Hi ,
some of you shown interest in seeing the waves in Israel .
well, I tried to find choose pic’s that show mostly the wave shape and didn’t focus on
pic’s with radical maneuovers…
enjoy
AND THE GRAND FINALLA:
yeah…i really need to get to israel in the winter. summer waves tell a different story 
hi mr. B
i had you in mind when i thought of this thread.
israel moved up a few slots on surf trip rankings. how cold is the water and air in winter? Surf wise I am from NJ so nothing is too cold, but I was surprised to be in florida in april last year and see guys in 3/2’s when I was bareback.
Number 2 photo with a very cool pic of a surftech in action.
great shots!!!
Lee
Loving the pics.
How often do you get surf over in israelis there a site with statistics on wave frequency and wave heigths?
Where are the shots taken?
More pics would be good, what is the image shack reference?
Wouter
hi,
sea temprature in the winter is 15-17c and in the summer it
can get to 31c , it’s like surfing in urine.
air temp changes in the winter from 4-20c and summer gets even to 35c ( hottest days) with enough humidity to surf in the livingroom , in the winter there r those cloudy stormy very cold days and it just might be sunny with cool fresh air ( always the best sessions)
we also use 3.2mm wetsuits, it’s perfect for the Isreaely winter,
only on the coldest and windiest days , 3.2 is not enough.
thanks,
I’ll personally tell the photographers u enjoyed.
they will be thrilled that their art is being appriciated abroad.
btw-
#2 isn’t a surftech!
it’s an “Intersurf”.
intersurf is the biggest surfboard manufactorer in israel.
they’re also importers of surtech and some other “cobra” shit.
the logo does look a bit like surftech’s …
hmmm, frequency and consistency are the main problems.
some times we have 25 surfing days per month ( including at least 10 perfect 1 meter days and also those very small perfect longboard days), and sometimes we can sit at home for two months with several surfing days here and there. this winter was the weakest one i remember in the last 10 years 
we use the “NAVY” forecast giving us the swell hight and direction.
the “windguru” for the wind,
and we also have live cameras and the bouy that givs us the swell info realtime.
if your interested i’ll post links of them.
you can also find lot’s of info on israel at “wannasurf.com”
all of the shots were taken in Haifa, the city where I live.
haifa has the best surf in Israel ( altough you can find some good waves in other places too).
you are going to lough , but most of the pics you’ve seen ( right break with barrel) were taken at a beach called “backdoor” in Haifa.
don’t ask why, just lough at us and that’s it…
and all the other ones also from haifa beaches.
last year one of the best israelly surfers, invited the oneill team and
“surfing” magazine to surf in israel. If i remember the names were:
pardon me for not writing the names correct-
Josh moulcoy from santa cruz
alek parcker from florida
andpeter garway i think also from santa cruz.
thay ripped the wave at “backdoor”
I have to find the article…
more pic’s you can see at the israely forums but probably you won’t understand anything in hebrew. when there r good photo after good sessions I can post here a direct link to the threads.
I met the son of an israeli diplomat in ocean city maryland one fall in 1984. He was a really good surfer.He had great stories about his home surf breaks. It was nice to have someone to talk to during my usual only guy out middle of the week sessions.
Is a surfer considered a blasphemer if using a surftech in Israel?
Pardon my geographical ignorance, is that the Mediterranian Sea? If so, are there waves in Egypt etc?
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Pardon my geographical ignorance, is that the Mediterranian Sea? If so, are there waves in Egypt etc?
Howzit, Hicksy…
yes, it’s the Mediterranean. you can see here the nice fetch of open water where swell is aimed right at Israel. Haifa is in the north of the country, right about where the name “ISRAEL” is marked on the map.
i don’t know anything about the Egyptian surf scene, but it looks like the north coast of Egypt could pick up a nice north swell in the sea.
thanks again for all the great pics, Lee! looks like i’ll be coming back for a couple weeks this summer. i’ll have to sneak away from Jerusalem for a few days and hunt down some waves in Haifa.
Hicksy there are waves the in the great lakes, there are waves in Italy the mediterranian coast of France so I would imagine Eygpt can get swell.Lee I remember the article you are talking about, for some reason my mind is attaching the gudaskas(spelling?) to that trip. Israel’s surf history, at least as it was told in the magazine, is truly a beautiful story.
blasphemer…
that was a good one…
unfortunatly, the Israelly surf scene is full off kooks, posers , wanna-bee’s etc, which are led by commercials and what’s mainstream.
a tufflite is an expensive pruduct , and as one, it’s pointing on one’s status. kooks worship tuflites! most of the pro’s here don’t like the feeling of a tuflites , and therefore don’t ride them.
In my quiver , I have one ( that’s because I’m a damn poser …NOT!!!)
and I know when to use it. summer- 2-3 foot wave, clean beachbreak …
well, I dont know about egypt, I think there are no waves there.
throughout the year, the swell direction is mostly between
south-west to north-west. that’s why most of the waves come to Israel.
( or maybe because the waves want to see jerusalem… hell…i don’t know )
Lebanon , which is at the north border of Israel, gets waves and also GAZA strip which is on the curve between the Israelly west facing beach line and Egypt’s north facing beach line.
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unfortunatly, the Israelly surf scene is full off kooks, posers , wanna-bee’s etc, which are led by commercials and what’s mainstream.
Well, so there you have a complete surf culture like the one we have here…
Thanks for the contribution Lee, nice waves, what about local shapers?, i bet there are some good ones.
And what about crowds? do you already have that problem there?
Italy does get waves , as far as I know, but since Israel and Lebanon are the farest countries in the MED sea, the swell has enough distance to build up properly.
the major difference beween the big ocean and the MED sea, is that
our waves are generated by relativly close storms and winds.
usually it goes like this-
there are few windy or stormy days that raise waves.
it’s surfable but not clean.
then the wind stops and we have few days of clean good waves.
unlike the ocean which is more consistant and predictable.
Brandon… stop talking and start doing!
I’m waiting for you…
and what the H do have to do in Jerusalem???
No waves there
ohh, now I remember, you have student friends there…
so you got my e-mail, mail me when you’re coming
I’ll arrange waves and surfboards…
Quote:
blasphemer…
that was a good one…
unfortunatly, the Israelly surf scene is full off kooks, posers , wanna-bee’s etc, which are led by commercials and what’s mainstream.
a tufflite is an expensive pruduct , and as one, it’s pointing on one’s status. kooks worship tuflites! most of the pro’s here don’t like the feeling of a tuflites , and therefore don’t ride them.
In my quiver , I have one ( that’s because I’m a damn poser …NOT!!!)
and I know when to use it. summer- 2-3 foot wave, clean beachbreak …
Lots Israelly surf in Phuket & Sri Lanka … . they r as grumpy as Aussie n Brazilian in Bali .
hi Coque,
I’m going to shock you with this fact-
Israel is considered the most surfer-crowded country in the world!!!
there are more surfers than anywhere relativly to the Israel’s population.
the kooks wake up from the winter-sleep and then it gets real crowded, but who cares??? I got a longboard and I’m the only one …hehe
“loacal shapers” ??? no such beast!
there are three big manufactorers , two of them are from the early 70’s and are the sons of the founders of the surfing in Israel about 50 years ago.
all off them use CNC machines, and one of them even makes 90% of it’s boards at “cobra” in Thailand.
there is one local shaper who worked as a shaper at one of the big one’s,
and decided he wants to work alone.
and beside him , and one backyarder who builds HWS, I think
I’m the only one building surfboards by myself.
so what we have is -
3 big companies
1 local shaper
2 backyarders
,
thanks
lee