“There’s an obvious correlation between the surf and life,” Eitan Hoffman tells The AJN.
Since October 7, Hoffman has dedicated significant time to HaGal Sheli, helping some of the children of Kibbutz Kfar Aza navigate their trauma and begin the process of healing through surf therapy.
HaGal Sheli (My Wave) was established just over a decade ago in Tel Aviv by surfers and youth workers Yaron Waksman and Omer Tulchinsky. In addition to weekly surfing lessons, the program also provides mentoring and leadership classes tailored for at-risk youth, trauma survivors and individuals with disabilities.
The organisation runs diverse activities for teenagers from all parts of Israeli society: Jews, Arabs, secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox, immigrants, veterans, members of minorities, Muslims, Christians, girls and boys alike.
In 2017 it won the Knesset’s Quality of Life Prize for its contribution to Israeli society.
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks, HaGal Sheli initiated an emergency plan to assist affected children in the south of Israel by using surfing in an attempt to mitigate the development of PTSD.
‘Tools from the Waves’ was created as an adapted version of HaGal Sheli’s PTSD program, operated in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defence Rehabilitation Department, providing immediate assistance to Israeli youth from Israel’s southern Gaza communities. Under the guidance of Dr Tamar Dagan, a clinical psychologist and trauma specialist, the program is a response to the complex traumas inflicted by the attacks.
When Hoffman, a keen surfer, heard HaGal Sheli would be opening its program to these children, he knew he wanted to be part of it.
“I immediately had a really good connection with them after the first session,” says Hoffman.
“It was the beginning of the war, maybe a month after October 7, but when I saw the kids my eyes brightened because they were so optimistic. They were surfing, playing, joking and there was a bit of dark humour already about everything they’d been through and it gave me a lot of hope. I remember sitting in my car at the end of the first activity and I was crying – not from a sad place, but from a good place. From there, I said this is my new commitment.”
Hoffman became an official instructor for the youth of Kfar Aza and has connected with them on such a deep level that they have become “like his little brothers and sisters”.
They’ve had to work through many layers of complex trauma together because after October 7, Hoffman says they “lost their ability to be normal, average children”.
“They suddenly became ‘kids from Kfar Aza’,” he says.
“When you say you’re from Kfar Aza, everyone else from the rest of the country immediately has a different attitude towards them. Some lost their parents, some lost their siblings, their loved ones, who were either murdered or kidnapped. These kids have been through crazy things. Some of them just want to come and let go, to surf, have fun, laugh, scream and be normal kids again.”
But Hoffman says it’s also part of the instructor’s role to notice when some children have “something sitting in their heart or stomach” that they want to talk about. He describes one such occasion that was rewarding, complex and heartbreaking at the same time.
“I was with a girl in the water who had lost her father,” says Hoffman.
“She was laughing and having fun and when I pushed her into one of the waves, she managed to take a whole wave through and I got so excited that I was cheering and clapping for her. When she paddled back to me I saw she was crying and I asked what happened.
“She said, ‘I didn’t even know I was missing this feeling of someone being proud of me ever since my father was murdered and now you gave me that feeling I used to feel when my dad was proud of me. It reminded me of that feeling and how much I miss it.’
“There are these situations, where in between having fun in the water, in a second you move into this deep point of trauma.”
HaGal Sheli itself has had to navigate loss after October 7. Twenty-year-old Tamar Samet, who did her national service at the organisation, was murdered at the Nova Music Festival.
In a Facebook post on October 27 last year, Waksman wrote that Samet “was a dedicated educator fulfilling her national volunteer service at HaGal Sheli. She was present at the party in Reim on that ill-fated Saturday, celebrating peace and love, but she never returned. May her memory be a blessing”.
The aim of HaGal Sheli is to empower individuals on their journey to healing by utilising surfing as a powerful therapeutic tool. There is also a dedicated team of educators, clinical psychologists and social workers to help provide participants with a holistic method for processing their trauma.
But the core of the dynamic program is that it teaches life lessons through mastering balance, navigating waves, adapting to changing weather conditions and persevering through falls.
“We take the kids before the session, before they know how to surf and explain to them that it’s not easy,” says Hoffman.
“We tell them to focus on what happens when you fall from a wave and get into a ‘laundry machine’ – it takes you with the wave and you have to hold your breath, stay calm and when you finally get your head out of the water, take a deep breath and swim up.”
One of the participants, 12-year-old Rotem Ohana from Kfar Aza, says surfing helps him briefly, “forget the whole situation”.
“That your house was burned down, that we managed to escape by a miracle – you just forget about everything and surf with friends.”
The program has been as rewarding for Hoffman as it has been for the children he has grown so close to. In fact, he spent the anniversary of October 7 with them in Kfar Aza. Many of them have now finished high school as well as the HaGal Sheli program and are enlisted in the army.
“I still see them a lot,” he says.
“Some call me after their base duty and they cry. For me personally, I come from a family that donated to this program, I am an Israeli that served five years in the army and I just want to work with these kids and give my time to them.”
HaGal Sheli has provided critical surf therapy for over 2000 evacuees, released hostages, veterans and Nova survivors and has worked with the most affected communities of Be’eri, Nir Oz, Nahal Oz and Kfar Aza. Their seafront education centres offer safe, stress-relief days for displaced individuals, allowing evacuated families to process their emotions and find moments of normalcy.
The program has proven to help reduce PTSD-related symptoms in participants, such as flashbacks, nightmares, the inability to function and leave the house, and reduces the reliance on drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism.
Earlier this year, the organisation was invited to the White House and met with top officials, including Vice-President Kamala Harris, to advocate for critical issues facing Israeli society post-October 7.
During the White House summit, HaGal Sheli advocated passionately for the immediate release of the remaining Israeli hostages and shared the story of their cherished member, Samet. Through distributing yellow ribbons, they raised awareness and solidarity for the hostages’ plight.
HaGal Sheli will be on a speaking tour of Australia later this month and as part of their visit they will link up with Gesher by UIA for a solidarity paddle-out at Bondi Beach. The goal is to form a large Magen David formation in the surf and the drone footage will be shared with the people of Israel.
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