Raising A Soul Surfer by Rick Bundschuh, Cheri Hamilton Page B

friends with many of the iconic figures of surfing at that time: Steve Cranston, Tom Parish, Jackie Dunn and Greg Lohr. Tom shadowed Jerry Lopez to determine his takeoff from the lineup at Pipeline. He often surfed Sunset when Barry Kanaiaupuni and Eddie Aikau were out. These legendary Hawaiian surfers represented the heart and soul of the surfing community.
    Back in the ’70s, compared to Kauai, Oahu was a rat race. The surf spots were crowded and dog-eat-dog. Racial tensions were escalating, and episodes of intimidation were getting more frequent, culminating in the brutal beating of a group of famous Australian and South African surfers. There were even death threats serious enough to require police escorts to and from surf contests.
    On top of these conflicts, there were the drugs and drug dealers, and the slow unraveling of the “Summer of Love” into a fractured, territorial hostility. Yet, among the hedonist and hippie surfers, something powerful was taking place.
    Big-wave surfer Rick Irons was busy in his shaping room when Tom came in to have a custom surfboard made. Rick, uncle of the late world champion surfer Andy Irons and his accomplished brother Bruce, was a fascinating character who had been a U.S. champion in the sixties.
    “Say, Rick,” Tom said, “what’s up with all the little fish you draw on the boards you shape?” Rick smiled and told him the fish was a sign that he was a follower of Jesus Christ. He then proceeded to share Christ and the forgiveness that was his because Christ died for his sins on the cross. Tom recalls that thiswas the first time anyone had ever shared the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ with him.
    It wasn’t just Rick Irons sharing this “good news.” Other young surfers around Tom were discovering a powerful relationship with God as well. North Shore surfers Mike Stangel and Bill Stonebraker also became Christians and, along with Rick, went on to become pastors.
    Tom remembers hearing worship songs pouring out of the second story windows of Billy Barnfields’s place, another popular surfboard shaper. “I was curious and knew it was some kind of Bible study, but nobody had invited me, and I was too shy to ask,” Tom says, on reflection.
    Up and down the seven-mile stretch of North Shore beaches, God was working in the lives of young, healthy and talented men and women within the surfing community. Some of them, like Tom, were hearing the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time—and not from some glossy evangelist or at a stuffy church service, but from someone they knew and respected—surfers and shapers. The relationship was the most effective way for the message to be spread—organically, and friend to friend, in this ocean-minded community.
    While living at Rocky Point, Tom got to surf some of the most beautiful breaks on the North Shore. One day, he got a call from a friend back on Kauai telling him about a job as a banquet waiter at a resort there. The pay was great and the evening hours were perfect for a surfer. It was all the encouragement Tom needed to leave Oahu behind and catch a puddle jumper back to Kauai.

    I know that a 21-year-old girl heading off to Hawaii with some guy she barely knows was not the average thing to do. But I leftfor Hawaii with Chris, a surfing friend and traveling partner, who liked to do the same things I did.
    It was also a very strange era, with folk rocker Stephen Stills singing, “Love the One You’re With.” We would end up being roommates with . . . privileges.
    Once we were on Kauai, we stayed a couple of weeks with the friends that Chris knew well and grew up with. They let us stay in their attic. It was hot, dusty and full of spider webs. The only furnishing was a queen-sized mattress, but we were stoked because our only goal was to surf and hang out on the beach as much as we could.
    It was a surprise to us when the hostess said, “Well, two weeks is long enough to have visitors. Aloha!” Being