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While his airs may take Reef closer to the heavens, he’s never hidden from the fact that he’s always relied on a Christian belief system to keep him grounded. “That’s definitely a huge part of who I am. And I try and stay true to that when I’m travelling,” he insists. Although he’s not a Sunday churchgoer, Reef’s not afraid to whip out the Bible on a surf trip and bury himself in the New Testament between barrel sessions. This typically prompts a few questions from the surfers he’s travelling with, but rather than preach or proselytise, Reef suggests his faith is fundamentally about developing good relationships with the people he meets along the way. “I don’t want to be kind of letting relationships disintegrate or kind of have a relationship that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. That’s something I’ve been working on with everyone that I come across.”
He admits there have been times in the past when his belief system was a source of internal conflict, but suggest that, like his air game, his faith has evolved. “I’ve definitely had people that I don’t get along well with…. I’ve been able to kind of think about them. And actually, instead of kind of wanting them to have bad results or bad things happen to them. I’ve been growing and going, you know what, I actually want the best for this person.”
Asked if it’s ever isolating to be a Christian in a subculture that sometimes celebrates hedonism, he points out that there are people he connects with who share his faith. “There’s some really awesome Christians in the surf industry. Brit Merrick and the Merrick family (Channel Island Surfboards), and Bob Hurley is another one. And so it’s been really cool. Having those relationships and being able to talk to them.”
However, one should be careful not to presume that Reef’s Christian principles make him some kind of lightweight pushover in tough situations. A recent boat charter to the Mentawai Islands alongside Hughie Vaughan, Hinata Aizawa, Lennix Smith, Billy Kean, and Nathan Cook was a case in point. It was an early morning at Macaronis, where the camp does its best to maintain a pseudo-exclusive stranglehold on the wave despite the fact many of the boats in the region were anchoring at the hypnotic left long before the resort was built. Charters only have access to the break until around 10 am, before the local security or cops start chasing you out of the line-up. After a 6am paddle out, Reef and his crew were making the most of a reeling three– four-foot Macaronis line-up, when one of the guys in the water decided to voice his opposition to their presence. It was Reef who quickly ‘arced up’ to defend the rights of his crew to catch a few more waves before calling it a day. “The guy was out of line, and he (Reef) was absolutely blowing up,” explains the crew’s photographer Simon Williams. “It was almost scary to see him get that angry. He’s absolutely the nicest human you’ll ever meet… I will say one thing about Reef though he 100% backs himself. If he thinks he’s right he’s not stepping down.”
