Surf's up on the Gaza Strip for the brave regardless of hardship
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-13/280955-surfs-up-in-gaza-strip-for-the-brave-amid-hardship.ashx
GAZA CITY (AP 13 Dec by Fares Akram) As wintry winds battered the Gaza
Strip, sending many inside, two Palestinian men instead rushed for the
breaking waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Mohammad Abu Jayyab, 41, and his
friend Ahmad Abu Hasira, 35, are two of about two dozen surfers
catching waves in the blockaded strip, which has endured three devastating
wars with Israel in six years, the most recent this summer. The Gaza Surf
Club describes the sport as a way to "forget about the hardships of living
in Gaza." But that's not really the case as the two men splash into water
cold enough to take their breath away even in wetsuits. Raw or only
partially treated sewage now churns into the waves. "We take to the sea
engulfed with fears of infection. In the past, the water was better," said
Abu Jayyab, a father of five. The sewage in the Mediterranean stems from
long-standing electricity shortages linked to a border blockade enforced by
Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007. Rolling power
cuts disrupt pumps handling sewage for the strip's 1.8 million people ...
When Abu Jayyab started out as an amateur in the 1990s, he used homemade
wooden boards that injured him at least four times. Now, the clubs' boards
bears the logos of world organizations that donated them, including Surfing
4 Peace, founded by American surfer Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who died in
November at age 93. "God bless his soul," Abu Jayyab said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Dec-13/280955-surfs-up-in-gaza-strip-for-the-brave-amid-hardship.ashx
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