Chuck Carson

Chuck Carson’s parents took him to Del Mar at the age of 12. They rented a surfboard for him and he learned to surf.

On a Sunday he would go surfing and then quickly throw his Sunday Best over his shorts and leave a trail of sand all the way to church. He went every Sunday to church.

He became an accomplished musician playing with the Christy Minstrels and Talk Five. He even played professional football with the L.A. Rams

His mother and step father had a horrific accident on an L.A. freeway. Sitting at his mother’s bedside he promised God to come back if she survived. Her condition did improve but she died 3 months later. While in a coma she asked God to ‘save her son’s soul’.
He went off to Hawaii to surf… While there a Roman Catholic woman shocked him by saying ‘God has something for you.’ She advised him to return home and get married.

On the beach one day he was so drunk he fell face first in the sand. He had a vision saying ‘Come to me Chuck.’
‘I’m not good enough,’ he replied
‘You’ll never be good enough. Come as you are.’

From that day forward life for chuck was never the same.
He met Melinad (Lin) in April 1972, they married in 1974. He returned to Hawaii where he took his first unorthodox preaching assignments as Director of the Walkiki Beach Chaplaincy. He played his guitar and preached ‘scared out of his wits’ as he learned to preach before an audience.
They returned to the mainland, started a family and he went to college. He was ordained and began series of commitments to preaching the Gospel ( and surfing). He served a number of churches.

In 1992 he was severely injured in a crash while leading a junior high church group in a waterpark. He spent 28 days in intensive care and a year in bed recovering at home.
They moved to Sacramento and for the next 14 years he was senior pastor.

By ‘divine appointments’ he ended up on the beach passing out flyers when he met Michael Pless on the beach.
For nearly a decade he earned his own beach walk of fame on the sands of seal Beach. *In every possible moment, he radiated love, grace and celebration.

He was so jolly, the best guy EVER Michael Pless, the owner of M & M Surf School, with whom Pastor Carlson founded Hope on the Beach church in 2009. He remembers praying for a pastor to minister the souls on the beach and how they literally ran into each other one Sunday morning. God answered both of their prayers.

When Chuck died in 2020 (?) surfers and beachgoers gathered on the shores of Seal Beach to give a final ’ wave’ to their beloved pastor. Nearly 100 surfers gathered on their surfboards for a @ Paddle Out’ on Sunday while other paid their respects on the beach. Michael spread his ashes into the wind and sea and Chuck was home for eternity. Lin, his wife, for 47 years, ina poignant blog thanked everyone 'I feel your love, and love you back.

Chuck surfed all of his life until he could surf no more.

Go in peace … and surf the Lord Chuck Carlson