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Faith As We See It

"I was about 15 when I started reading the Bible. I was really amazed when I first started reading it, had a lot of questions about it. Of all the people who would come to me to answer some of those questions was a guy that lived down the street, a big hippie surfer. I figured he's just a druggie. But he comes over to skate my ramp, a half pipe in my back yard, one day, and we started talking about God. "I was just blown away that someone who looked like that could be a real Christian. Even though I was a little punk myself, I just had that stereotype of what a Christian was. And it excited me to see that this guy, who didn't appear to be full of wealth and riches, had wealth and riches in his heart. He was almost in contrast to what I thought the Christian religion would be. "I do a blessing before I paddle out, just because surfing's a big part of my life, and I'm real thankful for it. Seems like that's when I'm closest, almost in God's creation. It's a real intense thing, the water; it's another world, the sharks and all that. There's a lot of emotion, a lot of intensity and also a lot of danger." ---Andrew Bashaw, a longtime surfer and member of Lighthouse Christian Fellowship, uses a handful of sea as Holy Water. Continue the photo essay. [ Santa Cruz | MetroActive Central | Archives ]