Freedom of movement for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip has been so restricted in recent years that the territory is commonly referred to as the "largest open-air prison on earth." The ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza began in 2007, but a gradual closure of the territory started much earlier, in 1991, during the first Intifada, when Israel cancelled general exit permits for Palestinians living there.
Sporadic closures began in 1993 and a fence was erected around Gaza in 1995. In January 2000, before the second Intifada, an average of 17,635 day labourers crossed from Gaza into Israel everyday. By 2005 that number dropped to 49, today it is zero.
To find the sport of surfing in Gaza is at once both surprising and completely natural. In a region where the common narrative is conflict and daily life is marked by constant struggle surfing offers a means of escape. The sport in Gaza is still in its infancy; from the first surfer in the mid-eighties there are now 23 surfers each with their own surfboard and others who borrow boards when they can.
Equipment is impossible to find in the Gaza Strip so international donors have helped to get boards and wetsuits into the territory and with more resources it is believed the sport could flourish. For now the group is small, but, they are some of the very few who get to escape the confinement and who find some semblance of freedom, every time the waves come.