Aloha and welcome to this chapter on Legendary Surfer DORIAN "DOC" PASKOWITZ.
(Link to "Surfwise" free view in its entirety, via HCC EduTube:
http://edutube.hccs.edu/media/SURFWISE+full+movie/0_dzw4x7n1/20676232 )
(Link to "Surfwise" free view in its entirety, via HCC EduTube:
http://edutube.hccs.edu/media/SURFWISE+full+movie/0_dzw4x7n1/20676232 )
Few surfers had the kind of longevity in the world of
surfing as Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, who was born in 1921, began surfing when he was 10 and has surfed
all his life, until he passed away at the age of 93.
Dorian was “Born and raised in Galveston ,
Texas ,” he recalled at age 89, of his
beginnings on Galveston Island , on the Coastal Bend of the Texas Gulf Coast Gulf of Mexico
[at age 10] with a contraption some guy made. By 13, I was a real surfer. It
was April, I got bronchitis, I had terrible asthma. I just felt like it was the
end of the world. One Sunday morning, I heard a thud on the porch. My mom brought
in the [news] paper, I opened it, and the centerfold fell out. It was a Sunday
magazine called Parade, I think. And so I opened it up to its
centerfold. And there was a picture of something I had never even dreamed of. A
magnificent wave that stretched across two pages, glistening, sparkling with
sunlight, with three guys on the wave. Glassy water, sunlight, these
beautifully shaped guys on these beautifully shaped boards. I’m not
exaggerating – in an instant, my life changed. I felt like a million dollars. I
said, ‘Momma! Momma! Look at that! You take me to where that wave is, I’ll get
well tomorrow.’ She said: ‘You get well tomorrow, and I’ll take you the day
after tomorrow.’
“Before the month of April was up, my entire family, with
everything we owned, like the Joads of the Grapes of Wrath, had piled
into a 1934 Ford Model A, and we headed toward that wave. And I found that
wave, and not only that wave, but those three guys, too.”[1]
It was the Great Depression, and the Paskowitzes were struggling
when they decided that if they were going to be poor in Texas ,
they might as well be poor in Mission
Beach , California
“Pretty soon people started coming up to me and saying, ‘Hey, can
I try that?’”[3]
Dorian was not only one of the first Jewish surfers ever, but
went on to become “San Diego ’s first Jewish
surfer and probably the city’s first Jewish lifeguard, working as a San Diego
City Lifeguard in Mission Beach in 1936 and in La Jolla
the following year.”[4]
He was once got kicked out of Point Loma High School
“I have asthma,” Dorian prefaced. “And asthmatics very frequently
in the early morning get asthma just from breathing in the cold air. I had the
early morning gym class. And I got asthma every morning. I really suffered from
it. So I got a gym excuse from a doctor. That all went well for about a month
and a half. But I’d lied about my age to become a lifeguard. And so I was
stationed, even before my graduation from Point Loma [high school], at La Jolla Shores
“A woman comes running down the beach the second day I was there,
screaming: ‘Help me! Help me!’ It was desolate. You can’t imagine what La Jolla was when I was 16, it was desolate, just sand
dunes. She says: ‘My husband fell off the cliffs on the other side of the pier!
He’s dying!’ I had my paddle board. I paddled it around the pier, picked him up
and paddled him back. When I got back, the ambulance was there, but so was a
newspaper reporter. The next morning, in the paper – may I show you the kind of
picture that was there? I wanted you to see this (He pulls out a picture of him
as a svelte young man).
“So the coach called me and said: ‘You dirty dog. How dare you!
Here you are supposed to be a sick weakling! Look at that! And he kicked me out
of school, three weeks before graduation.”[5]
After high school, he enrolled at San Diego State
“I transferred to the University
of Hawaii
Paskowitz went back to the U.S. Mainland and enrolled at
Stanford, where he tutored to make ends meet; receiving an undergraduate degree
in biology.
Like everyone of his generation, he remembered well the day the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor . He was at Stanford.
“I remember sitting in the Cellar, a place where everybody hung
out to have doughnuts and coffee, tutoring two All-Americans so they could play
in (college football’s) Rose Bowl, when a voice came over the radio and said
that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.”
He enlisted in the Army Air Corps., but before he could report
for duty, he learned that he had been accepted to Stanford’s medical school.
“So I joined the Navy and worked in the hospital and then aboard
a ship,” he said. “I spent some time aboard the USS Ajax and went out to
the atomic bomb experiments in the Pacific.”
Paskowitz continued his medical studies while in the Navy and
received his degree from Stanford in 1946. When he got out of the Navy in 1948,
he was already married and trying to start a family.[6]
He and his first wife relocated to Hawai‘i, where he became head
of the territory’s branch of the American Medical Association. “Doc, who
concludes every phone call, with a warm ‘Shalom-Aloha,’ seemingly had it all as
a doctor: professional, financial and social high-standing, complete with a
home servant.
“But Doc was miserable. His second wife was cheating on him, he
was no longer surfing and he was suffering from insomnia and anxiety. His life
was a lie.”[7]
During this time, Doc met Alfred Kumalai and told this story
about his friend:
“I had a friend, who was so modest and so mild that he changed
the destiny of the world in shorts, barefooted and without a shirt. And nobody
knows his name. He was the inventor of the double-hulled canoe that became a
catamaran. His name was Alfred Kumalae. He had the most marvelous disposition
of peacefulness and humanity. One day, we were working on a new boat, and I
said, ‘Alfred, let’s go get a drink.’ We put down our tools, walked across the
sand to the yacht harbor. On the way, I looked down, and there in the sand,
bright as a star, was a 50-cent piece. We were going to spend a nickel apiece
to get soda. I said: ‘Alfred, look! Look! My God, we’re going to get pancakes.’
