Surfing 4 peace is an NGO co-fonded in 2007 by the American legend Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz, with his son David Paskowitz, as well as Arthur Rashovan and Kelly Slater. It’s an interpersonal cooperation initiative aiming to bridge cultural and political barriers between surfers in the Middle East and worldwide.
The idea came after reading an article in the Los Angeles Time highlighting the lack of surf boards in Gaza. So on, the dudes have succeeded to send 14 boards to the small community of Gazans surfers in 2007.
Anat from Israel going in for a cold session
The NGO, with now on a hub in France managed by Samuel Jacquesson, have been active since with the organization of summits gathering international surfers : 2014 in France and 2015 in Brazil and France.
In February 2016, they held their trip in Morocco, the first of a kind in an Arabic country. As a photographer, I’ve been invited to follow them. Here is the report of the amazing time and multicultural energy which radiated from this event.
Breakfast with the crew
The trip took place in the small berber fishing village of Tamraght, located 17km from Agadir and a real surfers’ paradise. It gathered 20 surfers from France, Italy, Israel, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Sadly, due to borders controls, Gazan surfers were not able to participate this time.
Words and images Rubens Ben
Anne and Nico from France gearing up
Heading back the the ‘Sunshine Surf Morocco’ after a session
Anat warming up
Lead image: Italian Edie in front of the wagon
Click here to sign up to our newsletter
1 Comment
Check out the surf pics on our fanpage ! http://bit.ly/S4PMorocco2016