Australia's most Christ-centred elite sporting contest wrapped up at Cronulla last week with the strong local flavour which dominated the two-day event generating a new wave in surfing outreach.
Not only did Cronulla locals swoop the prizes at the Jesus Pro-Am, but Cronulla's Protestant churches got together to run the first ever "Church on the Beach' on the Sunday morning of the event.
Event organizer Jackie Beresford told Sydneyanglicans.net the strong support from local churches and the success of the beach church service has forced Christian Surfers to throw out its decades-long strategy of moving the event around Australia.
Christian Surfers has been running the Jesus Pro Am as an outreach event for 21 years, drawing elite non-Christian surfers to compete.
The last time the Jesus Pro-Am was held at Cronulla was 1997.
However basing the event at Cronulla will help local churches, led by Cronulla Baptist and including St Andrew's Anglican Church, build on the Sunday morning service that attracted some 300 people this year.
"The event shows surfers a different side to Christians " that we are willing to serve them. It's a real relationship builder," Ms Beresford says.
"Holding the event at Cronulla again will allow us to build on the relationships developed this year."
This year's two day event saw a field of 108 elite male and female surfers compete for a great prize pool worth over $10,000.
At the prize presentation, Christian surfer Darryn "Mousey' Harvey, son of the Rev Richard Harvey, rector of St Matthew's Manly, told the large crowd that Jesus, by dying on the Cross, paid for our salvation and that this gift is free for all people who turn their lives to Christ.
In the Men's Open final Cronulla's Fletcher Hayllar overcame Maroubra’s Blake Thorton, winning himself a 12-day surfing trip to the Menatwai Islands in Indonesia sponsored by The Surf Travel Company.
In the Women’s Open Lyndsay Noyes successfully defended her title by taking out the division from fellow Cronulla local Alex Hamilton, Ulladulla’s Kirstie Brown and Dee Why’s Tara
Ryan. For her win, Noyes won a $1600 gold bracelet.
The Cadets (U/16s) division was dominated by the strong performance of Joe Sear, who went on to complete the Cronulla trifecta.