I showed it to him, and his face turned melancholy. I thought, he thinks I’m
being selfish. I could see his whole demeanor had changed. I said, ‘Tell me,
what’s wrong.’ He said, ‘Uncle Dorian’ – he called me ‘Uncle Dorian’ – ‘I know
you’re happy about finding that 50-cent piece, and I am too, but have you given
any thought to the person who lost it?’
Doc choked up at the memory of
this moment.
“Whew. It was no morality, no religion, no philosophy; it was
just an expression of the human spirit that can become so powerful and so
majestic as to think those thoughts. And I said, ‘No, Alfred, I haven’t thought
about that. But if I live to be 1,000, I’ll never forget it.’ He was a great
human being. That’s the kind of man I met.”[8]
Father of Israeli Surfing, 1956
In 1956, following two failed marriages, Dorian went to Israel
to fight for that country during the Suez Canal Crisis.
“And they laughed at me,” he said simply.
“Being raised at Mission
Beach
“... I went to a gathering of Jews, a retreat. And I met the
Jewish consul general of Israel .
He told me that Israel was
in trouble, and why didn’t I come to Israel . He said, ‘I can see you
have some problems. But when you come to Israel , and you go home, you’ll
take the problems back with you.’ He couldn’t have been more wrong. I lost
every (expletive) problem I had.
“I went to Israel .
I thought I’d become a paratrooper and get killed. So I took a surfboard with
me. When the war broke out, I was teaching a surfing lesson in the ancient city
of Ashkelon . I
rushed back to Tel Aviv to volunteer. (The army didn’t want him.) I didn’t
become a soldier of fortune. By the time I came back to America , I was a mensch. A man.”[9]
“When I left, I was a rather well-recovering psycho with panic
spells, taking phenobarbitol when I had to. Living in my car. I was a resident
doctor at a Jewish hospital, helping out. Then I got to Israel , and I began to meet people
who were menschen, men. Great personalities, great warriors, great statesmen,
great (expletive).
“I lived in the desert like a Bedouin. I got my fish from the
sea. I ate properly, exercised, because I did nothing but walk miles and miles.
Rest at night, right in the sand, in the open desert, with bombs falling
between Aqaba and the Red Sea . The recreation,
the re-creation of my body every day. In the desert, I learned a great
phenomenal revelation. That you cannot fragment health. That diet, exercise,
rest, recreation and attitudes of mind are all part of an amalgam you call
health. And you can no more change that than you can take the steering wheel
off a Cadillac (and expect it to work).[10]
“In 1956,” wrote reporter Rob Davis, “Doc gave up what he calls a
life of ‘profiting from dying people’ and spent a year of self-realization in Israel .
He introduced the sport of surfing there to a small group of zealous Tel Aviv
lifeguards, and enjoyed an amorous liaison with an Israeli woman who taught him
how to be a capable lover...”[11]
“And then, I came home an entirely new man,” Doc emphasized. “The
consul general was wrong.”[12]
In the process of finding himself again, Dorian brought surfing
to Isreal.
It all begun at the time of the ‘Kadesh operation’ – a.k.a. Suez
Canal Crisis. Along with fighting for Israel ,
Doc had a dream to create an Israeli surfing team which would represent Israel
in the world championships. So, he brought with him 6 Longboards, which were
partly made from Balsa wood, each with drawings depicting the Israeli flag, a
“Star of David” with blue lines on
either side.
When the Israeli army wouldn’t take him, he started cruising the
coast in the hope of finding someone who would help take responsibility for his
dream project; somebody local. Eventually he came to ‘Frishman’ beach in Tel
Aviv, where he bumped into local lifeguard Shamai ‘Topsi’ Kanzapolski. He told
Topsi about his idea.
Nir Almog, Topsi’s son, said: ‘It was love at first sight, my
father decided to take on the project and be responsible for getting it
started.”
At that time the lifeguards only caught waves with the “Hasake,”
a flat wide board that had been designed for near shore fishing by Arabs and later
adopted as a vehicle for the lifeguards.
Dorian gave them lessons and slowly the locals who hung out by
the lifeguard station started to surf.
At that time the waves on Tel Aviv’s beaches were very high and
used to break right on the beach, curved like a real beach break. The reason
for this was that the beach was open shore with no piers and the golden sand
that came drifting up from the river Nile
helped to shape the sea floor. To enter the water and go surfing then was
thought of as pure madness and daring. The waves broke in sections, the first
being a beach break, the second break was 500 meters away.
Nir Almog continued: “My father, who loved the sea, decided that
I too, his first son, should learn to surf. He took me and put me on the
board’s nose with him, while the surf was up. He instructed me to stand up, I
did so, and that was the moment I caught the surf bug...”[13]
Dorian later returned to Israel and brought more boards with
him that were distributed to the local surfers.[14]
The Alternative Family
“Returning to California ,” wrote
Kate Meyers for AARP Magazine, “he took a job running the hospital on Catalina Island , still concerned that a doctor shouldn’t
prosper from others’ misery. One evening he followed two women into a
restaurant. He asked the hostess to make an introduction, and when he felt the
conversation was going nowhere announced, ‘It’s obvious that I’m making very
little progress here.’ To this, the tall one, a stunning telephone operator
named Juliette, remarked, ‘You may be making more progress than you think.’
“Before the evening’s end, Dorian declared she’d give birth to
his seven sons. Juliette thought that was ‘the sexiest, most wonderful idea’
she’d ever heard. (Nine years later, with the arrival of Salvador , the prophecy came true.)
“Their adventures together began with a trip. ‘I told her I had
just returned from Israel ,
and I don’t think I ever would have been a whole person had I not understood my
roots,’ Doc recalls. He fixed up a ‘49 Studebaker with a water tank and platform
bed and they drove 5,000 miles through Mexico .
