorn's family and Melodie Brown. Toni only got to stay for one night (they were just stopping by on the way to the airport), but Melodie was here for a few days. We did the tour of downtown, watch some movies, and Jen and Mel got to see a ballet. The weather was a lot better this week, which was nice for the visitors to get some of that as opposed to their weather back home. If you are reading this, let us know if you are driving by St. Auggie next time - we're only a mile off the interstate.

Bike Day at FWC

Our church held its annual "Bike Day" yesterday. It is an event meant not to gather a group of motorcycle-riding Christians, rather, get non-Christians who are in town for Bike Week (in Daytona) to an evangelistic event for a day. Lots of people at our church (including our pastor), ride, so it is a great venue for something like this. This year we were outdoors for the first time, using our back lot that was filled to the brim with vendors and people. The weather was perfect, just about 70 out and sunny. Ezra liked church better this time, too, because he got to walk around the whole time on top of a nearby table.

Nanna & Pop in Town

Mr. & Mrs. Dantonio were in town for Valentine's Day / weekend. Fred had a dental conference in Orlando previously scheduled, so it was a great weekend to spend an extra day in St. Aug and have Jane fly down to meet up. The highlight of the weekend was probably going to the fort, which neither Jen or I had ever been inside of. The bummer was that as soon as we got on top of it to take our pictures, the rain started and cut us short. It was a great getting to spend all weekend with them since at Christmas it seems like we are always going to the next event and have little time at home.

Staff Anniversary

Wow - I've been working for CS for 4 years now! Hard to believe it has been that long, but I guess a lot has changed in that time period. When we first got to St. Augustine, we moved into a house at the beach that was also the CS National Office at the time. It was great to have a 15 second commute right downstairs and to the desk! When I first began working, my job title was "National Manager," which I'm still not sure what that means exactly. Because CS is so small everyone is a jack of all trades, and we just do whatever needs to be done. Some of the projects I've worked on - magazine design, cutting checks, website management, bulk mailings, membership, conferences, travel arrangements, sponsorships, and the list goes on. It's been a truly rewarding experience, and I hope for many more years with Christian Surfers.

Trip to South Florida

We took a quick trip to Carrie & Jose's house this weekend. I had a bunch of Surfer Bibles to deliver to the chapters down there, and figured we'd stay through the weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl with the fam. There also happened to be a little swell down there, so it was nice to surf in the clear blue water in Palm Beach. Ezra had fun crawlwalking up the stairs, since we don't have any in our house.

ASR

ASR stands for Association of Surfing Retailers, and it is another show, like Surf Expo, for everyone to show off their new stuff. ASR is held in San Diego, so the CA chapters really helped out gather the volunteers needed. National Director, Dean Plumlee, also went out for it, actually on his way to a bunch of meetings in Hawaii. Special thanks go out to Stan Bryson, who has been planning and directing the ASR show since Jason Menke (former West Coast Regional Coordinator) left full-time CS work in Spring of '08.

Surf Expo

This weekend in Orlando was the semi-annual Surf Expo - a trade show for the surf industry. Each time CS has a booth where we hand out free evangelistic materials, but usually it is pretty slow. This year, we decided to get more active and serve the industry, by providing free coffee, water, and snacks at our booth all day. We also stayed late to help tear down some booths (a really labor-intensive process for some of the exhibitors), which really showed the people there that we cared about them. One shaper, who has been in the industry for decades, nearly broke down crying after a CS volunteer helped him load his last batch of boards back on his truck, many hours after the expo had ended.

New CSI Resources

CSI (Christian Surfers International) just released a batch of new resources. Here is the skinny:

Surfer's Bible - testimonies from new surfers, shapers, and personalities, also included a travel story DVD
Full Bible - we've always had people asking us for a full Bible with Old and New Testaments, well, we finally have one!
'09 Calendar - this is a prayer calendar that highlights a different CS mission each month

All of these items are available on the CS Webstore - which Jen personally packages up with a touch of TLC in each one :)

& Happy New Year

Continuing the theme from last week, here are a few more pictures from the holidays...

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season - here are a few pictures from our travels to Virginia Beach...

Chapter Event - Sample Sale

One of the good friends and benefactors of our local chapter is also a rep for a few surf companies. He offered to give us 10% of the proceeds of a sample sale he was planning on having. We all showed up to help him set up and get his product organized. There was probably $20,000 in merchandise on display, all for about 1/3 the cost of what you would find in a surf shop. He ended up selling a good amount of product, which helped out our chapter. Check out his brands here: Cobian Anarchy Angel OAM Matuse RVCA

Prep School - Now on Surfline

Our Panama Prep School trip CS took in July has finally been posted online. If you are unfamiliar with surfing, the site we got our video posted on, Surfline, was a huge goal for us because it is the #1 surf site in the world. Pretty much all big surfnews is posted on this site, so they don't allow just anyone to post a video. Rather than post the video right here, I'm just going to attach a screen shot of it. Surfline keeps track of the number of hits a video gets, so go straight to the video here - and you'll be counted in our overall number. Also, if you want to check out the website, with more videos, pictures, downloads, and more, click here.

