Surfs up!
Surfs up!
Well, it was anyways. We had a few days of really fun little waves at Kibbutz Nachsholim (web cam at http://www.nahsholim.org.il/Site/Templates/homePage.asp ) and Moshav Dor but for a week now it has been quiet and flat. I found a site to check the wave report from a surf shop in Haifa ( http://www.point-break.org/waves.php ) and it keeps lying that there will be waves and when the time comes… nothing. We went to buy Josh a board at the surf shop because he rode mine one day and loved it. We actually went to buy a Morey Doyle (big soft surf board) but ended up getting what my friend Shelly from Nachsholim called a fish. I think it will be a good learning board for Josh and since he wants to learn, so be it. (Stories of Josh learning to snow board are now spinning out of control in my head! – you know, crying, temper tantrums, anything he can do to get the attention of some pretty girl that thinks he is hurt on the side of the run, running away in the parking lot on a perfect powder day, lots of fun stuff like that!)
When I learned how to surf, it took me about a year to figure out how to stand up on the friggin thing. I don’t remember too many Josh sized temper tantrums, but maybe I just blocked them out or something. I remember fighting with the waves in the Pacific Ocean to try to get out, and when I finally did get out past all the white water I had to fight with all the surf punks for the few waves that did come in. speaking of punks… I was out after work towards the end of the little swell last week (only maybe half a meter waves were left) and all these little kids from Caesarea (web cam at http://surfplanet.co.il/ ) paddled out. There was about seven of us, all under the age of 15 (accept for me of course) with nothing to surf.
That is a strange thing about Israelis. They love to stick together. We had a wacky experience one day on the beach. We got to the beach around 1:00 or 2:00 and there was a few scattered groups of people around with tents and shade structures to keep out the harsh Middle Eastern sunshine. We sat down in front of a little surf break which happened to be right next to one of these structures. As we enjoyed the beach I had a chance to really check out what the guy had built. It was great, with big logs to hold up the tent material and a really comfy looking hammock too. From the guy’s looks, he wasn’t too happy with us setting up so close to him. It wasn’t like we were that close to him or anything and anyways, he put his deal up right in front of the break! When we got there, there was also another couple that had set up their chairs in front of his structure and ‘cool shade structure guy’ kept glaring at them too. I just ignored him. Anyways, I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t bothering with the guys that set up right behind him. They were a bunch of young guys with four wheel drive trucks and as we watched all this going on more came. And then these big banner like flags went up surrounding a pretty big area. And then, yes, more people came with more trucks and more stuff. When they pulled out some giant speakers and the DJ started to do his thing I thought that was going to be the last straw for ‘cool shade structure guy’. There was plenty of room on the beach and all of us were right on top of each other! Since the waves were nothing to write about, I was having a great time listening to all the Arabic undertone Trance music and watching all the people do there thing when ‘cool shade structure guy’s’ wife came up to me and asked if I could go with her to ask the party people to turn down the music. You see, she was a sound therapist and was having a hard time with their particular choice of music. “OK”, I said, “Why not?”
On the way over, she said to me, “now this is the walk, you know, like we mean business and are in charge.” Evidently she picked me because I had chosen to wear this hat that looks a lot like a Ranger hat here in Israel and since we were in a nature reserve area, she thought it might help. It did for about 30 seconds when the music went down a bit and then I just chuckled (to my self of course) when we got back and it seemed to go up even louder then before. I tried to help her understand that all these things are put here for us to learn and to grow from. She seemed to get it and maybe she was able to help her husband cope with it, but maybe not. When we left the beach, he was just emerging from his tent after trying to get some sleep. Poor guy.
Anyways, we are off to the beach again today. Nope, there aren’t any waves… but I am sure there will be some unforeseen form of entertainment to be had.
Lahetraote, ve Shavua Tov!
Well, it was anyways. We had a few days of really fun little waves at Kibbutz Nachsholim (web cam at http://www.nahsholim.org.il/Site/Templates/homePage.asp ) and Moshav Dor but for a week now it has been quiet and flat. I found a site to check the wave report from a surf shop in Haifa ( http://www.point-break.org/waves.php ) and it keeps lying that there will be waves and when the time comes… nothing. We went to buy Josh a board at the surf shop because he rode mine one day and loved it. We actually went to buy a Morey Doyle (big soft surf board) but ended up getting what my friend Shelly from Nachsholim called a fish. I think it will be a good learning board for Josh and since he wants to learn, so be it. (Stories of Josh learning to snow board are now spinning out of control in my head! – you know, crying, temper tantrums, anything he can do to get the attention of some pretty girl that thinks he is hurt on the side of the run, running away in the parking lot on a perfect powder day, lots of fun stuff like that!)
When I learned how to surf, it took me about a year to figure out how to stand up on the friggin thing. I don’t remember too many Josh sized temper tantrums, but maybe I just blocked them out or something. I remember fighting with the waves in the Pacific Ocean to try to get out, and when I finally did get out past all the white water I had to fight with all the surf punks for the few waves that did come in. speaking of punks… I was out after work towards the end of the little swell last week (only maybe half a meter waves were left) and all these little kids from Caesarea (web cam at http://surfplanet.co.il/ ) paddled out. There was about seven of us, all under the age of 15 (accept for me of course) with nothing to surf.
That is a strange thing about Israelis. They love to stick together. We had a wacky experience one day on the beach. We got to the beach around 1:00 or 2:00 and there was a few scattered groups of people around with tents and shade structures to keep out the harsh Middle Eastern sunshine. We sat down in front of a little surf break which happened to be right next to one of these structures. As we enjoyed the beach I had a chance to really check out what the guy had built. It was great, with big logs to hold up the tent material and a really comfy looking hammock too. From the guy’s looks, he wasn’t too happy with us setting up so close to him. It wasn’t like we were that close to him or anything and anyways, he put his deal up right in front of the break! When we got there, there was also another couple that had set up their chairs in front of his structure and ‘cool shade structure guy’ kept glaring at them too. I just ignored him. Anyways, I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t bothering with the guys that set up right behind him. They were a bunch of young guys with four wheel drive trucks and as we watched all this going on more came. And then these big banner like flags went up surrounding a pretty big area. And then, yes, more people came with more trucks and more stuff. When they pulled out some giant speakers and the DJ started to do his thing I thought that was going to be the last straw for ‘cool shade structure guy’. There was plenty of room on the beach and all of us were right on top of each other! Since the waves were nothing to write about, I was having a great time listening to all the Arabic undertone Trance music and watching all the people do there thing when ‘cool shade structure guy’s’ wife came up to me and asked if I could go with her to ask the party people to turn down the music. You see, she was a sound therapist and was having a hard time with their particular choice of music. “OK”, I said, “Why not?”
On the way over, she said to me, “now this is the walk, you know, like we mean business and are in charge.” Evidently she picked me because I had chosen to wear this hat that looks a lot like a Ranger hat here in Israel and since we were in a nature reserve area, she thought it might help. It did for about 30 seconds when the music went down a bit and then I just chuckled (to my self of course) when we got back and it seemed to go up even louder then before. I tried to help her understand that all these things are put here for us to learn and to grow from. She seemed to get it and maybe she was able to help her husband cope with it, but maybe not. When we left the beach, he was just emerging from his tent after trying to get some sleep. Poor guy.
Anyways, we are off to the beach again today. Nope, there aren’t any waves… but I am sure there will be some unforeseen form of entertainment to be had.
Lahetraote, ve Shavua Tov!