“They lived off the sea and built bonfires at night. In a
peaceful spot in Guaymas, with David already in Juliette’s belly, the couple
were married by a justice of the peace. It was at this same spot that Doc had
an epiphany: ‘A very charismatic caballero and his son galloped up on stallions
and joined our campfire. This boy looked up at his father with such adoration,
and I thought, “That’s what I want more than anything else.” His bag was the
horse; mine was surfing. And when I took my kids out, I wanted them to look at
me in the same way.’”[15]
It was 1958, and Doc “concluded that when you have your health
you really do have everything. So off he went with his bride to pursue a
vagabond life of surfing, lean eating, and (after a while) raising nine kids in
a camper built for four… He has no regrets.”[16]
“We had a bunch of kids, eight boys and one girl, and spent most
of the time in Hawaii ,”
he said. “My wife’s family was from Southern California ,
so from time to time we would go back there and visit. But most of the time we
spent in the islands.”[17]
Juliette explained what she feels is the secret to staying
happily married for so long: “You have to find someone you want to make love to
for the rest of your life.”
“This would make Doc Paskowitz incredibly proud. In his
half-century pursuit of the perfectly healthy life, there are three things he’s
found that make life worth living—surfing, lovemaking, and parenting—and from
the day he met Juliette, all three have been the objects of his outsize zeal.
Dropping out of the traditional working world in 1958, this Stanford-educated
Jewish doctor and his six-foot Mexican American bride raised an eight-boy,
one-girl pack of water people, a wandering tribe of surfers swept up in their
father’s obsessive experiment in achieving ‘superior well-being.’”[18]
“Talk to the Paskowitz progeny and they tell tales of their
father’s iron will as well as their outlandish freedom growing up. ‘It was like
the Lost Boys and Lord of the Flies combined,’ says Abraham, who treasures
memories of ‘the greatest childhood that could ever be lived.’
“‘Every day we’d get in the camper and we’d go to some amazing
place with a beautiful beach and great fishing, and you’d have all of your
brothers with you and go exploring.’
“Given the dangers of the wild and the clan’s itinerant
existence, ‘it was required that we follow certain rules,’ recalls David, who
as eldest was saddled with herding his siblings. And Doc was unbending. ‘A lot
of times he resorted to force. He would beat us all into one corner with a
T-shirt or a bungee cord.’[19]
“It was a decidedly masculine scene. ‘My dad, God love him, is
the most chauvinistic man that ever walked on the planet. I didn’t know I was a
girl until I was, like, 16,’ says Navah, the only daughter, who got down to 7
percent body fat in her youth. ‘I’ve had eating disorders my whole life. Every
single thing we put in our mouths he would scrutinize.’ Navah considers her
robust father anorexic.
“There are only glimmers of awareness in Doc of the tyranny he
imposed,” Kate Meyers surmised, “perhaps because he considers his precepts
nature’s laws rather than his own. In Surfing and Health he dedicates a section
called ‘Motivation’ to himself: ‘I don’t know anybody who WANTS TO BE HEALTHY
more than I do. Or (is) more scared NOT to (be). When I skip a day of walking
or when I gorge too much, I feel guilty—very guilty.’”[20]
“During their years in campers each child had a
three-by-three-foot cubby for stowing belongings. Everybody had a chore.
Jonathan (child number two) was in charge of tying surfboards to the top. Navah
was on dish patrol. They surfed, they explored. Juliette sang Bach arias to the
children, and they had projects—reading, drawing, fixing the car. This was
homeschooling before the term existed. They survived on the seven-grain
cereal—the kids called it quicksand—and peanut butter on whole-grain breads
that Juliette baked in the camper’s tiny oven. They ate plenty of rice, beans,
and fish. When they could afford it, there was chicken and challah on the
Sabbath.”[21]
“Our life was so existential,” said Juliette. “We’d wake up to
the sun. The waves are good, the waves are not so good. It’s not that we didn’t
read books or listen to classical music. We had all of that. We didn’t have a
beautiful home. We didn’t have a washer and dryer. But we had kids that were
close to us, and they were our dream.”[22]
“It was the life Doc wanted, and society’s norms didn’t apply.
‘Our day-to-day job was to parent our children in a way that they emerged from
childhood as strong, wonderful adults,’ he says.”[23]
“All the children except Abraham now live in California , with occupations that run from
movie producer to rock singer to surf instructor. At the Paskowitz apartment
the phone rings constantly, always one of the children checking in. But the
passage to adulthood was often rocky, and their lack of formal education cost
them. Only one of the kids went to college: Moses (number five) won a football
scholarship but didn’t graduate.
“During my rebellious teenage years of course I cursed my dad for
not sending me to school,” said Navah, a mother of three. “I would have been a
great student. That, to me, was the only real thing that stands out as a
negative.”[24]
Doc tried to ease their way into the world in 1972 by starting
the Paskowitz Surf Camp in California ,
a summer surfing school over 40 years old. He says he hoped “the allure of
money and a new board would keep the kids hanging around.”
But the plan backfired. “The summers gave us a peek into what we
were missing, and that sparked a lot of brothers leaving the fold,” says Navah.
Jonathan (a producer of Surfwise) was the first. He took off at 14 after
getting a taste of freedom at 11, when he went to Israel to visit David, who was
studying for his bar mitzvah there. Almost all the children left in their
teens, usually staying with a friend or an older brother, working whatever jobs
they could find to get by.
“‘We should have at least learned the basic strategies of walking
out the front door,’ says David. ‘When I left, I still believed whatever adults
said was true. I had never written a check or paid a bill. I didn’t have a
Social Security card.’”[25]
“Doc’s strengths and limitations go hand in hand, says Doug Pray,
the director of Surfwise, a surf film that tells the Paskowitz family
story. “He’s the classic charismatic leader, somebody who’s very dominant and
used to getting his way. And there’s always a price to be paid for that. He’s
inspired thousands of surfers. I’ll go places and people just worship him. But
it does have to be his way.”[26]
All during the time of raising his family with Juliette, Doc spent
the years as a “missionary doctor” and charged few people for his services.
“I always felt bad taking money from sick people,” he said.[27]
His work has taken him from the South Pacific to the Middle East .
