19 years of National Directing looks a little like... "STEEEEVE STEVE BAILEY HOO HAA!!!" Swell Times podcast has gone live at CS National Gathering in Tassie and we've got the Angry Bird himself stepping up to the mic! He unpacks it all... the grit of the old days where he stepped into leadership, to National Director as we now know it. We are so grateful for the leader you are Steve! Where you're in action showing that Jesus is the answer and your leadership under Him. Praying for you and the fam always!
Mitch: Has the bowling ball ever had a good aqua dump story?
Stevo: No, I don't. But a little insider, I hear Elliot Gray has a really good one. Luca's father told me that when he was about 13, but I'm not going to dive into it because it's only a secondhand story. I think you should ask either Elliot or Lucas and hope he doesn't cry.
Sam: Well, have you got at least a scary wave experience for us- some a time when you were like yep, this is it, or just a really interesting experience out in the surf?
Stevo: Yeah, probably the scariest one where I actually thought I was going to die was at a place called Bears. It was a real hardy Southwest ocean swell. It was mean. This guy had his girlfriend out there and she couldn’t surf, she was absolutely petrified and there was just heaps of water moving, they were drifting towards these rocks and then another buddy was saying oh, I can't let her die. So, if we could paddle over and she'd grab the legrope and you paddled her in and you know that would be all good. But then paddling back, I'm in this spot and it was a late takeoff and the thing just caught in the lip and I landed smack on the water on my ribs- popped a couple of ribs out of the cartilage and my legrope wrapped around my face and I'm just like oh, this is it. I can’t move, I can't swim, yeah, I can’t breath. Anyway, I popped up and I grabbed my board hunched over, gasping for breath, and the next five waves hit me on the back. So, I just got pounded even more. I just sort of washed up on the beach like a walrus.
Mitch / Sam: A wal… what? Excuse me? What did you say? Steve. Just say that animal one more time while we are here…
Sam: Washed up on the beach like a dead seal. Oh, it’s good. He’s good, he’s good.
Stevo: Yeah. Anyway, it was then 45 to 50 minutes run up towards the track with broken ribs. It was probably the most pain that I’ve ever had. I actually thought I was going to drown and yeah, I have a constant reminder from it.
Mitch: Steve, I feel like you might have had a few of these, but what's the weirdest conversation you've had in the water?
Stevo: I've had a few very weird ones. Probably the most confronting one was with a guy who became a Jesus follower and and then moved to become a Jehovah's Witness. We’re at Margs main break and he yells from probably you know 20 meters away, so Steve Bailey, you still believe in that lie called Hell and I was like what, and he's like ripping me from like 20 meters away. What's going on? and his girlfriend was constantly like, it's your turn today. But I'm happy to chat on the beach, come here and surf. Well you know this guy just kept going and following me around and catching waves and ignoring him and he just kept following me around. I went in and that was it.
Mitch: What does it look like- the daily routine of the Australian National Director?
Stevo: Well, when I look at that, that's probably the hardest question to answer because it's so different every day. Some days it's sitting in meetings and looking at a screen all day. Sometimes it's sitting on an airplane heading to the different parts of the country to meet up with crew. Sometimes it’s meeting other pastors from churches who are preparing talks or learning and growing their faith and different things. So, it's really hard. And every day is different. I'm the sort of person that doesn't like routine too much. So, it actually suits me to mix it up and do heaps of different things- that just keeps it fresh for us.
Sam: Did you grow up thinking yeah, one day, I'm going to be the national director of Christian Surfers Australia?
Stevo: No, actually not at all. I grew up in WA in Watermans Bay. I left school at 15 and became a plumber and I started an apprenticeship and started my own business when I was 19. My grand plan was to retire and cruise at Rottnest by the time I was 45. But yeah, God had very different plans for me- no cruises at Rottnest.
Mitch: Did you did you go through CS as a grom?