Tyson & Tess - New Family Member

Sawyer was welcomed into the Bush family earlier this week. Jen and I both are really glad for them - and now Ezra will have a little playmate. You can read the full story at Tess and Tyson's blog - click here. Jen and I got to see them at Thanksgiving and we are looking forward to seeing them again (with the little one) at Christmas. I'm sure Ezra is going to be HUGE by comparison to a 1-month old baby.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This was a slideshow that Angela did for PC's 60th birthday

andy & lindy get married

Our good friends, Andy and Lindy (now Andy and Lindy Butler) just got married this weekend in St. Augustine. Their wedding was a lot of fun, Jen and I knew a lot of people there because we have a lot of mutual friends. There was a wedding cake that was a cutout of Andy's surfboard, complete with his Christian Surfers sticker and Coil (surfboard brand) logo. Ezra and us were all bundled up, it was about 40 degrees with the wind chill. Brought everyone closer together, though, as we huddled underneath the portable heating columns for a little bit of warmth.

turkey classic this weekend

Jen and I have been hard at work this weekend on our local chapter's annual contest, the Turkey Classic. This year our church came on board as the title sponsor, which was great to have their backing. Overall the event was a good time and was without any major problems. The banquet that we did this year was one of the best ones we've ever done, with Dean giving a great "piece of truth" message to the crowd in attendance. If you want more info on the contest, complete with video, photos, sponsor links, and more, check out the Turkey Classic website.

Slater Invitational in Cocoa Beach

Yep - another contest this weekend. I know it seems like a lot of them, but after a lot of them in a row, this one is special. This is the premiere contest on the East Coast for top talent. All entries are invitees, and the level of surfer invited is very high. Past participants include Kelly Slater, CJ & Damien Hobgood, and Cory & Shea Lopez. CS Cocoa Beach has a hospitality tent on the beach, serving cold drinks, coffee, and breakfast items for competitors and spectators. This was Ezra's first time getting his picture taken with a world champ, too.

Tommy Tant Contest in Flagler

CS St. Augustine has been a sponsor of the Tommy Tant contest for 4 years now. It's the only event that we contribute financially towards, instead of just meeting the needs of the contest. This year the contest is bigger and better than ever, with a level of scaffolding and about 20 tents lining the boardwalk next the the pier. A bunch of the CSSA crew was surfing in the event, which was blessed with chest high waves the entire time. I attended the contest briefly on Saturday morning, and passed out info on the upcoming Turkey Classic.

Movie Night & Ocean City NJ Training

Surf Station invited us again to serve at one of their movie nights. There was a bigger crowd this time because they were doing a "midnight madness" sale. We watched a really good flick that I can't remember the name of, and a band was playing as well. We also had our weekly Turkey Classic meeting that night, so we had to bounce back and forth between the shop and the meeting room. Also going on this weekend was the Ocean City, NJ training event, the final Regional Training. Word is they got great waves Sunday morning and a lot of good teaching on Saturday.

Jax Training & Angela in Town

AC was in town to help out with the baby while Jen and I worked the Jax training event. She was really looking forward to hanging with Ezra, she hadn't done so since April. She changed diapers, fed him, and took about a million pictures. At the training, she took care of the little guy and helped me run the merchandise and registration tables. Jacksonville was the most well-attended regional training we've had so far, with about 50 people there. Although we had a little trouble finding the meeting room, when we did get there it was a perfect spot for our group.

New Smyrna Beach Contest

The "Before The Fall" contest was going on in NSB this weekend. It actually used to start before the fall, but I think that it has found a home in early October from here on out. We all ventured down there about mid-day, Ezra still being on West Coast time to some degree. There were waves for the contest and it got bigger all weekend. I missed them, but I heard that the Mens Pro Final was really good - difference in 1st to 4th place was only 2 points.

The photo is from last year, but Cormican won it again and Nils and Jeremy were in the final as well.

Training Event in California

Was in CA for nearly a week - half of which was the training and the other half was hanging out with our good friends Andy & Liz Jones.

Training - Was held at a small church in Huntington Beach. Dean Plumlee ran the training while I was on registration and Jen on the merchandise table. Everyone seemed pretty stoked on the material, entitled, "Ministry is Relationships." This is the first of 4 training events scheduled for the US, coming up is Lincoln City OR, Jacksonville FL, and Ocean City NJ. The idea is to do cheaper training events than the annual conference in hopes that more people will be able to attend. If you want to check out an event, click here.

The Rest of the Trip - Andy got us free tickets to DisneyLand, because he works there. Kinda funny going 3000 miles when there is one 100 miles from us in Orlando. Had a good time there, even though Ezra is too young to enjoy it. Check out the video for one of the few rides he was allowed on - the merry-go-round. We also ventured to San Diego to check out the birthplace of the city. It was a lot like downtown St. Augustine with all the old buildings and things to see. The picture of Jen and Ezra on the covererd wagon is from there.

Surf - We lucked out and caught one of the best 5 days of the year in Southern California. Surfline even posted a story about how good it was, highlighting Newport (where we were surfing mostly) as one of the standout spots. What's even better is that the all-day training day turned windy early in the AM, so nobody felt like they were missing out. The picture is of Andy on one of the best mornings we got.

Staff Retreat

Had our yearly staff retreat in Rhode Island this weekend. We got there early and stayed late to try to get the most out of the mini-vacation. It was nice to hang out with the rest of the staff, usually when we see each other it is at a conference and we are all running around like crazy. There was a trainer from New Tribes there, he and his wife came out each day to talk with us about being married in the mission field and how to grow stronger through that. One nice thing was that Dean and Amy watched all the kids one evening while the staff was sent out on "date night." Jen and I opted for a surf while the other staff went to dinner. Speaking of the surf, it was pretty good the whole time. Swell from a hurricane was pouring in, and it got up to about double-overhead at some of the standout spots. Surfline even did an East Coast photo report for that swell, and it was neat to be surfing some new spots during that.