“I was there during Operation Desert Storm and saw Scuds flying
over,” he said. “We took our gas masks, hung them on a tree and went surfing
while those bombs were dropping.”[28]
Doc and his family had few material possessions. His kids were
homeschooled, and the family often traveled throughout the United States in a motor home. He
would work from time to time where other doctors didn’t want to go: Indian
reservations, migrant camps and the emergency rooms of inner-city hospitals.
“I always felt that we had enough,” he said. “We had our surf
boards and the fish in the sea. But even better, we had each other.”[29]
“… the feeling that I get when I am out on the water, that
feeling of being part of something much bigger than myself, is the same feeling
that I get when I look at all my children and grandchildren.”[30]
“My son summed it all up once. ‘Eat clean, live clean, surf
clean.’”[31]
Most of his kids went on to pursue careers in various aspects of
the entertainment industry. He was once asked about that.
“Well, I never sent my kids to school so they are not going to be
able to argue a case in court or do a surgery or sit down as an architect and
design a building. They have to choose a profession where personality [is] the
profession.
“I always tell my wife that we have nine only children. They grew
up to be personalities. In many ways, the entertainment business is like a
magnet that draws such people like that. In the early days of the movies, the
days of Clark Gable and Bill Holden, these guys really were what they portrayed
themselves to be in the movies. They really were real personalities. Like Clark
Gable, he was the King of Hollywood. When war broke out, he became a bomber
pilot. My children grew up all together in the water without a formal education
in an atmosphere of love and companionship. Because of this, their
personalities grew very strong. And so now each one has followed his own
persona and I’m all for it. I think it is easy to be a doctor. There are a hell
of a lot more doctors than there are guys riding big Pipeline.”[32]
Mental and Physical Fitness
Through the years of working and raising a family, Doc
consciously maintained a high level of fitness through surfing. “Outside of
playing a little football at San
Diego State
He reminded anyone that does not know, that the surfers of the
‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s prided themselves on being all-around watermen.
“The first thing was, you had to be a good body surfer, and you
also had to be able to row a Nova
Scotia surf dory out through the breakers. Then you
had to not only race paddle boards but be able to play water polo one on one.
You also had to be a good skin diver and, of course, surf.
“I wasn’t a great waterman. But I was a good one.”[33]
There was also another activity that Paskowitz said kept him
“buff.”
“I used to love to stand around on my hands,” he said. “I would
walk all over the place, stand on the edge of a 15-story building. I used to
love that. I even got an offer to join the circus.”
In his prime, Paskowitz could stand on his hands and drop down to
touch his nose to the ground 15 times. That skill came in handy, especially on
the beach, where weightlifters congregated before there were fitness clubs.
“I remember seeing some big-city champion working out, and I went
over and lifted the weight three times over my head as if it were nothing,”
Paskowitz said. “I was strong because I was always working out with my own body
weight.”[34]
Doc said many times that there is no secret to good health.
“If I were going to address a group of young people on the
subject, I would tell them that you just can’t beat good nutrition. You can’t
think that because the body will take anything, you can give it anything. A
proper diet, day by day, for the rest of your life, has to be coupled with
enough exercise to burn off the excess.
“Diet and exercise should give you a body fat percentage of 14 or
15 percent. You can’t be a tugboat and think that you are going to sail the
seven seas gracefully and safely.”[35]
But that’s not the end of it. Doc was quick to emphasize not only
the physical benefits of surfing, but the spiritual benefits, as well.
“I don’t have the vocabulary, nor am I that literary gifted, to
even try to express in words the emotional or spiritual benefit of surfing. I
think there is something primordial about it. All the great forces in the
universe – heat, light, electro-magnetism – they all impinge upon the water to
make waves.
“So when you ride a wave, you are tapping into something much
bigger, something that is cosmic. It is like skiing down a mountain. Gravity
takes hold, and the skier becomes part of that cosmic force. In surfing, the
mountains move themselves.”[36]
“There’s something in the wave. I said in my book, there’s a
wisdom in the wave, high-born and beautiful, for those who would but paddle
out. When you understand what a wave is, and you understand that you can connect
with that, you ask yourself, how does man and his emotional firmament hook into
that? When it’s winter in the Bering Straits, giant storms arise that push
waves as high as 80 to 90 feet between crest and trough. The powerful cosmic
forces of gravity, light, electromagnetism come to bear on the surface of the
earth and create, in their conflicts, storms. And those storms create an energy
that goes down into the water. It’ll come up 80, 90 feet, and by the time it
gets to Hawaii
it’s 10 feet. And by the time it gets to Mission Beach
“I consider myself a religious man, but I have nothing to do with
religion. I don’t go to a synagogue, but I pray every day, several times a day,
in fact. I put on the tfillin, the phylacteries of the ancient Orthodox Jews,
but I have no truck with that stuff.”[38]
Dorian said that through the sea, surfing and his relationship
with the people of Hawaii ,
he forged his spiritual beliefs.
“I talk to God personally. I don’t want to sound like a kook, but
I get out on my surf board and sit alone atop the deep blue sea and look around
and just give thanks for being part of God’s great world.”
For Doc, taking care of one’s spirit is every bit as important as
diet and exercise in relation to overall health.[39]
“Every morning,” wrote Kate Meyers, who spent a good deal of time
interviewing Dorian, “Doc spends an hour and a quarter doing deep breathing,
squats, flexibility exercises, balance and agility exercises, and some work
with a ten-pound barbell. Every morning he prays and converses with those no
longer here—Jews who died in the Holocaust, fellow surfers he loved. ‘I pray
for wisdom every day. I pray for the ability to be a good doctor.’”[40]
“The first thing I do when I get up is to honor my [departed]
Hawaiian friends, who were great men. After I say a prayer for them, I put on
tefellin –leather straps that observant Jews wrap around their arms – and I say
my prayers, but I wouldn’t call myself religious.”[41]
“When I say my prayers in the morning, I stretch out my arms,
like a person gathering in wheat, I grab all the sunshine and fresh air. I try
to fill myself with good things. Everything I do is an effort to align myself
with the great vitality of life.”[42]
Doc said that he feels at home praying with Catholics or kneeling
with Muslims.
