Written By: Priscilla Burr
Santa Cruz has a deeply rooted surf heritage – shaped by the first-recorded surf session in mainland America in 1885, and its designation as a World Surfing Reserve. Despite the chilling waters, it showcases consistent swells and quality waves from a blend of beach, point and reef breaks. Yet, against the backdrop of defining surf culture, Santa Cruz lacked a Christian Surfers chapter for over two decades.
In 2021, with a zeal for surfing and love for God, Joe McCroskey relaunched the Santa Cruz chapter in California. When he started the chapter, his wife, Tammy, was scarcely involved. However, two years later, Joe unexpectedly passed away due to cancer, and Tammy stepped up to help co-lead the chapter to carry on his legacy.
“It is no understatement to say that if not for Joe, there would be no active Santa Cruz chapter today,” says Gregory “Lebo” Lebovitz, co-leader of the Santa Cruz chapter and CSUS board member. “His heart burned for young surfers, especially Christians, to have a Christ-centered, Kingdom-oriented community of surfers in which to be a part, to hang with, go surfing together, talk surfing, and encourage one another.”
The Santa Cruz chapter meets weekly on Saturdays at Pleasure Point, with 40 regular participants ranging in age from 15 to 79. As an outreach, the chapter hands out donuts and coffee and shares a “Salty Surf Tip,” with a gospel application. The chapter also hosts monthly bonfires and a yearly campout.
“We are here today doing what we are doing because of what God ignited in Joe,” adds Lebo.
SURFING FOR CHRIST
Joe’s passion for intersecting surfing and faith started in high school. At the age of 13, Joe turned away from his Christian beliefs. “He started surfing and thought he had to choose one or the other. He chose surfing and walked away from God,” says Tammy. “When he was 16, he met some surfers who were Christians and realized he could do both. He recommitted his life to the Lord. After that, he always had a passion to make sure everybody knew that you can be a Christian and a surfer.”
Joe and Tammy met in high school. After they started dating, they both attended Bethany Bible College in Scotts Valley, and they got married at the college chapel in 1982. In 1989, the couple moved to Pichilemu, Chile. “Going to Chile was a good fit for him, and we connected with Christian Surfers International as the international organization was forming,” says Tammy. “We went to Chile for the purpose of reaching local surfers. We wanted to show surfers that they could love God and be a surfer.” While there, Joe helped lay the foundation for the CS chapter in Pichilemu.
After seven years in Chile, the McCroskeys returned to Santa Cruz in 1996, where Joe had a desire to start a CS chapter. But with the busyness of full-time teaching, he wouldn’t relaunch the chapter until after he retired in 2015. “He told me, starting a chapter in Santa Cruz is the one thing on his bucket list,” says Tammy. Joe found people to help him start the chapter in February of 2021. At the time, Tammy wasn’t very involved as she was teaching full time.
Later in the year, Tammy became clinically depressed. She describes that season as feeling like a zombie. “We traveled to a Christian Surfers International (CSI) conference soon after that. I didn’t want to go, because I didn’t want to do anything in those days,” says Tammy. “But I figured that staying at home all weekend would be more depressing than going.” Joe and Tammy reconnected with friends at the CSI conference, including CS founder Brett Davis, whom Joe had met previously in 1993 at a CSI conference, and Mike and Emma Walker from New Zealand.
CHANGING TIDE
As her feelings of depression escalated, Tammy retired from teaching in 2022. “After retiring, instead of just being depressed, I
was depressed, bored, and I felt like I didn’t have any purpose in life.” Less than a year later, things started to change for Joe.
At first, Joe was diagnosed with kidney stones. Following two surgeries, instead of getting better, he got worse. He was scheduled
for an MRI, where they found a lesion in his brain. His health started to decline. In August of 2023, a second MRI showed that the mass had grown, and he was diagnosed with a malignant Glioblastoma brain tumor. “I was just in shock, and I didn’t know how to proceed,” says Tammy.
People gathered around to help Joe and Tammy. “A few CS friends and other friends supported us by coming one day every week
for what I called ‘Hubby Care,’ so I could also have a bit of a break and time to exercise and run errands,” says Tammy. Lebo watched surf videos and played catch with Joe. Ben Roberts, who was a part of the chapter, took Joe to CS gatherings.
Despite the shock Tammy was going through, she says that God worked a miracle in her personal life. “God was healing my
depression through the combination of my therapy, new medications and needing to be there for my husband,” says Tammy. “I had purpose. I realized I was a full-time caregiver because he couldn’t be left alone anymore.”
