Boardmasters Outreach
by David Renyard
Christian Surfers UK were invited to serve at the Boardmasters, the UK's biggest surf and music festival again this year after many years of service. The event took place in the first week of August at Fistral Beach in Newquay.
This year the contest went back to being a WSL event, which included a WLS 1000 longboard division as well. In the lead up to this year's event there was a bit of uncertainty around the role of CS, as a catering team had been brought in to cover feeding the site and contest staff, a role that we traditionally have done for the past few years. Despite this we turned up with a strong CS team and the faith God had a plan.
In the end we had an amazing week as we hosted all the surfers, cooking them breakfasts in the morning and burgers, snacks and refreshments through the day. With the catering covered for the event staff we were freed up to serve the surfers in this way, which got the support of the event organisers, who were impressed with the work the CS crew did over the week. As well as spending time with the surfers and their families, the site staff, who we have built good relationships with over the years, also spent a lot of time with the CS crew during the week.
With Phil Williams and David Renyard involved in the running of the contest all week; taking on the roles of spotter, priority judge, as well as filling in on the judging panel, the CS crew did a fantastic job taking care of all the surfers. Christian Surfers were only able to serve the event so well because of the hard work and dedication of the CSUK crew - great job guys!
It is pretty amazing to be so integral to the biggest surf contest in the UK, a testament to the work of CS members over the years. What God can do through a hand full of scruffy surfers who turned up at the Boardmasters ten years ago, with open hands and a willingness to serve and ended up picking up rubbish all week is awesome. Ten years on and Christian Surfers are hosting the surfers area and helping to run the contest, with an open door to share our faith and bless surfers from across the world.