“The God that I have found is in all those churches. I have no
sense of fraternity when it comes to God.”[43]
Doc once told the story of how he started wearing the teffelin:
“After surfing one day, I realized two of my boys, Abraham and
Jonathan weren’t bar mitzvahed. So I went to the Fairfax area of L.A. and found
a little hole-in-the-wall Bnet Knesset [synagogue], barely bigger than a hot
dog stand run by a Russian rabbi, a man by the name of Naftali. I told him I
had no money.”
“‘Bring in a nice bottle of schnapps, then I’ll bar-mitzvah your
boys.’
“During the bar mitzvah, I was dovening [rhythmic praying;
rocking back and forth] and out of the corner of my eye I could see a
dapper-looking man coming closer. He wore a straw hat, a hounds-tooth coat,
white pants and shiny black and white shoes, and of course a tallis [prayer
shawl] and yarmulke.
“‘Do you put tefellin on?’
“‘No I don’t. I’m sorry.’”[44]
“After chanting ‘Baruch Ata Odenai Elohainu…,’ the dapper
worshipper said to Doc, ‘I’ll make you a deal. If you put on tefellin, I’ll pay
you $25 a month for the rest of your life.’
“‘You’re going to give me $25 a month for the rest of my life for
putting teffelin on?’
“‘Okay … I’ll make it $35,’ countered the dapper one.
“‘I’ll make you a deal,’ Doc counter-offered. ‘I don’t want your
money but there must be Jews that were killed in the Holocaust who never got a
chance to wear tefellin. In your name, for their honor, I’m going to put on
tefellin for the rest of my life.’
“For the last 40 years, Doc has put on tefellin every morning, in
addition to performing deep-breathing exercises he learned from surf icon,
wind-gliding innovator and former San Diego resident and trailblazer Woody
Brown.”[45]
Later on, “In the depths of Mexico ,” Doc recalled, “I’m riding
waves too big for me. I was getting nervous and thought about paddling in, but
all of a sudden, I saw somebody knee paddling on a longboard coming towards me.
It was the guy who offered to pay me. His sheitel (wig)-wearing wife was on the
beach waiting for him. I couldn’t believe it!”[46]
Writings on Health
A family practitioner for more than half his life, Dorian
Paskowitz also specialized in sports medicine. He had a keen interest in asthma
and wrote a book titled The Air Beneath Your Nose.
“I am a very bad asthmatic, and my whole life has been spent
trying to prevent asthma attacks,” he said.
“The book has nothing to do with
treating attacks but everything about keeping them from happening.”
Paskowitz applied that philosophy to another book, Surfing and
Health, which he considered his best. The book “offers advice and
philosophy in equal doses,” wrote Kate Meyers. “Weaving in surf-soaked parables
and tales from his life, he makes the case that care of the body is not merely
the key to physical happiness but a moral imperative, the foundation of ethical
conduct and love.”[47]
“‘Health is more than just not being sick. In fact, it is more
than just preventing disease,’ he said. ‘All healthy men are fit, but not all
fit men are healthy.’
“‘Diet, exercise, rest, recreation and attitude of mind, all
working together, can make the human body superior in form and as a result,
better enable it to fight disease naturally. Your immune system can be in top
form and so will the mental and spiritual aspects of your life.’”[48]
Doc does not advocate radical diets for good heath and is not
even a vegetarian. Instead, he eats what he considers to be a variety of
wholesome, whole foods.
“Kooky diets are very dangerous. Man is a hunter-gatherer. That
is how I live my life.”[49]
“Doc’s way is unsparing,” wrote Kate Meyers for AARP Magazine.
“As self-help gurus go, he’s Old Testament. You reap what you sow. Eating fat
begets fat. His five pillars of health are nothing you haven’t heard: diet
(lots of fruits and vegetables and a little meat, what he calls the universal
meal), exercise (to burn off what we eat), rest (eight hours daily), recreation
(joyful play that re-creates you), and positive attitudes of mind. But his
passionate advocacy for making health your first concern is extraordinary.
“‘Can I tell you something,’ he not so much asks as commands. He
is sitting at the breakfast table of his one-bedroom apartment in Honolulu , surrounded by
photos of ancestors and offspring. Bare-chested, he’s staring down at the
plastic tray, a replica of a Gauguin painting that holds his unvarying
breakfast of fruit and seven-grain cereal. Then he looks up. ‘People are
digging their own graves with their knives and forks. If a bird is 50 percent
overweight, do you think it can fly?’
“Our biggest enemy, he never tires of saying, is fat.
‘Eighty-five percent of all life-threatening diseases come from eating too much
fat,’ he pronounces. ‘The richer a society is, the more difficulty we have
staying lean.’
“Men should work to be around 17 percent fat, Doc believes;
women, around 22 percent. ‘If you ground up the average American, you wouldn’t
be able to sell him over the counter for hamburger,’ he notes. ‘He’d be far
fatter than the law allows.’ Then there are the standard charts of healthy
weight, which allow us to gain a bit as we age. Paskowitz calls them malarkey.
‘Show me one wild animal that as it gets older, it gets fatter,’ he says. ‘If
an animal gets fatter, he’ll get eaten.’”[50]
“Doc was before his time in his observations, and everyone else
is catching up,” said Honolulu
neurologist Tom Drazin, a friend and fellow surfer. “He lives what he preaches.
He practices it every day. Doc’s cholesterol is 170—lower than mine at age 48.”
By all accounts, Doc didn’t have a candy bar or butter in 50
years. He usually consumed two meals a day, cooked and served by his wife
Juliette. Although a hip replacement in January 2006 marked a hiatus in his 74
years of surfing, in six weeks he was back standing on his board, riding
waist-high curls at Waikiki . For five years
before that, he had surfed on his knees.
