Feb 8, 2010
Author: Alex Gavin. Skate Photos by Guy Pitchon. Incidental Photos by Bryan Derballa
Last Winter, Montreal's Alex Gavin decided to avoid the cold and snow by going a less traditional route and seeing what Isreal has to offer to the Skateboard world. Here is what he returned with; the "All's Well in Israell" article from our Late Summer 2009 issue.
"Israel seemed like a strange place to go, and i was always intrigued by it."
 
I was in California at Dane Brummet’s house over the winter for a few weeks, and he told me he was headed there. There was nothing happening in Montreal because it was winter—I wasn’t feeling the snow this year, like I was last year. I’m sort of addicted to traveling, plus I have a super 8 camera that I love traveling and skating with, so I decided to go to Israel. I never imagined myself going to the Middle East, at all, so I was stoked. I was mostly excited just to go out there and skate really unique spots that I’d never encountered before. I didn’t really know what to expect, I didn’t really like look into it that much. All I knew is that they had really good hummus.
I didn’t know anything about the political situation in the region. Before I left, everybody said, “Why are you going there? Watch out, it’s dangerous!” I looked into the documentaries on YouTube but then I kind of stopped watching them, the issues seemed super complex. The local skaters don’t even really talk about it out there. To tell you the truth, I think terrorist bombings happen like once every four years. So I don’t think it’s a big issue for day-to-day life.
I was staying in Tel Aviv and I was in the dead centre of the city. Tel Aviv is more like a younger city, a lot of kids move there. There wasn’t really a big culture shock. It’s similar to Montreal. A lot of people speak English, so it was easy to get around and talk to people. Everyone was really stoked when I told them that I was from Montreal because a lot of them have family living there.
 
Frontside Wallride
A lot of the photos we got at night because I visited in the winter and the sun would set super early. This spot was some sort of big music hall. It had natural hips and pyramids all over. I’d been searching for a spot like this for ages; I love skating that sort of stuff. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it.
Frontside Blunt
This natural quarter pipe was cool; you just had to move some flowerpots to skate it. Last time I was there, we couldn’t move them ourselves. It’s a cool tranny, although you sort of have to ollie up a curb. Once you hit the quarter pipe, it’s like the roughest cement ever. It’s a tough spot to skate. It’s was a great spot to hit at night when no one was around. There were only a few locals who skated tranny, so I was usually the only one skating when we hit spots like this.
 
Frontside Feeble Stall
We had to go late at night for this photo because it was in a parking lot. I don’t even know why this thing is here, but it’s so cool and scary to skate. I don’t know if you can tell, but there were a lot of holes and cracks in the bank. They don’t have any Bondo in Israel either. It’s hard because no one understands what it is, even when you ask for it in stores. After you navigate the bank, you had to ollie onto that sketchy ledge. If you overshot the Ollie, you could easily fall off the other side.
Kickflip
I’m addicted to checking out abandoned buildings. Every time I see one, I have to go in there and check it out. I loved these roof gaps. It’s right next to the Golda Museum—I would say that’s like the Peace Park of Israel. They have tons of ledges that just go on for ages, all waxed up. You can grind for metres. It’s ridiculous! I told the locals that I had to go check out the building and they insisted there was nothing in there. I ended up going and there were two crazy spots. The cement was so rough on the other one though. This gap was cool over the stairs. I’ve always wanted to skate something like that. We were lucky, there is security in all these old buildings usually, and they sometimes live there, too. We snuck in at night, and I had to sneak through their dorms. The guard that came over was Russian and we happened to have someone with us who spoke Russian, so he gave us a half-hour to skate.
Gavin The Smuggler
I have a little bag for my super 8 camera. I was always bringing a little ganja with me when I go out skating and I ended up putting it in the side pocket and totally forgot about it. When I was leaving for Israel, I was kind of in a rush and didn’t really get a chance to pack my things, so I grabbed my super 8 bag and put it in another bag. I put all this stuff together and that was going to be my carry-on.
I get to the airport and I’m flying to New York. I got through the metal detector and customs with no problems. In the Montreal airport I needed to change some money, so I went to the exchange office and I started going through my camera bag thinking I might have some extra change in there. Next thing I know, I find my ganja and I’m thinking, Holy shit! What the hell? You know I crave it here and there, from time to time, so I was thinking, Oh, man, this is awesome. I’m just going keep it and bring it to Israel with me. I got my story together, I’ll be fine.
So, I get to New York and I’m thinking, Alright, no problems, no more customs, no more checks, and I get to the gate and I see a lineup. The kind of put little walls up so you can’t see inside too well, and I didn’t really think about it too much. I just assumed they were checking tickets or whatever. I completely forgot that every time you fly to Israel, when you’re at your gate, they hand-check everyone, one by one.
They get to the person ahead of me and I kind of look in and see that they search every bag and sweep you with metal detectors. So, here I am, standing there thinking, Oh my God, I’m going to get busted. Plus, I’m in New York, which is maybe worse than Israel as far as drug laws. Now I’m basically shitting myself. They call “next”, and I’m trying to keep a straight face. I give the lady my bag and she starts going through my stuff, she grabs my camera bag, takes it out and I’m thinking, Here we go. What’s going to happen? She opens the bag, looks at my camera and then closes it without looking in the side pocket. She gave me my bag back and I was home free. But, I was still stressed out because they have cops walking around the gates and I was just stressing the whole time in New York, but once I got on the flight it was OK. But, let me tell you, everyone in Israel was stoked that I brought it mistakenly.
 
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