Surfing's the new religion

A blustery Saturday at Croyde Bay in North Devon, and the first heat of the weekend's Jesus Surf Classic is well under way. Four competitors are out in the surf, watched by five judges on a high wooden platform by the water's edge. It is sinking - slowly but surely - into the wet sand, as are the spectators, who shuffle around to avoid being claimed by the beach.

"Purple up," the whisper circulates, and out there among the surging grey sea and crashing waves a surfer - wearing a purple bib for identification purposes - briefly seems to walk on water only to sink out of sight. "Purple down," someone says, the miracle proving disappointingly brief.

Though this is the Jesus Surf Classic, I quickly learn that there aren't any Christian surfers out there - they are all too busy organising the event. I ask so many of the competitors if they are Christians that soon I am mistaken for an organiser hoping to make some converts.

The only question a surfer hates more than, "Are you a Christian?" I discovered, is, "What do you do during the week?". They really hate being reminded they have normal jobs, like the rest of us.

The Jesus Surf Classic isn't actually evangelical. According to organiser Phil Williams: "We enjoy surfing, so do they, so we put on this festival. And if anyone wants to find out more about us or about Christianity, then that's great. If not, we've still done a good job organising the thing."

Most of these surfers will probably never put a foot inside a church, so they will never meet a Christian," vicar Rob Graham tells me. "But if we organise this, at least we're putting a positive image of the church forward."

Croyde village has presumably been thanking the Lord for the advent of surfing for two decades. A 15-minute walk from the beach, it is a friendly place despite the No Parking, No Turning and, during the summer, No Vacancies signs.

There are several surf shops, the pubs are excellent and serve good food, and local landladies enjoy charging extortionate rates to surfers down from London for the weekend: £64 B&B for a double really isn't charitable.

Back at the beach car park after lunch there's lots of noise. It's the skateboarding competition with musical accompaniment from US hard rock spiritual group Creed. Later, Frequency from South Wales will be on stage, followed by Fotizo, all the way from Newquay with their "Gospel grunge with a mellow edge".

In the meantime, everyone is listening to an American who's MCing the skateboarding competition. He can't resist telling the assembled eight to 12-year-olds that Jesus died for their sins. "If you want to live forever simply accept Christ died on the cross, was risen and can save you," he says. A minority look baffled, the majority look bored.

By Sunday afternoon the 122 surfers and bodyboarders have been whittled down to 10 winners, and the organisers, some of whom have been on the beach for two 10-hour days, pack up.

Whether any of the local surfers have been converted is uncertain, but sportswear and soft drinks companies sponsor plenty of competitions confident it will have positive effects on sales, so who can tell.

Surfers work in mysterious ways.

?This year's Jesus Surf Classic takes place at Croyde Bay on 14 and 15 September. For details or an entry form visit www. christiansurfers.org. The Preston House Hotel (call 01271 890472; or go to www. prestonhousesaunton.co.uk) in Saunton, a mile south of Croyde Bay, has double rooms from £110.