10 Questions with Casey Cruciano
CruCrewFam and Family
1.) Full Name, Location & CS Chapter?
Casey Cruciano - splitting time between Outer Banks, NC & Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa
2.) How did you come to know and follow Christ?
I raised my hand to accept Christ in the back of a Sunday school class at age 8. I didn’t really do much with my salvation until the latter years of high school, when I realized that people were starting to make real life choices that didn’t seem great to follow along with. I got connected with CS not long after, and it was a perfect place to serve and share my faith with others.
3.) Tell us a bit about where you’re from and your local surf spot.
My family and I are currently splitting our time between the US and South Africa, on an “endless winter” kinda vibe. We spend the school year in the States and the 2 months off in JBay. So, maybe I can’t claim local status anywhere! I’m continually having to earn my way back into the lineup hierarchy.
4.) Your favourite verse and why you love it.
“He saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5
This is a nice verse for obvious reasons of containing the Gospel message clearly and concisely. But it’s not my favorite because of that… a Christian friend had started a surf company and called it “Titus” I think mainly because it sounded cool had a Biblical meaning. He and I were working on one of the first business endeavors for the company, a surf camp. While creating a leaflet for the camp, we thought we ought to add a verse from Titus so people would know it was the Bible, not one of our names… “Which one of you is Titus?” So we went searching through the book of Titus, not really realizing that most of it is Paul rebuking bad behavior over and over again. We were in a bit of a scramble, trying to find something in the book we could put on the camp literature that wasn’t a list of sins - not quite the way to introduce your camp! The passage in chapter 3 is one of 2 parts of Titus where the verse is more hopeful and less harsh, so it became the mantra for the camp and was on all Titus (the brand) stickers and tee shirts for next 10 years or so.
Not just a pretty face - Casey knows how to throw it down on the log too!
5.) One piece of advice you can give to your fellow Christian Surfers?
I heard the ministry founder, Brett Davis, once share that when they started their local chapter back in the late 70s, it took over 3 years for them to move beyond just a ±10 people meeting weekly in a house. Too often we forget that when we don’t get the immediate satisfaction of big numbers, God has other plans and is preparing hearts. What if BD would have quit after year 2? Most people probably would have, myself included. Instant ministry “success” via big numbers is rare and not what we should be seeking after. We should aim to have a long-term impact with those God has placed near us.
6.) God-ordained moment serving at an event.
My chapter did several large movie premieres in the video heyday of the early 2000s. We had rented the biggest concert hall near the beach with seating for about 700 people, and planned 2 showings for the evening. We thought we were doing pretty well promoting it in town, but our previous outreach had only 100 people so it really us relying on God that He had a bigger plan. When we opened the doors for our 7pm showing, what felt like the entire town surf community filed in through the doors. What at first was relief that we wouldn’t be showing the film to an empty room turned into fear that we would run out of room! And about 20 min to showtime we did - no more seats available. We were scrambling to figure out what to do, the next show was at 9pm so most people probably wouldn’t wait that long and we didn’t want to turn anyone away. Amazingly and by God’s grace, someone on our leadership team had an extra projector and DVD player in their car. We quickly set it up in an adjacent room, and ushered in the extra 150 people into the smaller space. It was awesome to see the Lord work in mysterious ways, about 300 people turned in response cards that said they accepted Christ that evening in total.
7.) What verse has God got frothing on your heart at the moment
Because I see it so often in the last few years in CS, John 10:10 “… but I came to give life - life to the full.” It just makes me think differently about how I’m living each day and what I’m doing not only to further the Kingdom but also to engage with my family, meet new people, learn a skill, etc. I think the Lord has a potential path for each of our lives, “life to the full” that we rarely see the complete view of.
Casey Cruciano meeting with the council.
8.) The craziest situation you ever found yourself in CS?
At a campout with a crew of grommies, they started getting real comfortable and acting up. First, they decided it was a good idea to climb on top of the bath house and hang out up there. One of the college-age groms showed up and all the mens stalls were in use, so he went into the womens side (after making sure there was nobody else there). The groms thought that was so funny and made such a scene, the campground patrol came by to check out what was happening. After getting groms off the roof, an infraction but not hugely out of the ordinary, out comes a young adult male walking out of the women’s bathroom. The patrol lady lost it and called the police on our group, alleging “peeping Tom’s” and other stuff not happening but her imagination was running wild at this point.
I find out about this via text message, and immediately tell everyone we are loading up the cars and going surfing. I figure, “out of sight, out of mind” might get us not kicked out of the park for the rest of the weekend. I leave our eldest camp attendee, a 50-year-old military veteran to meet with the police and camp staff and try his best to salvage whatever he could there. Thankfully, that plan worked and he was able to explain there wasn’t anything nefarious going on, even getting to witness to another park employee a bit and explain that though our group is called “Christian Surfers” we bring the lost with us on weekend camps like these.
Casey doing the numbers before braving a treacherous Supertubes paddle out.
9.) Worst outreach attempt?
Have had a few stinkers, but the worst are always when all the CS members and leaders forget to invite anyone from the mission field! Can’t tell you how often it seems that we’ll have a Gospel presentation to a room full of believers.
But the opposite is also true - it’s been very memorable (in a good way) when there has been 2-3 believers and someone who isn’t joins in on a surf trip or hang time…. it’s so much more interesting conversation and interaction.
10.) Tell us about your best barrel?
Haven’t caught my best one yet, check in with me next week! ;)