The Beginning

In the spring of 2004, surfing Ambassador Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz was on a trip to Israel, where he had introduced surfing nearly 50 years before, and expressed his interest in meeting some local Israeli-Arab surfers to Arthur Rashkovan, a local surf and skate industry exec, and then-Director of the Israeli Surfing Association.  Arthur introduced him to Abdallah Serri (pictured, at left, with Doc) and later that year, organized the first surf contest for Israeli Arabs. With the success of the contest and a donation of boards from Doc to the Israeli Arab surfers, Surfing 4 Peace was born.

On July 27, 2007 The Los Angeles Times published an article by Louise Roug detailing the plight of Palestinian surfers living in the Gaza Strip and forced to share a single surfboard between them.  Within hours, Doc Paskowitz and his son David were on the phone with Arthur in Tel Aviv. They decided then and there that something had to be done.  After a few short weeks, the team had gathered 14 used surfboards from Israeli surf companies, for donation to the small but passionate surfing community in Gaza. 

Doc's stubborness prevailed and both he and his son David were permitted to deliver the boards to the waiting Palestinian surfers. Articles detailing the donation appeared in scores of newspapers, journals and magazines around the world. 

  Following the successful surfboard delivery to Gaza, the S4P, including the production team of Shuki and Adi Weiss, held a Surfing 4 Peace benefit concert in Tel Aviv in October of 2007. The concert featured the Israeli band Malka Baya joining forces with Doc’s sons David and Joshua Paskowitz, both established musicians.  

Later that evening, the festivities in Tel Aviv were opened with a surfers circle in the waters off of the concert grounds. As the sun set, the concert opened and Doc Paskowitz, the man who brought surfing to the Middle East, told the crowd of over 3000  of his vision of peace, co-existance and celebration.

In the summer of 2010, as the Surfing 4 Peace team negotiated the import of surfboards into the Gaza Strip, they got word of several new faces showed up on the beach, eager to give surfing a try.  But these faces were different than usual.  They belonged to four girls, Rawand, Kholoud, Shoruq and Sabah Abo Ghanem.  The Abo Ghanem girls are two sets of sisters, whose fathers are brothers and were two of the first surfers in Gaza.  Unlike other girls their age in Gaza, Rawand, Shoruq, Sabah and Kholoud had learned to swim practically before they could walk and could be found swimming at the beach every day and accompanying their fathers, brothers and cousins out into the surf and beyond.

After meeting with the girls and their fathers, it became clear that the lack of boards was not the main obstacle to the girls’ surfing dream.  With conservative social standards for modesty being prevalent in much of Gaza, the older girls were more concerned more about the lack of appropriate clothing than they were about boards.  Appropriate “Islamic Swimwear”, as it has been called, is not available in Gaza and as a result women swim fully clothed.  And so the Gaza Surfer Girl Project was born.  The S4P team quickly assembled a “catalog” of design ideas, colors and materials and presented it to the girls and their parents, who selected their preferences.  

Over the next week the girls participated in workshops of the Gaza Surf Club, much of which was documented by a French film crew for the program 66 Minutes, as well as by Sarah Topol, writing for The Atlantic.  The new shipment of boards finally arrived in late August and included a board donated to Rawand and Kholoud by Renee Johnson and The Eastern Surfing Association, Southern South Carolina District.  With one board delivered and a design book full of ideas, the Explore Corps team departed Gaza ready to begin the next phase of the project.

By now word of the Surfer Girl Project had spread and S4P was delighted to receive a new Roxy wetsuit for each of the Gaza girls, courtesy of The Quiksilver Foundation.  

As the momentum grew, the effort was also joined by The Wahine Project, an organization that was created to reach young girls who would otherwise not have access to the resources that would allow them to surf.  The Wahines began assembling a custom care package for the girls in Gaza, with clothing, accessories and words of encouragement in the form of cards, posters and letters.  By mid summer the package was assembled and mailed off to Gaza. 

Shortly after the arrival of the swimsuits the care package from The Wahine Project arrived and was delivered to the girls.  In between catching waves the girls unpacked the goodies and read the words of encouragement from the Wahines.  This final stage of the delivery couldn’t have gone better, ending with personal notes of encouragement written from the other side of the world but sharing the same dream: to paddle out, turn around and ride a wave.

Check out the photo album, below:

In the fall of 2011, Surfing 4 Peace was contacted by Michael Brooke, founder of Concrete Wave Magazine and avid longboard skateboarder. Michael had a dream to take the Surfing 4 Peace model, apply it to longboard skateboarding, and deliver his message of peace and balance to Israel and Palestine.  In the summer of 2012, Concrete Wave, Surfing 4 Peace and the Peres Center For Peace launched the SEARCH-SPARK-STOKE TOUR 2012, the inaugural event of Longboarding 4 Peace. 

Today, Longboarding 4 Peace has grown into "a global movement of Peace, Balance and Justice, powered by Longboarders."  You can find out more about Longboarding For Peace at www.longboardingforpeace.org 

In 2013, S4P ambassadors Samuel Jacquesson and Ben Levy had an idea for the ultimate Surfing 4 Peace event, the Med Cup For Peace: a Medeterranean surfing festival celebrating the diverse surf communities of the Mediterranean sea and the mission of Surfing 4 Peace.  As their first step they established a formal European division of S4P, Surfer Pour La Paix, based in Paris.  By having a formal organizational presence within the Eurpean government structure, Surfer Pour La Paix aims to establish  formal partnerships within the municipalities and organizations that make up the European Community.

S4P celebrated the launch of Surfer Pour La Paix and the Med Cup 4 Peace project with a Paddle 4 Peace, a stand up paddle event held in Paris on the Canal Saint Martin in September of 2013.  Participants came from across the Mediterranean basin to lend their support and celebrate  the S4P mission, with round-table discussions, presentations and a truly memorable display of the S4P community.  

The Med Cup 4 Peace is the vision of S4P's European division, Surfer Pour La Paix and aims to celebrate surfing and the S4P mission in the Mediterranean. Surfer Pour La Paix is working closely with the European Community and the city of Marseille to organize the Med Cup as the ultimate surfing festival with a wide spectrum of events, contests and activities, as well as surfer delegations from every country in the Mediterranean.  

The vision for the Med Cup 4 Peace has surfer delegations from across the Mediterranean coming to Marseille to represent their nations and the S4P mission.  But assembling these delegations can be especially difficult in countries where surfing is a new and rare sport and where economic or political conditions make it difficult to promote the S4P mission.  

Whether you want to learn how to form and operate a surfing association in your own country or are simply looking to improve your bottom turns, S4P trips bring together the wide knowledge and experience of the S4P community to help surfers improve their surfing and their community, while catching a few great waves along the way.  S4P now celebrates surfer delegations from nearly every country in the Mediterranean and planning for the next surf trip is underway!