At a later online appointment, which the whole family attended, Tammy asked what Joe’s prognosis was, and the answer was three months to live. After the appointment, Tammy decided to make a bucket list of experiences she wanted to have with him
before he died. “I knew how he liked to live his life – he was active, fun and very social. And even though that wasn’t the way I was, I wanted him to be able to live that way for as long as he could. So I tried to make it happen for him and build memories with our adult kids,” says Tammy.
Joe’s final weeks were spent fulfilling his bucket list – watching his children pursue their careers, experiencing concerts,
participating in family getaways, going to a homecoming game and regularly attending church. A month after his biopsy surgery, he helped baptize his son and went surfing for the second-to-last time with CS friends.
“God gave me an amazing gift. We reenacted our wedding on October 23 in the building where we got married,” says Tammy. “When we came home, it was obvious he was done. He kept himself strong through that day as a gift to me. God had blessed me by keeping him alive and strong enough through that day.”
The couple had celebrated their 41st anniversary in July of that year. One week later, on October 31, 2023, Joe passed away at the age of 62. Lebo planned a paddle-out on November 11 with CS, and a Celebration of Life was held on November 15.
“At the Celebration of Life, we emphasized how important Christian Surfers was to him and how we wanted people to carry on the work of the chapter in his honor,” says Tammy. A month later, Tammy and her adult children traveled back to Chile together for the first time since they had moved back, where they held another paddle-out and a Celebration of Life for Joe on the beach with Chilean and missionary friends.
CARRYING ON A LEGACY
Following Joe’s death, Tammy says she questioned what was next. “After a person loses their spouse, he or she often need to
find a new purpose or focus for their lives,” says Tammy. “And that’s typically when you ask, ‘Why am I still here? Why did they die, and I didn’t? What is my purpose now that I am not a wife anymore?’ For me, CS was that focus.”
Early into 2024, Lebo held a brainstorming meeting for the Santa Cruz chapter to discuss how to move forward. One of their key objectives was shifting from gathering for coffee and donuts to using it as an outreach to their local community. At the end of the meeting, Lebo challenged everyone to commit to being involved in something. While she was driving home, Tammy prayed about what she should do.
“I realized I am the only one who knows the history of Joe’s involvement with CS, his values and visions for the Santa Cruz chapter, and things he had tried that worked and what didn’t work,” says Tammy. “I knew it was important that all of these things were represented as the chapter continued, and I was the only one who could do that. So I
felt like God was calling me to be involved in leadership, and I was willing.”
Lebo called her a few days later and asked her to join the leadership team. “Joe always wanted others to come alongside him in
leadership, but he didn’t have the skills or experience to develop a team. I saw Gregory putting his skills and experience to work,
creating a leadership team. I thought that’s what Joe always wanted. It was cool to see that dream coming true,” says Tammy.
Before stepping into leadership, Tammy took some time to start healing from her grief. She participated in the CSUS trip to Pichilemu, Chile, in 2024. And she signed up for a widow’s camp in Australia. She combined those two trips, for two months of travel to Chile, New Zealand (where she stayed with the Walkers) and Australia, where she traveled up the East Coast of the country, staying with various CS members, thanks to the help of Brett Davis. The month in Australia was filled with memories, making gnocchi with the CS Girls in Cronulla, surfing with the Forster group and staying in the CS hospitality house in Forster. She ended the trip in Brisbane at Camp Widow. “I have always wanted to go to Australia. It’s funny how losing your husband at 62 affects how you view money,” says Tammy. “You do the things that you’ve always wanted to do.”
When she returned home, Tammy felt ignited to start serving in her local CS chapter. She soon recognized that the
skills she had developed as a teacher proved valuable, including training others to fulfill responsibilities, communication, organizational skills and graphic arts. She has also cultivated new skills along the way.
“Tammy stepped out from the wings onto the center stage of the chapter. She had energy, joy, passion, kindness and could talk to anyone who came by,” says Lebo. “Administratively, she carries more load than any of us. What I see as her strongest contribution is her love for others, for anyone and everyone God brings our way. Tammy is by far the most active, committed leader on our team, and we are beyond blessed by her every single week.”
And for Tammy, stepping into leadership at CS Santa Cruz has given her a new purpose in life as she continues to carry on Joe’s vision. “Our local chapter is a cause I can put my energy into that respects and honors my husband’s passions and values. But it’s also family and community who are coming alongside me through this difficult season of life, many of whom also knew and loved him,” says Tammy. “CS has been an important support system for me. I’ve discovered who I am without my loving husband and what God’s plan for my life is and my future.”
To learn more about the Northwest region, visit christiansurfers.com.