God went surfing with the devil
Alex Klein is piecing together the story of a people and a place a world away from his own. Earlier this year, the American skateboarder gathered up three of his best friends, borrowed $30,000, procured an HD camera by not entirely ethical means, and got on a plane to Tel Aviv. He went to document the efforts of Surfing 4 Peace, a grassroots movement that refuses to let bombs, embargoes or militant threats dampen its mission to bring surfing to the ravaged Gaza Strip. What he ended up capturing, however, is an image of a nation divided by borders, but united in the surf. The result is God Went Surfing With The Devil, a documentary film that takes its name from a pearl of wisdom uttered by Jewish surfing ambassador Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz: “God will surf with the devil,” he said, “if the waves are good.” Holed up in a roasty editing room in Los Angeles, Alex took a moment out to breathe, reflect and talk to HUCK about the tales that he found.
HUCK: What motivated you to make God Went Surfing With The Devil?
Alex Klein: It started with Doc Paskowitz, the guy who brought surfing to Israel. In August 2007 he got with a guy named Arthur Rashkovan, who I’d met on a skateboard trip to Israel a few years earlier. Together with Kelly Slater they founded Surfers 4 Peace and donated a dozen surfboards to the guys in Gaza. Six months later Arthur decided he was going to do it again, this time with twice as many surfboards. In the time that had elapsed, the situation in the region had deteriorated greatly. Gaza was entirely under siege and the borders were closed. Palestinian militants were launching daily rocket attacks at Israel, and Israel was responding with counter-attacks that were killing militants and innocent bystanders alike. It was a really dire situation. But Arthur was undaunted and committed to getting these boards in, claiming he had various connections with the government. The whole situation was fairly intriguing, so I thought I’d try to document the process.
Did you set out with a firm idea of the kind of story you wanted to tell, or did the narrative develop and change along the way?
We didn’t have an agenda at all. We were curious to let the story reveal itself to us. When we arrived, we just set out to meet as many people as possible, and then we honed in on the stories we felt were most compelling. In addition to following the journey of the twenty-four surfboards into Gaza, we also explored the lives of various surfers in the region, from a young Jewish surf champion who lives in a wealthy suburb, to a poor Arab-Israeli surfer who lives in a shanty with chickens running around. I learned that a lot of documentary filmmaking is just letting go of preconceptions and allowing the story to emerge on its own. I think when you have filmmakers going in with a fixed hypothesis, and then setting out to prove that hypothesis, you get problems. First of all it’s disingenuous, second of all it’s boring. For us, the most interesting people appeared when we least expected it. Like this random guy approached us on the sidewalk and started talking to us, and we all thought he was this crazy, kooky weirdo, but we let him talk on camera anyway, just to appease him so that he’d go away. But then 45 minutes later we were still filming him, and it turned out he was completely fascinating and relevant to the story. But this was a person whom initially I completely resisted interviewing. He looked like George Washington on drugs.
What is the surf scene really like out there?
The surf scene in Israel is great. Surfing and beach culture in general are really popular. People are stoked on it. They all complain about the lack of waves, but other than that it’s good. In Gaza the surf scene is really young. The guys there literally had nothing when we went to visit. I think they had two beat-up shortboards and a couple windsurfing boards that they used as surfboards. Together about fifteen guys would share these. None of the Palestinian guys had boardshorts or even swim trunks, they’d surf in jean cut-offs or biker shorts or capri pants. Most of the people there are really poor. There’s something like seventy per cent unemployment, and if you do have a job, you’re likely earning two dollars a day doing construction. Beyond that, even if you do manage to scrape some money together, there’s nothing to buy in the markets. No goods, no clothes, nothing. But the surfers there make do, building fins out of random pieces of wood, and forging leashes out of spare pieces of rope. It was pretty inspirational to see. Together they share their boards and surf every day they can, catching waves with each other, loving every second of it.
Do you believe that surfing can be this great equalizing force that brings people together?
All the surfers we met just wanted to surf and travel and make friends. There was no talk of politics or religion with any of them, Palestinian or Israeli. They all just want to meet and surf together, something they’ve never been able to do in the past. It’s actually really funny, because none of the surfers in Israel have ever been to Gaza, and yet somehow there are these persistent rumors that Gaza has the best surf around, that it’s like this Shangri-La for surfing. It’s this ‘grass is always greener’ syndrome that’s somehow snowballed out of control. If you hear Israelis talk about it, Gaza is like Indonesia or something.
God Went Surfing With The Devil is due for release later this year. Keep updated at www.godwentsurfing.com.
To read the full feature, check out Huck #012.
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