“Doc’s proud because even though he’s got complaints (an enlarged
prostate, can’t hear all that well), unlike most 86-year-olds he takes no
medication, can swim a mile, and can hold his breath for a minute. And, he’ll
be very happy to tell you, he’s making love three times a week. ‘You can be a
very old car and still be in the race,’ he says smiling, looking a bit like
Gandhi.”[51]
“Surfing, of course, is Doc’s preferred fourth pillar,” wrote
Kate Meyers for AARP Magazine. “It was literally how he re-created
himself in the 1950s after two marriages had failed and the feeling that he
wasn’t helping his patients enough left him rudderless. Weekends surfing with
boyhood chums on the California
coast at San Onofre was his only joy. Even when he went to Israel in 1956, still grappling
with how to turn himself, at 35, from “a spoiled, pampered, over-protected boy”
into a man, he brought a surfboard and stowed it on the coast before going on a
walkabout in his ancestral desert.
“What began as a soul-searching last resort became his chosen
lifestyle. ‘He lived as a nomad,’ says Abraham Paskowitz, Doc and Juliette’s
thirdborn. ‘He traded fish for drinking water. He believed money was the root
of all evil.’ And when he got back to surfing, he got enough locals excited
about the sport that he’s now known as the father of Israeli surfing.”[52]
(image courtesy of Alohadoc)
Surfing 4 Peace
In the summer of 2007, “Surfing 4 Peace” was founded by Doc,
Israeli surfer Arthur Rashkovan, Dorian’s son David Paskowitz and world surfing
champion Kelly Slater,[53] who is of
Syrian descent. The project is aimed at bringing Middle
East surfers closer together through surfing.[54]
The group’s first project was the donation of fourteen surfboards
to Palestinians following a July 27, 2007 Los Angeles Times article
entitled “Gaza Surfers Find Freedom in the Sea,” which pointed out the
difficulties of Palestinian surfers on the Gaza strip.
“The Paskowitzes masterminded a plan to get 12 surfboards to Gaza through the famously
secure Erez Crossing. They put together a team of supporters that included
surfing legend Kelly Slater, pro-peace organization OneVoice, and Tel Aviv
surfing activist Arthur Rashkovan, who convinced Israeli surfing companies to
donate the boards. They then managed to garner the approval of the Israeli
military to secure safe passage.”[55]
An Associated Press article of August 21, 2007[56] described
then-86-year-old Dorian in-action: “An 86-year-old Jewish surfing guru from
Hawaii donated… 12 surfboards to Gaza’s small surfing community, in a gesture
he hoped would get Israelis and Palestinians catching the same peace wave.
“‘God will surf with the devil, if the waves are good,’ retired
doctor Dorian Paskowitz said... ‘When a surfer sees another surfer with a
board, he can’t help but say something that brings them together.’
“Paskowitz emerged shirtless at the Israel-Gaza crossing after
handing over the dozen boards to Gazan surfers waiting on the other side. He
said he was spurred into action after reading a story about two Gaza surfers who couldn’t
enjoy the wild waves off the coast because they had only one board to share
between them.”[57]
What the AP article didn’t mention was that it took Doc
“two-hours of cajoling an Israeli border guard at Gaza ’s Erez crossing” to be able to to take
“the surfing t-shirt off his back” and hand it over the fence, along with the
dozen surfboards.[58]
Doc considered the boards a kind of seeding in Gaza .
“From a board comes a group of guys who ride. From the group
comes a business, then an industry, then a fantastic amount of money. I’m
talking about billions, all from one board.”[59]
“Upon transferring the boards to the Palestinian surfers, Paskowitz
reported: ‘There were tears in their eyes.’ And we know that passion promotes
possibility, which is what peace is all about.”[60]
Several months later, in October 2007, Kelly Slater gave surfing
lessons in Israel and a benefit concert was planned: “Slater… spent one day
helping others into waves, and then spent the evening jamming with a local band
all in an effort to raise the level of ‘peace consciousness.’
“‘My father (Dorian) asked him if he was ready to be not only a
great surfer but a great man as well,’ David Paskowitz said…
“Kudos to Kelly Slater for following his heart and using the
power of his stature to pursue a cause that promotes peace,” wrote Scott Bass
for Surfer. “In an era in which larger than life sports champions walk
the marketing tight rope and rarely take a social stand, Slater’s actions are
refreshing and have the stamp of true world champion – in the greatest sense of
the phrase.”[61]
“With
several members of the Paskowitz family themselves experienced musicians, it
was clear that with the addition of Kelly Slater and Big-Wave rider Makua
Rothman, both of whom are also musicians, the S4P Concert could be a real hit,”
described the Surfing 4 Peace website. “The S4P crew teamed up with One Voice
for a concert on October 19, 2007 that would be held the day after the planned
One Voice peace concerts in Jericho
“When
the One Voice Concert was cancelled just 48 hours before its scheduled opening
due to security concerns, the Surfing 4 Peace Concert became the only show in
town and the pressure was on. Kelly arrived just in time to fit in a surfing
clinic for young Israeli Jewish and Arab children in the town of Hertzilia
“Shortly
thereafter, Israeli Surf Band Malka Baya kicked off the show, which included
performances by Josh and David Paskowitz, Kelly Slater, and Makua Rothman. With
over 3000 people in attendance, Doc used the opportunity to greet the crowd and
remind them what Surfing 4 Peace was all about and, as anticipated, was warmly
received as the Godfather of surfing in Israel Middle East .”[63]
“Meanwhile,
on the other side of the world, Seweryn “Sev” Sztalkoper was busy gathering a
massive donation of brand new surfboards and equipment to send to Gaza
“A
partnership was quickly formed between Gaza Surf Relief, Surfing 4 Peace, and
Explore Corps to insure the successful transport, import, and distribution of
the donated equipment from Gaza Surf Relief, based in Santa
Monica , California to the waiting
surfers in Gaza Israel Gaza but a ban on the import of surfboards to Gaza
“In
August of 2010, after two years of negotiations, Explore Corps was able to
secure permission for the boards to enter Gaza Gaza Gaza
now has his own surfboard, including the newest addition to the Club, Gaza
Gaza a team of young designers Gaza The Quiksilver Foundation. The icing on the cake came
courtesy of The Wahine ProjectGaza[66]
One of Doc’s interviewers remarked that “One of the ironies in
your life is that you went to the Middle East
to fight, and now you go back for the opposite reason, to plant the seeds for
peace.” Dorian’s response was this:
“Sometimes we talk about things that we imagine, that we dream
of, that are still just tiny thoughts. And then they become empires. We started
with the idea that these two Hamas Arabs in Gaza we’d seen featured in the Los Angeles
Times, these two lifeguards with one (beat-up) surfboard between them needed
new boards. We just took (new surfboards) to the Arabs, not making any big fuss
over it. But when we came back from the Arab-Israeli border, waiting for us was
every major news outlet in the world. From the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation to Al Jazeera. A billion people saw us do that.
