By Jason Genegabus

There are a bunch of stories on the Internet about 86-year old Dorian Paskowitz, a retired doctor and Hawaii resident who traveled to the Gaza Strip this week to personally deliver 15 new surfboards to Palestinian surfers in the area.

Paskowitz is a lifelong surfer himself, serving as a lifeguard in San Diego, California, before moving to the islands. He also started the Paskowitz Surf Camp, which has taught mainland residents how to ride waves in California, New York and even Mexico, since 1972.

Here’s a picture of a young Paskowitz on the job as a lifeguard:

The only thing I’m a little uncomfortable with is his claiming to be the patriarch of the “First Family of Surfing.” In my opinion, that distinction should go to the Keaulana family.

(Images Courtesy Agence France-Presse and the San Diego Historical Society)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Outside The Club, Outside Hawaii. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.