Due to outer-island trips and visiting relatives, my blogging output has been pretty sparse lately. It’s like oil and real estate: having less of something makes it more valuable, right?
In commemoration of one of the few swells to hit the south shore this summer, I thought I’d post this story from the L.A. Times: Gaza surfers find freedom in the sea
If surfing is a quest for freedom, nowhere is such a pursuit more relevant than in Gaza, an overcrowded, poverty-stricken strip of land on the Mediterranean controlled by Hamas and cut off from the rest of the world by Israel.
“Gaza is like a prison,” said Bashire Watfa, owner of Al Shira (The Sail) beach cafe. “There’s nowhere to breathe except the beach.”
Rival Palestinian factions recently fought running battles in the scarred apartment blocks that tower over downtown Gaza City. After four days of bloodletting, Hamas prevailed over the more secular Fatah forces. In response, Israel quickly shut down its border crossings with Gaza, allowing only limited international aid to pass into the territory.
For the surfers of the Gaza Strip, the popular Al Deira beach is a refuge where catching the perfect wave trumps politics.
“We go to the beach to forget about the suffering,” said Mohammed Juda, 20, who surfs with his 15-year-old brother, Wadia. The Juda brothers, who paddle out into the surf every morning at 6, wore identical blue T-shirts and black swim trunks.
And my favorite part…
Like the other Gaza surfers, he watches reruns of “Baywatch” episodes. But he doesn’t ogle the bikini-clad lifeguards on the show, he said.
“I close my eyes and watch through my fingers,” Jayab said, laughing as he held his hands in front of his eyes to illustrate. “We think of the joy of surfing, and how to develop our style.”