Two years of war and a year of fishing, swimming, and general sea access being outright banned per Israel, and a hardy few surfers with boards and bodies intact enough to surf dare enter the water, per an Associated Press report from earlier this month.
Though a tenuous ceasefire remains, the call to, and blessing of, surf is far too hard to heed for the precious few who’ve clung onto their gear, like Tahseen Abu Assi, a Gaza City surfer who told the AP that even through countless displacements over the past two years of war, he’s had his stick in tow.
“If something happened to it I won’t be able to get another one,” Abu Assi said, explaining to the outlet that not one surfboard has entered the Palestinian territory since 2007. Sports equipment is among the long list of products banned in the region.
The outset of the war saw sea activity heavily restricted after the IDF reportedly uncovered explosives in clothing shipped from Gaza to the West Bank, with some fishermen reportedly drawing fire shortly thereafter.
“There is a fear, of course, but we can’t leave this sport,” Abu Assi says with the conviction that any surfer can’t help but admire. “During the war, in the middle of the war, in the middle of the bombing and the planes above us, we used to go down and practice this sport.”
Gaza, as well as the rest of the southeastern Mediterranean bears fickle reception for agreeable surf, but any little bump in swell offers what can only be imagined as inexpressible if ephemeral relief from the quotidian horrors of war.
“As soon as the sea gets high, you leave your work and leave your whole life,” Abu Assi offered in a familiar refrain. “Work can be caught up on, as they say.” If that doesn’t resonate with your body and soul, it’s hard to imagine what could, regardless of any politics concerned.
How many out-of-commission boards might be lying about? That’s anybody’s guess, but it would surely cost little more than a pittance to provide enough fiberglass cloth and resin to offer fellow surfers a world of relief, if only it would arrive.
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