Kelly Slater and Makua Rothman Recall Visiting Israel to Share Peace With Surfing
Over the weekend, war broke out between Israel and Palestine after militant organization Hamas launched a missile strike on Israel, fueling Israel retaliatory air attacks on Gaza.
"Surfer's" Jake Howard covered covered the war yesterday, tying in the connection between Israel and surfing. He wrote, "Modern surfing first landed in the region in 1956 when Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz arrived with half a dozen surfboards emblazoned with the Star of David on them."
Today, North Shore big wave surfer and musician Makua Rothman and 11-time world champ Kelly Slater are recalling their 2007 trip to Israel with Paskowitz.
View the original article to see embedded media.
Rothman's post above shows several shots of the trip, along with a clip of Paskowitz saying to a crowd:
"I want to wish you all Shalom Aloha!"
In a clip of Rothman speaking to the camera he says:
"It's all about peace and love. I think if god and the devil were standing on the beach and the waves were going off 10 to 12-feet and barreling, I'm pretty sure they'd surf together."
Rothman captioned the post:
"In 2007 I had the opportunity to go with @kellyslater and experience first hand for myself what was going on in the conflict zone between Israel and Palestine.
"Our mission was to bring together through surfing the people of these two warring nations and let the ocean be the medium. What I witnessed was mind blowing, When we showed up it was very clear that there were 2 different groups of people, but as soon as we got them in the ocean everything changed dramatically.
You can read the rest of Rothman's caption above.
Slater replied:
"Devastating to see what is happening. Immersed in war is no way to experience life. I feel fortunate we experienced Israel with Doc. It was his dying wish for this project to live on and for people to experience peace through surfing."
Rothman responded: "What an amazing experience it was! So sad to see what is going on."
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