“… There is no peace in the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict.
There’s no peace between hot and cold, slow and fast, husband and wife. It’s
all one big fight. But there is one human condition called peacefulness. You
don’t say, ‘These bastards have been fighting for 6,000 years, let’s get them
together.’ Peacefulness is not tranquility of spirit, it’s streets that are not
muddy, it’s enough to eat on, it’s enough clothing to wear or covers at night.
It’s a little clinic to take your kids to. It’s the mechanics of survival we
all want. That’s peacefulness. And surfing is peacefulness. When you go out in
the water with your enemies, they are peaceful.
“When you guide your commitment, your resources and your skills
to peacefulness, the seeds of peace are there. When you start the other way
around, it’s bullshit. You cannot have the Arabs walking around like
poverty-stricken bag ladies and Israelis driving around in a Porsche. You can’t
have that. Because there’s no peacefulness in that. It showed me that that’s
what we have to offer in our surfing. The merest snippet of peacefulness.”[67]
“Surfwise,” 2007
The same year that Surfing 4 Peace got going, the documentary
film Surfwise was released, based on Doc, his beliefs and his family.
However, his status as portrayed in the film was a farce, he told an
interviewer.
“I’m no icon. It was the people and personalities that shaped me
into who I am and molded my reputation; I’m just a nice little Jewish boy from Galveston , Texas
“Doc’s desire to not be treated as a surfing icon is true and
well-intentioned,” Doug Pray, documentarian of Surfwise, said.
“He’d be the first to tell you that he’s not a world-class
athletic surfer and hasn’t ridden any giants. Instead he is known and loved for
being a surfing advocate and a great doctor to surfers everywhere.”[69]
Pray said that when he began putting the film together, Doc was
mortified that Surfwise would be a tribute film, placing him on a
pedestal that would seem self-aggrandizing to his peers, the ones he looked up
to.[70]
“Well, to tell you the truth,” Doc told Surfer magazine in
2011, “I didn’t want anything to do with the movie. In fact, I was so pissed
about it that I still haven’t even seen it, and I will never see it. I don’t
want a movie about me – I mean I’m Hawaiian.
“The idea of being Hawaiian reminds me of when this interviewer
asked Makua Rothman why was he so hesitant to talk to people and be interviewed.
He said because he was ‘Hawaiian.’ He said that being Hawaiian made him very
low key and unlike anything other people made him out to be when he was
interviewed. It was wonderful the humble way he put it. And you know, I grew up
and lived my whole life in Hawaii ,
and I have learned that Hawaiian style of just saying ‘It is US – not me.’ So
when this guy asked to make a movie about me I said, ‘Buzz off.’
“But then my son Jonathan and wife Juliet said, ‘Please do this.’
Jonathan said ‘This is my chance to get into the movie racket’ and my wife
said, ‘This is my chance to have a chronicle about my family.’ But once I got
on it then it was go for broke. There was nothing in it that I wouldn’t do.”[71]
For instance, at one point Doc was asked, “How do you exercise?”
“… and so I got myself stark naked and got on my exercise
bicycle. I hear that’s in the movie.”[72]
About the movie, Doc was asked: “What would the one message you
would like people to have after observing your family and the decisions you
have made?”
His response:
“That love really makes the world go round, but sex makes love go
round. That would be my mark on the movie.”[73]
He added: “I wanted so much, as a surfing doctor, to speak to my
surfing audience as well as the audience of the film about the book that I
wrote, which was the basis of the film. Not many people know that my book
‘Surfing and Health’ is the basis of the film. I wanted it to have its play
because the book can save lives.”[74]
Toward the End
Shaun Tomson, 1977 World Surfing Champ and author of several
books on the surfing lifestyle said that when it comes to money and surfing,
“Certain people would rather chase waves than a dollar, and Doc is one of those
people.”[75]
A perfect illustration of this was the time Doc “turned down a
$40,000 inheritance from an aunt for fear that the money would ruin the
family’s nomadic odyssey and stress-free lifestyle. He truly believed money was
the root of all evil.”[76]
The money Dorian scraped together wandering with his family does
not come along so easily or casually anymore. He used to work in emergency
rooms for a few days and make enough to provide for his family for a month. Or
he’d spend a few months as the on-set physician for TV’s ‘Gunsmoke,’ the camper
parked nearby. Today, he and Juliette mostly get money from the surf camp, run
by their fourth child Israel, their monthly Social Security checks, and a few
of their other kids who can afford to help.
For years Doc didn’t worry about the future. On their travels in Mexico
he was the “orange doctor,” so named for the only form of payment he took.