Photos:
1st - the whole group that was there
2nd - the overview of the surf

Movie Premiere at Surf Station

CS St. Aug showed up to help out at a local surf shop's movie night. They were showing, "The Pursuit," a film created by a new guy on the surfing scence, Aaron Lieber. What was nice about this film is that it was way cleaner than most surf vids these days. In fact, it was a good enough movie with so little objectionable material that I told the other CS chapter directors about it so that when the film premiered in their town they could show up to help out. A few of the CDs e-mailed me to let me know they were stoked to be able to help Aaron out. In the future, it would be nice to be known for helping out with movie premieres, and have producers contact CS for us to help premiere their film.

Pumpkin Time

It's that time of year again...

Weather is cooling off, well, it isn't cooling off yet in FL, but maybe in Maine it is. Anyways, buying a pumpkin to keep that pumpkin industry strong (why is it we are obligated to buy pumpkins?). Ezra had a photo session in his costume, great stuff to show future girlfriends.

Other photos - Jen with her carving / Slater in his costume.

ESA Easterns

For the first time, CSUS was invited to serve at ESA Easterns. This is one of the largest amateur events in the country, maybe the world. The comp is held each year at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and lasts about a week in late September. Some surfers from the ESA's membership rolls are Kelly Slater, Cory & Shea Lopez, Ben Bourgeois, and Gabe Kling. CSUS will help out primarily with parking and providing some food for the competitors. There also might be a ding repair station if there are enough volunteers. Look for a follow-up story in the CSUS newsletter in October.

GOMEX

We spent this weekend visiting family and friends in the Gulf of Mexico. We spent Saturday at Carrie's father-in-law Rolando's house just outside Tampa. Sunday we went to see Aunt Lucy & Uncle Bill in Homestead, and traveled further south that evening to see Brent & Leanna Tanner in Fort Myers. Ezra was passed around and held by about 10 different people over the weekend.

Another "person" we hooked up with in the Gulf was Gustav, the formidable category 4 hurricane bearing down on New Orleans. Casey got to surf twice, once in Venice and another time in Bradenton. There were probably more people from the East Coast than there were Gulf Coast surfers out there. It stayed fun-sized over the holiday weekend, nice that the swell coincided with the trip we had planned one month before.

Ezra Waking Up - Happy

Took this video the other day whilst Fay was approaching. Ezra usually wakes up all smiles, so we wanted to capture it on video. Here's the little guy giving us what we all want, and the cat saying his part as well.

Bustin' Down the Door Premiere

We went to Daytona last night to see the premiere of "Bustin' Down the Door." This is a surf film documenting the rise of the Australians and South Africans onto the world stage, and the birth of professionalism in surfing. It was a good flick, and what made it even better was that Peter Townend and Shaun Tomson, two of the surfers in the film, was in attendance for an autograph signing and a Q&A. They signed a copy of the poster to Ezra, his first of anything autographed to him.

Check the film out here

Sebastian Campout

This past weekend, our chapter went a few hours south to Sebastian Inlet for a campout. Thankfully, we got a little increase in the swell, and the waves weren't half bad (it had been flat for 3 weeks leading up to the trip). More people showed up than I had anticipated, almost 20. Not everyone opted to stay at the campsite, most came in for a full day on Saturday only.

There wasn't an official agenda, just surf when the waves are good and go home when it goes bad. It's nice to have a trip like this sometimes, most of the others are really planned out with specific sessions and talks. Actually, I don't know that we would have been able to survive any "around the campfire" lectures, the bugs were so bad down there. Jen got over 150 bites (she counted), and that was when we were trying to avoid being outside at the campsite.

This was our first time doing the camping thing with Ezra. It was fine the whole time except at night. The travel bed he sleeps in he's not too fond of. He woke up many times during the night and that meant little sleep for the female tent (I was in the guys tent).

If you want to check more photos, click here...

Brownlee Family Visit

Jen and I hadn't been to visit the Brownlee's in a while, so we trekked up to St. Simons Island, Georgia this weekend and hung out with them. We toured around town, checked various surf spots, and later saw the "American Girl" movie. It was great to see them and watch the girls interact with Ezra. Gloria kept putting blankets on him, even though it was about 90° outside! Hannah and Amelia are growing up, and each playing softball.

This photo was taken right after we saw the movie >>>

ASBC in Town

Found out that Atlantic Shores was going to be in town this week. They are in Daytona for a "Big Stuf" camp, which is a high-energy youth camp that empowers youth to makea difference in the lives of their friends. It was great to see TJay Williams, Tedi Kiser, Hugh Doyle, and a bunch of the almost-college students, and spend an evening with them.

The photo was taken after the evening session, playing mini-golf across the street from the venue.

Panama Prep School

This is the second time I have written a story about the Panama trip. The first time, I got about 500 words out when a thunderstorm came thru and knocked the power out.

That happened to me another time at the ODU computer lab, about a week before finals. Everyone was working on term papers, myself included, when the power went out. The collective gasp from the 50 people in the room would have been funny if it was a movie, but not so funny when it's your term paper.

Rather than another write-up of the trip (I see the clouds getting dark already), I'm just going to link to the photos on the Flickr site - check it out here.

