Surfing 4 Peace aims to bridge cultural and political barriers between surfers in the Middle East

Surfing 4 Peace is a cross-border cooperation initiative that aims to bridge cultural and political barriers between surfers in the Middle East.

Surfing 4 Peace is not a formal organization, but rather a community of concerned surfers and supporters who initiate unique cooperative projects, events, and campaigns based around surfing and beach culture with an emphasis on coexistence, cross-cultural dialogue, and the shared surfing experience. 

Surfing 4 Peace projects are implemented in cooperation with project partners including Explore Corps explorecorps.org and Gaza Surf Relief gazasurfrelief.com, among others.

Donated boards : photo courtesy Surfing 4 Peace

Surfing 4 Peace activities began in the spring of 2004 when surfing Ambassador Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz was on a trip to Israel, where he had introduced surfing 50 years earlier. Doc 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 local Arab-Israeli surfers 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, the Surfing 4 Peace concept was born. 

In August of 2007, Surfing 4 Peace grabbed international headlines with the donation of 14 surfboards from Israel across the war-torn border to Gaza, where a small surfing community was living under an international embargo with no access to surfing equipment and unable to leave the coastal strip.

Doc Paskowitz donating boards : photo courtesy Surfing 4 Peace

Later that year, Surfing 4 Peace held a “peace concert” in Tel Aviv that was attended by over 3000 local surfers and supporters, and which included performances by Surfing World Champion Kelly Slater, big-wave surfer Makua Rothman, and local surf band Malka Baya. 

Surfing 4 Peace continues to support efforts to reach out to the surfers in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East with donations, personal outreach, and by initiating and implementing unique projects in cooperation with its Project Partners. 

To read more about Surfing 4 Peace, please visit surfing4peace.org. You can also visit the Surfing 4 Peace group on Facebook.

For questions and comments, please contact S4P Director Arthur Rashkovan in Tel Aviv at a.rashkovan@surfing4peace.org

www.explorecorps.org
www.surfing4peace.org
www.gazasurfrelief.com