Celebrating 45 Years of Christian Surfers

1999 Brazil Recife Group

After getting saved in the military and working in a mission reaching out to street kids, Dario Fraga recalls how in 1998, his eyes turned to the ocean: “There was a surf contest where we lived in Olinda. It was full of young people drinking beers and smoking joints, all so far from God. And in my heart I had a desire to do something about it. I called my brothers - Paolo, Jairo and Marzo-Cristino and told them we had to learn to surf if we wanted to reach surfers.”

Neither Dario nor his brothers knew how to surf, but through that desire he started to get in the water and talk to surfers about Jesus. Despite the best of their efforts it took three long years before they formed a mission organisation and saw many become Christians. They had up to 300 surfers in their local groups and were preaching every night!

CS Brasil in 2001 with Dario & Susana

Dario was focused on a Bible-based message, without a particular affiliation with any one church. They had a lot of momentum and began sending out missionaries with a faith mandate, but little practical support to new towns and states where they would rent a house and share their lives and their faith. It was later under the full-time stewardship of Leanardo Padrao that the mission expanded beyond the northeast state.

Marquito Santos was one such surfer who left the comfortable life of a semi-sponsored pro surfer in Recife for the rough favela of Titanzinho in 1999.

Surfistas de Cristo Brasil Logo

“One of my main obstacles in Titanzinho was the drug traffickers. They used to provide crack marijuana and heroin to the neighbourhood and when some of the former clients started to get saved, they would confront me, asking for money and forcing me into taking a lower profile.” Marquito even had to deal with the murder of one of the CS guys who had been sharing his faith too openly - the first CS martyr!

Sergio Busatto took over from Dario in 2002 and went on to forge a national movement that launched state coordinators and up to 40 groups around the nation.