Somehow they always got by. But now he would like to have a cushion to leave
his wife, which was part of the motivation for his writing Surfing and
Health and going along with the Surfwise project.[77]
In 2007 and $50,000 in debt, Doc referred to himself simply as
“one of the few dumb Jewish doctors.”[78]
One interviewer candidly asked Doc if he regrets not having
strived for financial success.
“It’s been very hard,” he replied. “No matter what, though, I
have no regrets that I’m stone broke. At the end of the day only one thing
matters: That I’m happy I did not have to make my living out of charging other
people while they are in misery.”[79]
Yet, “As his kids point out in the movie so clearly, the great
irony,” said Surfwise’s Pray, “is Doc’s self-avowed hatred of money and
insistence on leading a poor lifestyle forced his family to constantly worry
about money.” Not only that, Pray said, now “Doc is consumed by the need to
acquire money so that he doesn’t leave Juliette – who for 10 years straight was
either pregnant or breast feeding – in poverty.”[80]
Their daily life is as Doc wants it to be:
“Nearly every afternoon he and Juliette visit the sea. Juliette
attends to ‘Poppa,’ takes digital photos of him in the surf, and sends them off
to friends and family. ‘She’s the real hero of the story,’ Doc says, worried
that perhaps the listener didn’t get that, didn’t realize that she is the calm
to his storm, and that her love and devotion made it all work. And sometimes,
when he’s talking, she will just stand and walk over and plant a kiss on her
man. It’s clear she’s still pretty mad about the Doc. ‘I’ll pencil him in,’ she
explains of their afternoon romps. ‘He’ll allow me a little champagne, and
we’ll have a lot of fun.’”[81]
“Forty-eight years – all for him. Sometimes I get a little
claustrophobic and think ‘What if?’ But then I think of my children. I have no
regrets. I would do it again in a second.”[82]
[1]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc partially quoted.
[2]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc partially quoted.
[3]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc partially quoted.
[4]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[5]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted.
[6]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc partially quoted.
[7]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[8]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted. Woody Brown was actually the one behind the modern catamaran
developed from the outrigger canoe design. Alfred and Woody worked together on
cats through the 1940s and ‘50s.
[9]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted.
[10]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted.
[11]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[12]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted.
[13]
“History of the Israeli surfing scene,” TOPSEA website (with great images): http://www.topsea.co.il/historye.htm.
Nir Almog quoted.
[14]
“History of the Israeli surfing scene,” TOPSEA website (with great images): http://www.topsea.co.il/historye.htm.
[15]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Doc quoted.
[16]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[17]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[18]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Juliette quoted.
[19]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Abraham partially quoted.
[20]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Navah and Doc partially quoted.
[21]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[22]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Juliette quoted.
[23]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Doc quoted.
[24]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Navah quoted.
[25]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Navah and David quoted.
[26]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Doug Pray quoted.
[27]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[28]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[29]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[30]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[31]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted, quoting one of his sons.
[32]
“Appointment with Doc,” Surfer, July 22, 2010. http://www.surfermag.com/features/doc-dorian-paskowitz-surfwise-health/.
Doc quoted.
[33]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[34]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[35]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[36]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[37]
Davis, Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted.
[38]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml,
Doc quoted.
[39]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[40]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[41]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007. http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26.
Doc quoted.
[42]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[43]
Tomalin, Terry, “Sound in Body and Spirit,” St. Petersburg Times, April
29, 2003; http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/29/Seniority/Sound_in_body_and_spi.shtml.
Doc quoted.
[44]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[45]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[46]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007. http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26.
Doc quoted. Not sure who this was. The author leads one to believe it was Woody
Brown, but Woody was never that orthodox in his religion and the timing doesn’t
match.
[47]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Doc quoted.
[48]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Doc quoted.
[49]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. Doc
quoted. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Doc quoted.
[50]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[51]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[52]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007. http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html.
Abraham Paskowitz partially quoted.
[54]
“Jewish-Hawaiian surfing guru donates surfboards to Gazans,” Associated Press,
August 21, 2007.
[55]
http://thenewjew.wordpress.com/2007/08/22/gaza-giving-surfing-for-peace-with-dr-dorian-paskowitz.
Surfboards were 14 in number, actually.
[56]
“Jewish-Hawaiian surfing guru donates surfboards to Gazans,” Associated Press,
August 21, 2007.
[57]
“Jewish-Hawaiian surfing guru donates surfboards to Gazans,” Associated Press,
August 21, 2007.
[58]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[61]
Bass, Scott. “Kelly Slater in True Championship Form,” Surfer magazine,
October 20, 2007. http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/slater-surfforpeace/
[67] Davis,
Rob. “Aloha, Doc: Questions for Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz,” Voice of San Diego , April 18, 2008.
http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/18/aloha-doc-questions-for-dorian-doc-paskowitz-2/.
Doc quoted.
[68]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007. http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26.
Doc quoted.
[69]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[70]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[71]
“Appointment with Doc,” Surfer, July 22, 2010. http://www.surfermag.com/features/doc-dorian-paskowitz-surfwise-health/.
Doc quoted.
[72]
“Appointment with Doc,” Surfer, July 22, 2010. http://www.surfermag.com/features/doc-dorian-paskowitz-surfwise-health/.
Doc quoted.
[73]
“Appointment with Doc,” Surfer, July 22, 2010. http://www.surfermag.com/features/doc-dorian-paskowitz-surfwise-health/.
Doc quoted.
[74]
“Appointment with Doc,” Surfer, July 22, 2010. http://www.surfermag.com/features/doc-dorian-paskowitz-surfwise-health/.
Doc quoted.
[75]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007. http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26.
Shaun Tomson quoted.
[76]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[77]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[78]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[79]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007. http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26.
Doc quoted.
[80]
Surf Diary 26: Hanging out with Surf Icon Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, M.D., 2007.
http://www.divinesurfdesign.com/surf_diary_26
[81]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
[82]
Meyers, Kate. “Health Nut,” AARP Magazine, March & April 2007.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/doc_paskowitz_healthnut.html
