September 8, 2014
Screenshot of "Vans Israel Surf -- Rockets & Barrels" video.
Screenshot of “Vans Israel Surf — Rockets & Barrels” video.

Surfing in Israel just got a major visual boost thanks to Arthur Rashkovan, the Vans Israel go-to-guy, and the team (including film director Yakir Avrahami) he put together for an amazing video that will have you gawking at the Mediterranean Sea.
‘Vans Israel Surf — Rockets & Barrels’ was filmed in summer 2014 as Hamas-fired rockets flew over the Tel Aviv skies.

“I want to show there’s a great lifestyle of surfers here and great spots to surf,” Rashkovan tells ISRAEL21c.
The description of the video reads: “A mix of barrels, carves and airs with the right sound track provided by the Tel Aviv garage punk group, The Crotches, created a real off the wall surf video. We chose to show only surf and aloha vibes and not rockets in the Israeli sky. Enjoy.”
Part of Rashkovan’s job as the Vans Israel marketing solutions point man is to organize skate and surf demos and music events, and create clips showing off Israel’s outdoors.
Rashkovan also runs his own surfing company, DoctorSurf, and is a co-founder of Surfing for Peace.
Shortly after the release of the Vans surfing video, he released another video featuring inspiring surf moves on Mediterranean waves. He says this clip took its inspiration from “70s B fiction movies” to the original tune “The Devil Went Down to the Holyland” by Israeli band Betzefer.

If you want to find the best waves to surf in Israel, check out our story on the top 10 surfing beaches in Israel.