Oh boy are we excited about this special guest! Trying to not get too star-struck this the poddy with the humble Reef Heazlewood. We get to unpack with him the world of professional surfing (aqua bogs incl.) and what it means to put God first and give Him the glory. Reef’s dream with professional surfing has always been to use it as a platform to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to help others… such as being an ambassador for International Needs Australia with his campaign ReefMakesWaves. Get amongst it!
You grew up in a family that loves surfing, travelling & Jesus. What are some of your greatest childhood memories & blessings?
I’d say when we did yearly trips to Lennox for competitions, the setup was epic. We’d be staying in apartments with other families and hang out on the green grass area, playing footy right next to the beach, watching the surf and go for heats, it was epic. Another one was travelling to Bali and Samoa with the family and surfing incredible waves and just having the best time with each other, it’s really made us a tight family unit!
God has pretty clearly stated he wants you surfing for a living… were their times when you doubted this & had to rely more on Him? What were the rollercoaster of emotions running through you?
Yeah absolutely. There was the time I lost my major sponsor and I had to just trust God that He would provide the funds for me to get to every event, and I was just living event by event. And more recently during covid, I had shoulder surgery because of a dislocated shoulder. It was a time where I really stepped back and slowed down to evaluate my plans. It was really awesome because I did just want to be doing what God wanted, so I was praying that He would open doors if He wanted me to continue in surfing or close them if He wanted me to stop and move into something else.
You have some solid mentors in your life, what has been the 3 best pieces of wisdom…
-I’m really blessed with some Godly mentors. The first bit of wisdom has just been telling me to get into Gods word more and more and really search the scriptures to find out what I believe and to know Jesus more deeply and love Him more deeply.
-Secondly to actually seek a disciplined life, we obviously don’t want to go back under the law. But there’s power and freedom in a disciplined life that is ultimately serving Jesus and making us more like Jesus, which is incredible when we think about it. I’m constantly praying to be more like Jesus, I’m just so excited that He will be working in my heart making me more like Himself.
-And this one has been a bit more recent but memorising scripture. Gods Word is SO powerful and will not return void in our lives and also in the lives around us when we have it written on our hearts.
Yourself & your mentor Jacob would like to start up a network of surfers on tour / travelling & bring them together in fellowship?
Yeah it happened at the start of this year, I was in Hawaii with Jacob who is the pastor of Sunset Beach Christian Church (SBCC) and we both had it on our hearts for this need of fellowship while travelling for myself and other surfers. And so at the moment it’s just Jacob and I but the prayer is to have more young Christian surfers travelling who are being discipled and not missing out on fellowship while travelling so that we can continue to grow in our relationship with Jesus and not stay stagnant.
Bible prophecy & end times is a big passion of yours… why is it so important to delve into, & how have you seen it grow your own faith?
Yeah man I love Bible prophecy and end times. It’s really the topics that got me excited to be reading my Bible more and showing me that it doesn’t just meet our emotional needs but also intellectual needs. But now I love it so much because it says in 2 Thes 3:5 - May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
And so I want to be looking and waiting for Christ, but I want to be educated on what His return looks like, how it involves us and what to be looking for. We don’t know a time but Jesus says there’s signs to be looking for so that we know it’s getting closer. It’s just so exciting because the closer we get to the end times the closer we are to being with Christ, that’s why I love Bible prophecy! Just can’t wait to be with Him!
As Christians, our whole way of being is so countercultural to mainstream society & the classic sex, drugs & rock n roll mentality of the surf culture. How has that journey been for you on the circuit?
It definitely blows me away when I look at surfing and even just the world and how dark it is compared to Jesus and His way. It can be so hard to be in the middle of it and stay pure but I’ve been trying to memorise verses that share how Gods Word cleanses, washes and purifies us. And just holding onto those verses as promises from Jesus, that He will perform. I’m also very blessed to have been raised with having Jesus and His word as my foundation that was instilled in me by my Dad and Mum! But it’s also more and more pressing onto my heart a burden for all the lost people in the surfing industry. They are so lost in darkness and are just grabbing at anything to try and find fulfilment but always being left empty.
Your super passionate about studying the bible & just being around kids…
Yeah my Dad had a really bad string of injuries and so he was laid up in bed for months and he used that time to just study Gods word and that really inspired me. Proverbs 25:2 says, ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.’ And so my Dad was showing me all these hidden messages in the Bible that are talking about Jesus in the Old Testament and it just shows the inerrancy of Gods Word. And that just excites me and I also love kids and want to share that excitement with them. So far I’ve only really done surf coaching with kids but I want to try and share this with as many kids as I can because it just blows my mind how incredible Gods word is haha.
You’ve just hopped onboard as an ambassador for International Needs. Could you tell us about about what they do & your opportunity to go to the Phillipines…
Yeah I’ve been really blessed to be an ambassador for International Needs Australia since November now. They’re a NFP that is trying to break the cycle of poverty, their motto is poverty shouldn’t be a life sentence. So it’s been epic to see them helping kids get an education, which leads into jobs that help the whole family and ultimately the whole community. They make it possible for communities to have access to necessary health needs. They help educate parents to get loans for businesses and they’ve had parents pay off house loans, so they can start to pay for other important things. And it was such a blessing, I was able to go to the Philippines with them and see all this for myself. And it just blew me away how so little can make so big of an impact and that really made me wonder how wild it would it be if our contribution was bigger- it would move mountains with poverty.
What have been some of the coolest conversations on God whilst travelling?
Yeah it’s truly a blessing when I get to have conversations when I’m travelling. It’s been epic to have a friend of mine come stay with me at the church in Hawaii and to see how he’s so curious. We’ve just talked about Jesus and what He did for us and what that means for our lives, it’s been really cool.
Gnarliest wipeout? & can you describe for us the feeling of getting tuuuuubed!?
Haha every time I think of my gnarliest wipeout, a different one comes to mind. I’ve had quite a few out Sunset though, it’s just deep water and such big walls of water. I’ve had waves I’ve fallen off and just got rolled massively and pushed so deep and just thinking about those ones suck haha.
Oh man, the best feeling in surfing. It’s the weirdest thing, time slows down but everything happens so quickly and everything’s really quiet and loud at the same time. But it’s just incredible to see this wall of water coming over on both sides and it’s always different because of the way the sun shines through and makes the water glisten. It’s just so epic.
A line of scripture that’s been on your heart?
Yeah the first scripture that I’ve memorised this year is one that I keep going back to and also I just try to meditate on it a lot.
Philippians 4:8 - ‘Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.’
Favourite worship album?
Recently I’ve been listening to Christian rap haha. And I’ve been loving this album, The Attributes of God by Shai Linne.