Also - More photos and eventually video to be posted in the coming weeks...

LC in Town

While Casey is out of town in Panama on a Christian Surfers Junior Leadership event, momma C came to help out with Ezra. It was great to have her around to give Jen a break when she needed it, and for her to hang out with Ezra a little more. We all know that grandmothers can never get enough of their grandkids. Jennifer and LC went to Carrie's over the weekend, so there is a photo of her, too (doing something weird with the baby), along with one of LC and Ezra.

First Quarter Baby Update

I got a request from one of the blog viewers for more baby pictures. Here is Ezra's quarterly update, that's 3 months old now. He made his first airplane flight cross-country to California. He got to see the Golden Gate Bridge, Hearst Castle, the Pacific Ocean, and Alcatraz, although he slept through most of it. He met his great-grandparents for the first time, as well as many great aunts and uncles when we were home in Virginia Beach in late April. He has also gotten his feet wet in the ocean for the first time. He also got his first cold after coming home from CA, but is doing OK now and slowly getting over it.

National Kidney Foundation Contest

CS St. Augustine helped out during the first annual NKF benefit contest this weekend. The NKF was blessed by the best 2 days of waves in over a month, and probaby the best weekend of waves we've had in 3 months. CS regular attender (and frequent raffle winner) Will Gresham made his first outing as contest director, and did a good job with the event. Our local chapter was part of the event by providing judges, beach marshals, food passer-outers, and trash picker-uppers. The NKF staff was stoked to have us there, and it was great to be a part of that and feel like we made an impact.

For full results, and more info on the NKF, check out their website here.

For more pics of the event, and some video, too, click this link.

Andy & Liz Jones' Wedding

Went to Cambria, CA with the whole family to celebrate Liz & Andy's wedding. They were married on a farm near where Liz grew up on Saturday, June 21st.

Here is a short video of a surf session the fellas had right before the big day. Filming by Monty Jones (thanks Monty!)
Surfers (by order of appearance): Andy Jones, Aaron Amavisca, Richard Prause, Casey Cruciano, Russell Brownley, Tyler Calopy, Justin Lenio, David Hammond, Chris Bliss, some guy.

1st Meeting in New Location

We had our first meeting (a movie night) at our new Christian Surfers St. Augustine location. We've rented space from June until December so that we have some regularity in our time and location. Hopefully, this will make it easier for people to remember when and where to go. The first meeting was a success with about 1/2 the group of 55 being new enough to CS that I didn't recognize them. The movie we showed (Drive Thru New Zealand) was a hit, as the humor and entertainment factor in those films is always high. Here is a quick pic of the room (the screen looks blank because my flash went off):

New Webstore Open

Jen got another job this spring. Not only is she a new mom but is also the CS webstore manager. She has worked with graphic designers, ordered the shirts, and done all the web posting to get the site operational. It has been great to have her do this, she has put some nice finishing touches on it that I never would have thought of. You can check it all out by clicking HERE to go straight to the site.

The image to the left is our "photo shoot" with some local chapter members this past weekend. It was weird for everyone to be modeling tees, but by the end of it we had all perfected our own "look" even if we couldn't turn left (yeah - another Zoolander joke).

AM or PM?

Shooter - Casey/Mike
Music - Ray

One Wave Each

Everyone had the day off yesterday, so we went for a late afternoon session. Here's John Brueggen, Mike Gray, Mike & Karen Moran, and myself enjoying the day. Shot by Jen with some help from Ezra.

Local Chapter Starting Up & Carrie In Town

Carrie was in town this week, Jose had a conference to attend. It was good to hang out with the sis and get her watch the baby on occasion. We did the typical weekend thing, went to downtown, where Carrie found "Casa Gomez" (see pic), went surfing in some very small waves (see pic), and attended a local chapter meeting at Andy Butler's backyard (see pic).

Channel Magazine Finally Finished!

The 2008 edition of the Channel Magazine is finally complete. It was a long time coming, changed manager's hands four different times, but did get finished last month. Now, Dean and I have 15,000 of them to get out, which is triple our print run from last year. All the chapters and staff got a box or two, and the mags are going to be used for membership and sold on the webstore. Hopefully we are able to get them in the right hands and not have to toss any out next year.


Click this link to see the web version or download the Channel

Andy Jones' Bachelor Party

Slideshow of Momom's Life

Virginia Pauline Cruciano 1924-2008

Carrie in Town to see Ezra

Carrie came to St. Auggie to check out Ezra. It was fun having her in town, and nice to have another persona around to change diapers! Here are a few photos from the week/weekend - enjoy.

Slater may not be the big brother for long as Ezra now weighs 8lbs, 8oz.

Ezra's first church service - Family Worship Center with Philip & Kathy Cochran

Can you find the baby in this picture?

More Photos of Ezra

Leaving Flagler Hospital last Tuesday

Crazy Eyes

1st Doctor Visit

1st Bath (censored)

More Photos

Bath closeup

LC visiting

Giraffe

LC & Jen - 1st bath (for Ezra, not them)

Ezra Introduction Video

1 minute intro to Ezra.

Blue Steel

Yeah, Angela, did that one for you!

Ezra and Slater

Introducing... Ezra Paul Cruciano

Jen is still at the hospital with Ezra and her mother. I was sent back to the house to post photos for everyone here on the blog and on MySpace. If you click on the photos, you can see them as full size images, although your browser may resize them to fit your computer screen.

"OK - hold that cute pose now, Ezra."