Stevo: Some neighbours across the road were involved or loosely involved in it. It wasn’t until I was probably about 18 that I actually got involved. My mum paid for me to go on a CS camp. She framed it like oh, I paid for a trip down South for you. Oh, thanks Mom, that's very nice you. Found out it was a Christian Surfers’ Camp and I was like what a stich up. I actually remember telling her I'll go mum but I'm not going to listen to anything- that's that because I grew up in the church and I just saw a lot of things that made me really question what this was really about and some of the things I saw really turned me away from faith. And so, I really wanted nothing to do with it but going to that camp changed all that. Saw a few leaders that actually lived out the way that Jesus was taught to me in Sunday school and stuff. I saw that lived out with people and actually signed into this. So, yeah, that was the beginning for me.
Sam: Can you remember a specific moment where you felt like God had revealed to you this is actually your tribe or you felt yeah, I feel like I belong here or was it like a slow gradual thing for you?
Stevo: I think from that camp I I started the Journey of faith and probably became a Jesus scholar about four or five months later and the the guys that were running it they then rang us up and said hey, do you want to come to this next one which was an Easter camp. I was like yeah, sure. All right, that'd be great. I'd get there and they're like oh, by the way, you're a leader and this is a group of grommey’s you’ve got to look after. I was like whaaat. They had talks and stuff at the camp that we were meant to do, like discussion topics. Our sessions were just wrestles because I had no idea what being a leader was and I had only been a Christian like a month or two. And so, I had no idea. And so, we just goofed around, had fun.
Mitch: So good. And over those 19 years, what have you seen grow really strong in CS or go a different way?
Stevo: I think some of the great things about CS that attracted me to it when I was younger was the adventure and the rawness. There's heaps of adventure, heaps of fun and that's one thing that I think is still an essential part of CS, looks a little different, we care for people a whole lot better than what we used to which is a great thing and I think probably the diversity. When I when I was younger surfing was white male short boarders. You know when a long boarder has turned up to a to a break. They were literally told to leave, you know. There were hardly any girls, there wasn't a lot of girls involved in CS & not a lot of girls surfing. I think that's one of the great things that CS has actually pioneered in and changed within the surfing culture. Back when the Jesus Pro was being run, those were actually the first sort of nationally rated type events that gave equal prize money to guys and girls.
I suppose diversity there's a whole bunch of different sorts of surfboards and different styles of the way people love to enjoy the ocean, which is a part of CS, and that's a beautiful thing too.
Sam: That's cool. If if you were to impart some wisdom on us and and encourage us as a tribe, I guess as the national director having some vision on where you'd love to see the tribe going and and a bit more of some outcomes, and some things that you'd love to see God do in the communities that we get to serve into… What are some encouragements that you'd love to give to us listening here, but also I guess on the podcast to just keep in mind or prayer points?
Stevo: That's a really big wide question but the thing that I think God's really been speaking to me a lot about recently is how much He is the answer. We can run all sorts of events and all sorts of different things that happen that are great fun and provide great community and all that sort of thing but if we're not bringing people to Jesus, showing His love for people, His love to restore people to heal people to bring them to fullness and peace in life then I think we are not doing our job properly. I think He's been speaking me a lot about that, how personally when life gets busy, and when you guys grow up, you'll see that life gets busy.
Time becomes really valuable and it's easy to pass some of those relationships off. It's like wow, I'll connect you with this person and I'll be able to help you. I'll connect you with that person and I'll be able to help you. I will send them to a pastor or you know to whatever it might be, but I think what God wants is actually ‘no, I've brought those people into your path because he knows that I can actually help them. I think that's probably a true thing for all of us. I would think about the people I've come across in our path and how God wants to use us to listen. So, that's probably a big thing.
Mitch: And is there over these last 19 years a piece of scripture, or a passage that has continued to resound?
Stevo: Yeah, well, there's probably two.
Romans 8:31 ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’. That's that's one that stuck with me from when I first became a Jesus follower, and I had to fight a few battles around faith, like personally, dealing with stuff that that I didn't want to let go of and surrender to God, particularly trust in Him, and that scripture held me through a lot of that stuff- just that one verse. Probably the other one that's more particular to the role. When I started the role I asked the Lord to give me a scripture that would just sort of confirm and give me some leading about it. Ezekiel 3 has been a really strong scripture to hold me to that until God asked me to step into this role.
