HCH photo by Anna Weaver

Joseph Freymann gives his niece Kahea Ah Sam surf pointers on Aug. 9 in Ewa Beach.

Surf ’n’ church

A Catholic high school teacher mixes classes on the waves with lessons on faith

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

When Joseph Freymann is out on the ocean waves surfing, a sense of God always accompanies him.

“I have an immense reverence for God’s grandeur and power when I’m in the water,” he said. “The ocean has always had that effect on me.”

Freymann, a Hawaii-born Catholic now living in California, has surfed since he was 14. In 2001 he decided to share his connection between surfing and faith with others. That’s when he started a California surf camp for those wanting to explore Catholic Christianity outside of a church.

A few years ago he moved the camp to Ewa Beach, where he has roots and can involve his family in the now-named Honolulu Surf Camp. The weeklong camp is for adults and children over 10 accompanied by an adult. It’s a nonprofit enterprise. Freymann, a Catholic high school teacher, charges just enough to cover expenses.

Besides the daily surf lessons Freymann teaches — sometimes with the assistance of his brother-in-law Jeff Ah Sam — Freymann and his wife Sandra hold daily faith-sharing lessons. Participants also go to morning Mass at nearby Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and can choose to pray the rosary or have personal prayer time each day. They also get free time to explore the island in excursions.

Freymann’s goal isn’t just to teach someone how to stand up on the board. It’s also to show students who “didn’t know where to ask or were just so busy in their lives they never got around to asking” how to explain their faith to others.

“I’ve just found through experience that there are a lot of adults, even practicing Catholics, who know their faith but don’t know how to explain or defend their faith,” he said.

Apologetics is a running theme in daily lessons that cover the existence of God, Jesus as a historical person, the need for salvation and the sacraments.

“Surfing is a way to attract people,” he said. “Then at the same time we can go over these [faith] themes with them and hopefully plant some seeds for their own spiritual life.”

Freymann’s sister Anna Ah Sam was learning to surf during this year’s camp, which ran Aug. 8-14 at a beach house near the Empty Lots surfing spot in Ewa Beach. She said she found that surfing opens people up to talking about their faith rather than feeling it is limited to church or a parish setting.

“To talk about faith outside of that, it’s not as usual,” she said. “When you’re in an informal environment such as surfing, they feel more comfortable talking about it.”

Freymann spoke of one teenage boy whose mother sent him to the camp because she thought it was the only way she could get him interested in his faith. He resisted actively participating at first but by the end of the week returned home engaged with being Catholic.

Even in the surf lessons, Freymann sees a faith connection. He does a prayer before going out with campers on the water and talks about ancient Hawaiians also praying and consulting a kahuna before venturing forth.

“We tie it in with Hawaiian culture and adapt it to Catholic culture,” he said.

There’s also a parallel between spiritual growth and surfing progress Freymann likes to draw. “The waves push you back a little bit, and then you keep swimming,” he said.

Freymann hopes to see the camp grow to include more Oahu campers in the future. This year he had eight campers, fewer than his normal amount. His wife Sandra was among them.

She doesn’t like California beaches because the water is too cold. Hawaii was the first place she was getting in good ocean time. That morning she “caught a really good one all the way to shore,” she said.

“People say Catholic stuff is boring,” she said, but this camp leads people to connect with their faith.

Freymann’s nieces Kahea, 12, and Mahina, 6, were working on surfing basics too, though Mahina was a little young for full lessons.

On the afternoon of Aug. 9, Kahea received some pointers from Freymann. She was working to overcome her fear of the reef and working on her balance. “I hope I’ll be able to stand but I really don’t know if I will be able to,” she said.

Freymann remembers his own first day of surfing at age 14. He spent more than three hours trying to catch a wave.

“I remember that feeling of pure adrenaline and excitement, and I was just hooked for the rest of my life,” he said.

Looking at the ocean in front of him he said, “If all this comes from God, then it shows how great and wonderful the creator must be.”

To contact Freymann about next summer’s Honolulu Surf Camp, go to www.honolulu surfcamp.com or e-mail honolulusurfcamp@yahoo.com.