Mama Jennifer holding her firstborn.

Big eyes from Ezra and Casey.

Ezra in the nursery, hooked up to all sorts of gadgetry. Backstory - he was breathing quickly, so they've got him on oxygen until his breathing is more normal.

Grandma Jane looking on about two minutes after Ezra was born. 6:30 AM on Sunday, March 30th.

Daddy Casey and friends (not really) smoking cigars in the hospital.

Now Jen's got 2 little boys to deal with!

Jennifer's Mom in Town

Jen's mom just got into town... awaiting the arrival of Ezra. Mrs. Dantonio works in a high school, so it worked out perfect for her to come for Easter Break and come see her 1st grandson be born. The weather won't be Florida-like for the first few days, but late in the week should be nice. I don't think we'll be getting too much time outside, though, as we will be playing it safe and sticking around the house, mostly.

Company in Town

It's St. Patrick's Day again. I'm Irish but I forget to wear green every year. Angela, Carrie, and Jose are in town. We went had fun today and yesterday went to do a couple fun things - the San Sebastian Winery, saw the St. Aug Lighthouse, saw some movies with the projector (I Am Legend - it was pretty good), and the St. Augustine Alligator Farm (thanks, John). The weather was perfect for the SAAF, and everyone was stoked to check out all the wildlife and take bunches of pictures. None of the gators got a St. Paddy's Day pinch, they were all wearing green!

Speaking at Family Worship Center

Jen and I spoke at church this weekend. Real short - just did a quick Q&A with Pastor Philip. We talked about what CS is and what I do, and asked Pastor what the surf culture was like when he was growing up surfing. We got a lot more names for our newsletter list, and met a few folks who were interested in what was going on in the local chapter. Next week, we are showing a video right before church. There wasn't enough time to show the whole thing during the service, but we'll get to show all 10 minutes before the service starts.

Jason Menke

March will be my coworker, Jason Menke, last month on staff with CSUS. Jason and his wife Liz just had a baby in February, and Jason is looking for a job to move them into the next phase in life. Jason has been a great person to work with over the years, always "on it" with good ideas and knowledge about hi-tech stuff. We'll miss Jason, although will still stay in touch as he plans to be involved with his local chapter in Lincoln City, Oregon.

Bike Day at Family Worship Center

Our church does a yearly "Bike Day" right before Daytona's "Bike Week." The idea is to get some locals and out of towners at the church for a service that they would like. The songs played are Christian renditions of "Sweet Home Alabama" "Wanted Dead or Alive" and stuff like that. They also have a bunch of food & games right after for the kids and for the bikers. It is a really good outreach-style event that has parallels with Christian Surfers.

It is good to be a part of a church that is thinking more about how they can adjust to make themselves more available to the people rather than a church who requires that the people change before they enter the doors.

Trip To Central Florida

Went on a quick day trip to Sebastian Inlet to meet up with Ben Speed, a friend of Jose's from way back. Jen and I met Ben at Jose & Carrie's wedding, and have caught up with him a couple of times since then. The fellas caught a few OK waves while Jen was on the beach taking pictures. The pics didn't really turn out all that good, so this is a pic from a webcam while we were out (Jen is the one in the chair to the right of the blue tent, and Ben and I are one of the people in the water).

One interesting factoid about Sebastian is that it is the only place I have been where the surfers have priority over the fishermen. There are always a bunch of lines in the water, the the fishermen are careful not to throw their lures at the surfers. This is the exact opposite from St. Augustine, where fishermen off the pier try real hard to cast lines if you get within firing range. What is strange is that there's a whole lot more fishermen at Sebastian than there ever are at the Pier in St. Aug, but they find a way to drop a line without having to cast at surfers.

Valentine's Day

I did a quick search about St. Valentine, because I've always wondered what he did or who he was to get a romantic holiday associated with his name. Here is one neat story (that is probably false) about him (from History.com):

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men - his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Surfline Membership Now Available

One of the surf industry's biggest players, Surfline, is partnering with CSUS for our membership campaign. Surfline is offering CS members their "premium" membership for a drastically reduced rate. A premium member gets full access to Surfline's reports, cameras, and unique forecasting pages. If you want to know what day to take off, Surfline is what you want to sign up for. Go to the CS website and go to the membership sign-up page to take part in this.

Also, Water Magazine is also available to CS members as a free upgrade. This is a high-quality magazine that has a newsstand value of $10 per issue. Sign up for a year's free subscription - a $40 value - on the CS webpage.

FL Primary Week

The whole country is going crazy over the primary election, scheduled for tomorrow. I voted early, hoping to avoid "the gauntlet" - the walk from the car to the 50' line, when you get gobbled up in pamphlets thrust at you from all the candidate's representatives. I think if you haven't decided before you get to the polls, you probably shouldn't be voting.

One neat thing I found online was a "presidential litmus test." I used my results from there, along with some other research, to make my primary decision. I couldn't find the link, but just doing some searching online for the issues that are important to you and matching that with a candidate is a great way to get informed.

2008 Budget & Board Meeting

Worked a lot this weekend and late last week with Dean on the 2008 budget. We are trying to really stick to a budget this year, which will be a first for CSUS. We've had budgets before, of course, but they have never been accurate enough to use by year-end. The budget has a bunch of new things it in - advertising, staff travel, regional training, junior leadership, etc. It took Dean and I about 6-8 hours of talking it over to come up with one that worked for us and didn't require too much fundraising efforts. Dean is going to present it to the Board, along with the "plan" for CSUS 2008. Dean is traveling to the west coast to the ASR (Association of Surfing Retailers) trade show to meet with the Board members.

