Imagine learning to play basketball from Michael Jordan. Or taking passing lessons from Peyton Manning. How about skating the halfpipe with Tony Hawk or getting surf instructions from three-time world champion Tom Curren?
Wait a minute! You can do the last one this summer at Walking on Water Dream Surf Camps. In fact, you can choose your own instructor from the world-class likes of , C.J. Hobgood, Damien Hobgood or other pros who are lending a hand.
You already read a little about the all-star instructors in WALK ON WATER. Now learn about who these pros are.
C.J. HOBGOOD
C.J. claimed the Association of Surfing Professional’s world championship in 2001, and he has remained one of the world’s best ever since. You might remember reading about Ceej in Breakaway’s October 2006 cover story.
“I think a lot of people find the Lord when they are either at their lowest point or their highest point,” C.J. says. “I think I came to the Lord at the highest time, because I realized that no matter what I did in this world, no matter what I tried to accomplish or tried to achieve or tried to get, it was not happiness. I was reaching my dream to make the world tour, and right when I reached that dream is when God was right there in my face.”
DAMIEN HOBGOOD
“I thought that making the [pro] tour was going to be my happiness,” Damien says. “Getting in with these elite surfers, making a name for myself and doing everything that I had dreamed of was going to bring me happiness. But I was kind of already tasting that this isn’t real happiness. This is a lot of hard work. You travel most of the year, and you miss a lot of family and friends.”
The process lasted about two years. Looking back, Damien says that God was knocking on the door as his view of his life began to shift. “I was seeing the whole world, and seeing how empty all this stuff was—how you can go from contest to contest and big parties with all these people every night,” he says. “I could basically go anywhere in the world I wanted—the nicest places, the biggest parties with all my friends—and it was still total emptiness.”
“It was a really difficult year,” Damien continues. “It was like God was saying, Hey, without Me, you are not gonna be happy. You can only fill the hole in your heart with Me. You are going to try to fill it with all these things, but I am gonna let you know that I’m the only one who can fill that void. When you are ready, I’m here.”
Damien’s upbringing had given him enough knowledge about the Bible to help him recognize the source of his stirrings. “It had gotten to a point where I knew God gave me the gift of surfing, and I knew that I would use it for Him or not,” he says. “I thought it was lame that I was just surfing for myself, that it was a selfish thing. The more I kept achieving things, the more empty they were and the more bummed I was.”
It was a stark realization to discover that everything he had always hoped for brought no fulfillment. “I thought, Oh gosh, I put all my eggs—my whole life—into this basket of what I thought was happiness: winning and doing good in surfing,” Damien says. “I was more and more bummed, and I knew that God was the only One who could fix it.”
Read more about Damien.
TOM CURREN
Few have altered the face and soul of surfing as much as Tom Curren. As the Santa Barbara regularfooter rose to dominance in the ’80s, his fluid yet powerful style blew minds and revolutionized wave riding. Everyone wanted to surf like Curren.
Tom lit the pro tour on fire and quickly became an international phenomenon. His wave-riding instincts were unparalleled and his natural ability was astounding. It was as if the water was his home environment. His style was unique and inspiring, a blend of dynamic power and graceful fluidity. He invented the “double pump” bottom turn, which provided more speed and power going into off-the-lip moves, and he blended multiple maneuvers with seeming effortlessness.
Almost every young surfer in the ’80s and early ’90s patterned his or her style after Tom Curren. Even the pros were taking lessons from him.
“His technique was so advanced, it was brilliant,” says 1983 and ’84 world champion Tom Carroll in a 2005 Surfing article. “He really showed me a technique—all of us, the whole world really—and that’s when our techniques had to change. Tom came along with this sort of aesthetically complete technique that was a really nice dance on the wave, and the way he shifted his balance and his weight around was really nice, and you could take it on board. So everyone took it on board, I think.”1
“If you go back to the pre-Kelly Slater era, there was no one like Tom Curren,” says Joey Buran, 1984 Pipeline Master and tour rival who was considered California’s best surfer before Tom rose to the top. “He completely changed pro surfing. His style and his skill were far superior to everyone else’s. He did it all at such a young age and at a time when no one thought an American could do anything.”
By putting the United States on the surfing map, Tom became a national hero in the surf community and beyond. He had ended the Australian domination of pro surfing. He was young, good looking and humble. Sports Illustrated published profiles of the young star, and every surf video wanted to feature his clips and document his historical rise.
“I think every surfer on the planet was totally inspired by Tom Curren and his style and who he was as a person,” pro surfer Tim Curran says. ”He was probably one of the most humble surfers ever.”
BETHANY HAMILTON
The Comeback Queen lost her arm to a 14-foot tiger shark in 2003 while surfing near her home in Hawaii. Three and a half weeks later, she was surfing again. Ten weeks after the attack, she was competing—and winning—again. Throughout the media frenzy that followed her ordeal, she never quit pointing to Christ.
“Having a relationship with God is the most important thing in my life, and I want to share that with others,” Bethany says. “I want to help them improve in surfing because it helps build confidence and teaches respect and appreciation for God's creation.”
Read more about Bethany. 