Surf Expo

Surf Expo just finished in Orlando, FL, this weekend. It is always a marathon event - setup on Wednesday, on your feet for 10 hours Thursday thru Sunday. Dean spared me this time around and found some local volunteers to share the load so that I didn't have to go. I heard they had good success this year by giving away some food to and drinks to everyone. Next September CS hopes to bring an "Expo Team" that helps other vendors set up their booths, serves food during the event, and just serve the surf industry that is there.

Sebastian Inlet Pro

The first international contest of the year takes place in Sebastian Inlet, FL, about 3 hours south of St. Augustine. It is a WQS event, kind of like the minor leagues for surfing, where you qualify for the real World Tour. The local Christian Surfers chapter usually teams up with a volunteer from Pensacola and host a competitor hospitality tent. It includes wax, food, sunscreen, water, and other CS handouts. I made it down there last year, but am probably not going to make it this week. Hope the volunteers are able to truly serve the surfers at the contest!

See the CS logo on the poster -->

Christmas Vacation

Our Christmas vacation is almost over. We've been in VB for almost a week now. Jen had a baby shower where we got a crazy amount of presents (thanks everyone). I got to surf a couple of times, even once in NC. That doesn't sound too odd, but the last 4 times I have been back to VB it has been almost flat all week. I was super stoked to have gotten a little wave action this time around. Now, a long drive back to St. Augustine to come on Sunday, 10 hours in the car followed b a very comfortable bed at home.

Coming Home for Christmas

We are leaving for Christmas next weekend. It will be good to come home and see everyone, and show off Jen's big belly. It has started to get a lot bigger in the past few weeks, it is quite noticeable now. In mid-October, she still looked mostly normal, if anything people probably thought she put on a little weight. See everyone soon!

It's a boy!

So as we had updated previously.... Jen and I are expecting... and we now know it's a boy! Ezra Paul is due to arrive on April Fools Day which is actually Jennifer's oldest sisters birthday as well. We are excitedly anticipating the day we get to meet him... this picture not to bad... a natural waterman already!

New Website Launched This Week

Rather than tell you all about it - check it out for yourself! Go to www.christiansurfers.com and check out all the new pages.

Turkey Classic

I haven't posting on this blog in quite a while. I wasn't completely slacking, I was the Contest Director for the Turkey Classic, a surf contest the local chapter runs every year. I updated that blog (turkeyclassic.blogspot.com) every couple of days, so that required a lot of upkeep. You didn't miss much, I've been working primarly on that for the past 2 months. For a full Turkey update, copy and paste the link above and check it out.

National Conference October 17-20

The National Conference was an overwhelming success. Many attendees said that this was our best conference ever, having more impact on them to go and serve and witness to their local surf communities. If you haven't ever been to a conference, look forward to 2008 having more regional "mini-conferences" that are easy to travel to and attend. More info on that will be posted on the Christian Surfers website when the dates and locations are picked.

Habitat for Humanity - St. Augustine Building Project

The St. Augustine chapter did a build project in the Westside of the town. The home is being built for a family that is really deserving, the mother works 2 jobs and has helped build homes herself through Habitat for Humanity. Jen and I aren't much of framers, but once the site manager told us what to do it was pretty easy. We got 3 walls framed, everything but the front part of the house. The next day (when Jen and I were not there), they finished up the front and starting working on the roof. One wild thing that happened is that we "discovered" a rattlesnake in our pile of wood. I was trying to get the right piece of wood, and Dean noticed that the rattler had just slithered across my shoe, underneath a different pile of wood. I didn't even see it, and kept moving wood around until Dean told me to slowly back up. The site manager told us that was the first time that had happened on a build project. I'm glad I didn't get bitten, that would have been ironic since I was doing a volunteer community service project!

The pictures - (1) framing a side wall, (2) Dean being interviewed by a Jacksonville news crew

Surf Expo

Didn't I just have a long, tiring, weekend last week? Here's round 2 - Surf Expo. Surf Expo is a surf/skate/wake/beach show that is for shop owners to come do all their purchasing for the next 2 seasons. All the major industry players are there, in Orlando, FL twice per year. This is the smaller of the two shows, but it's still huge. The convention center where it is held would take you about a 30 minutes to walk around the perimeter, if there wasn't any booths set up. Expo has a history of getting wild and crazy, but it's mostly tame. CS has a presence there so that we can hand out our materials, hobknob with industry contacts, and spread our message to the surf culture influencers. I don't have any pics of our booth, but here is a generic Surf Expo photo I pulled off the web.

Bethany Hamilton Movie Premiere - Review

After a long, tiring, weekend, the Bethany Hamilton movie premiere happened. It was great to see a lot of people come out to see her, and a lot make new decisions for Christ as well. The amphitheater is set up for big shows, so a lot of the work was already done for us, but there were still some things to sort out the day of. Fortunately, I got a bunch done early in the day, so I was able to surf with Bethany, her brother, manager, Dean, and a couple other local CSers right before the show. At the show, over 1000 people attended, and we got contact info for about 600 of them. We hope this major event will help to jumpstart the chapter, and provide some more people to volunteer with all of the events we are doing, since the current leadership team will get burnt out if they don't have some support come up soon.

photos - Will Gresham

Baby News

Jen and I had the 2nd doctor visit for the new baby on the way. Jen is 9 weeks along, and the due date is her sister Laura's birthday, April 1st. Even if the baby is born a few days later, we'll probably call everybody and tell them it was born that day and say, "April Fool's!" We got to see an ultrasound, and the baby is in that stage where it looks like an tadpole. I think the next stage is when it looks like a alien. Jen and I are glad that everything is going OK and that there are no complications.

Bethany Hamilton Movie Premiere

Bethany Hamilton is coming to St. Augustine! Bethany, the young surfer who lost her left arm in a shark attack 4 years ago, is one of the most well-known surfers in the world. She is in Florida for a promotional tour, and we were fortunate to have her come by St. Auggie for an evening to premiere her movie. The chapter has rented out the new Amphitheater, which seats over 2500 people. We are hoping to fill it all up and get a great response from the movie. Please pray for the event, or come to the event, which is September 9th at 7PM.

Surf Lesson - Boys & Girls Club

We teamed up this Friday with the Boy's & Girls Club of St. Augustine to do some surf lessons. The Club's mission is to, "promote the positive and healthy development of youth, especially from disadvantaged circumstances..." We were hoping to help them fulfill their mission by giving them their first surf session, but with a Christian worldview. I borrowed a presentation from another Christian surfing group - Crosswaves, which helped me to teach the parts of a board an a wave using analogies to our lives and to Christ. It was a lot of fun for all of us involved, especially rewarding when a few of the teens got long waves to the beach. Special thanks to Justin Black for setting up the event.

It's possible to start getting excited about something too early - you end up counting down years instead of months! That is how I feel about the Christian Surfers International 2008 conference in South Africa. I've been waiting for them to have a conference in South Africa since I attended my first one in 2004 in France. The way S. Africa sits on the globe makes it a hotspot for swell activity. Big low pressure systems churn off of Antarctica and filter swell northwards. The African continent sits in the swell's path, and when the swells hit the coastline, they break. The angle at which the East side of South Africa is positioned, and the corresponding headlands cause there to be many right hand point breaks, probably hundreds in the area. Jeffrey's Bay is one of those pointbreaks, the most famous right-hander in the world, and a world tour venue. The conference is taking place in the town that surrounds the break, so all of the attendees will get plenty of time sampling what that area has to offer. The conference is August 10-14, 2008, in case you want to come, too.

Surf Movie Night - Seasons

Showing another surf movie at The PIT this weekend. "Seasons" is an Ezekiel film that chronicles a journey around the world, segmented into seasons of the year. Bali is the summer destination, New York the fall, Iceland the winter, and so on. The trips didn't necessarily take place during those seasons, only that the locations represent certain seasons. Neat concept for the movie - worth having in your collection if you collect surf movies like I do. Premiere went fine even though there was a downpour right before the screening started.

ESA Contest

The local chapter of Christian Surfers serves at the St. Augustine contests. There's a contest about once per month, and the aforementioned Andy Butler is in charge of this. Andy goes out to help set up, brings free food and wax for everyone, and helps out wherever needed. It's a good way to get to know the people in the lineup better, and serve a need in the surf community.

Channel Magazine 2007

I've just been given the task of finishing up our yearly publication, The Channel Magazine. I have had a part in the magazine's created each year, but this year I didn't have the time to commit to it. Since Andy Butler, the communications intern, can only work until school starts in mid-August, he is turning over the magazine to me to put the finishing touches on it. Even though it is outside my skill set, I always enjoy the creation process for The Channel. You should get to see it in two months, either online or in your membership package.

National Conference October 17-20

This is the last weekend to register for the "Early Bird Special" for the 2007 Conference. It is being held in Cocoa Beach in October, in hopes to nab the best waves and weather that central Florida has to offer. The Early Bird is a $50 savings from the regular price of $249, so get on it while you can! The conference is looking solid this year, with lots of music and special events inbedded in and surrounding the event. Be sure to check out all the updates, and register on www.christiansurfers.com

DP Named ND

I came back home from VA to find out that my coworker, Dean Plumlee, has been named the new National Director of Christain Surfers! After much prayer and time, the Board of Directors chose Dean from a pool of candidates. Dean brings a host of talents, but his biggest resource isn't a personal ability, it's the fact that Dean is committed to his relationship with Christ before everything else. I am stoked on the Board's decision, and look forward to serving the surfers across the US under Dean's leadership.

Team Meeting

We got to see a lot of "the team" this past Wednesday at the Purple Cow Restaurant. It was our semi-annual CS update, where we show a few pics and let everyone know what has been going on in Florida since we saw them last. We had a great turnout, and were able to catch up with a lot of our friends. Special thanks to the Purple Cow & Steve Hadder, they always do a good job serving us when we are there.

Going to VB

Jen and I are on the road today, heading to Virginia Beach for the next 2 weeks. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up on all that we have missed. Jen will be at the "Before His Throne" dance conference during the first week, then we have some free time the second week.

Local Chapter Surf Trip

Have a surf trip planned for tomorrow. It's a local chapter event that I have been running, in it's third month now. Attendance has been growing each time, so hopefully we have some new faces tomorrow.

Looks like the call will be to either go to New Smyrna, or try to go to a St. Augustine secret spot. The cool thing about the St. Auggie spot is that you get to boat in, making it that much more adventuresome to go on.

The surf trips are designed to do something that is a little deeper with the local surfers. Often times at a movie night you get to talk to people for a few minutes, but don't really get to know them. Since you end up spending a lot of time with someone on the trip, more avenues for discussion open up. The idea is that we can share a little Truth to the people there, and begin to establish a relationship. Pray for doors to be opened and good surf to be had!

Brazil Missions Trip for LC & ASBC

LC (Linda Cruciano) and the rest of the ministry team from ASBC (Atlantic Shores Baptist Church) are on their way to Brazil for their bi-annual missions trip. Here is a note from LC asking you to pray for the ASBC team:

Dear Praying friends and family,

Thanking each of you in advance for your prayer and your financial support. Our team leaves Sunday the 17th at 1:00 pm from Norfolk, however we depart Atlanta for Sao Paulo, Brazil at 8:00pm arriving in early morning of the 18th. Our return will start at 11:30 pm on the 27th, arriving back in Atlanta in the early morning and then Norfolk around 1:00 pm the 28th.

I covet your prayers during this time. We have a group of about 30 teens with 7 leaders. I'll email with incrediable things the Lord has done while in Brazil when I return .

Serving Him with thankfulness,
Linda

Back from the Cruise

Jen and I just got back from week on a Carribbean cruise! It was a lot of fun, and good to get away from the day to day, and take our first real vacation in 2 1/2 years. Jen and I got to go because the dental office where she works (www.tawildds.com) paid for our cruise as their yearly bonus. We went to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Martin. We swam with stingrays, kayaked, hiked, and surfed on our excursions. It was a lot of fun on the islands, but the boat rocked a lot while we were going to the next destination. Overall, it was a good time to visit some new places - more pictures on my page on the CSUS website.

About to Leave for the Cruise

We leave on Saturday for our 1 week cruise. Hope this doesn't happen to us!

Biggest Swell Ever in South Florida!

I completely missed this swell, but that doesn't stop me from drooling all over the photos I've seen. On Tuesday, May 8th, subtropical storm Andrea sent more surf up and down the East Coast than most category 5 Hurricanes do. 43' seas were recorded off of North Carolina, while some places in Florida reached over 20' on the beaches. The reason for the high surf was the difference in pressure between a high to the north and the low that was Andrea, combined with the winds and fetch (distance the waves had to travel). The biggest surf landed in my sister's backyard, Palm Beach, which is where the photo above was taken.

Here are a couple more links to other photos from that day:
http://forums.surf-station.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=c88dbf344c16d7363aa164084a0d4e97;act=ST;f=11;t=18298
http://www.16streets.com/Pumphouse.htm

'Cane Season Starting Early This Year

Hurricane season is literally upon us! We've gotten lots of wind and pretty good size surf the last couple of days due to sub-tropical storm Andrea. If you've kept updated on the news, Florida has needed the rain it is bringing because of the wildfires that have popped up along the state.

Even though, as surfers, we want there to be lots of hurricanes, we still want all of them to remain offshore. Not just for humanitarian reasons, but the waves are actually a lot better if the storms stay in the open Atlantic. When the hurricanes come onshore, they mess up sandbars, put parts of piers and houses in the lineups, and overall don't produce as good of surf as they do when they stay out to sea. So, we'll all be praying for lots of storms that don't hit anybody in 2007!

PC, BJ, Johnny-Boy, and The Colonel take over St. Augustine

A couple of VB boys came to town this weekend. They stayed up all night driving on Thursday and arrived Friday morning, looking and smelling their best! We had a smoky first session, due to wildfires burning throughout Southern Georgia, but they were all glad to shed the fullsuits and wear trunks for the first time this year. We played a terrible round of golf, went to an engagement party for Russell Brownley & Brianna, took a road trip to New Smyrna, amongst other things.

Fundraising Boot Camp

Jen and I have been attending fundraising "boot camp" this week. We spent 18 hours of Thursday and Friday at a lecture course in Jacksonville. The purpose of the course is to train, and in our case, re-train the attendee on fundraising for their ministry position. I had gone right before I came on staff with CSUS, so this served as a refresher course. It was a good time to get to know some other ministries and their vision, as well as share Christian Surfers with them.

Jen and I are looking forward to the challenging months ahead, trying to work our way towards being at 100%!

(in the photo Jen and I are on the left hand side, and the trainer, Steve Shadrach, is to our right, your left - also in the photo are Cal Fisher and Coral Shattuck, Daytona Beach chapter directors and recent additions to the CS International staff)

CS Campout

Had a great time over the weekend, went to a Christian Surfers camp-out in Melbourne, FL. This is the 7th annual spring camp-out, and over 200 people were in attendance! Most everyone was from the Palm Beach area, and other locations in South Florida.

The waves were solid the whole time, making the surf lessons scheduled for Saturday morning a little tough. There were 10 groms on the beach, listening to Biblical surf instruction. For example - "The stringer is the center of the board, just like Christ should be the center of our lives. If we do not stand on the stringer, we'll wipe out, just like we'll wipe out if we don't keep Christ as the center of our lives." Anyways, out of the 10 there was only 1 that went out, with me as her instructor. It was tough getting through the constant barrage of waves, but managed to get one eventually. She was stoked, and I was glad she didn't get hurt!

Later, there was a band that came out, sang some songs and gave a quick Gospel message. There was also an impromptu surf contest, a raffle with a surfboard giveaway, a massive rainstorm at 3AM, a church service, and about 100 pounds of barbecue to feed us all.

Spring Break