Nora Ebaid: The Only Palestinian Female Longboarder and Competitive Surfer.

Photo by jenal_kupu_kupu

Hello.. My name is Nora Ebaid, and this is my story.

As a child, and until now, my Dad has worked in the Palestinian Embassy around the world. This meant that every 3-4 years we had to move from country to country. After I completed my Bachelors I said bye to my parents' nomadic life and decided to live in Malaysia. As an Asian, definitely not a first world country, living in Malaysia was great, but the salary… Not so great. In 2017 I was working as a content creator and in dire need of extra cash because I just started surfing and wanted money to buy a new surfboard and travel, so I started working as a freelancer, again in content creation and graphic design. Pre-pandemic days (and now as well) knowing how to create content esp. In video form and managing social media pages was the ‘it job’ and so I did so well, I didn’t need a full time job anymore. In 2018 I started to travel the world, back to that nomadic life, and from time to time surf.

Lockdown Drama

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, I was in an island located in the Phillipines called Siargao. I woke up at 4am and I saw a notification on my phone saying that the Philippines was going to go into a full lockdown. I went back to sleep. Woke up at 7am and went for a quick surf session. And headed back to Cebu. 2 boats and 12 hours later I made it to the Cebu airport with some friends I met on the boat. The Cebu airport was chaos, as hard as I tried to get back to Malaysia that day, it was such a mess and my only way was to go back in 2 days for the next flight. The next day, Malaysia announced a full lock down, so I went for the next best option which was Jakarta. Thankfully, my parents were living in Jakarta, where my Dad was stationed at the time.

Photo by Alan Al

How I moved to BK & BK in Lockdown

I got stuck in Jakarta for almost 5 month before Indonesia opened up its local borders. I waited a bit to see how the situation was before heading to Batu Karas against my Mum’s judgment (back then Covid19 was still scary and unknown). I knew off Batu Karas from a local village in Malaysia where I started surfing called Cherating. Cherating and Batu Karas are similar in that they are longboarding waves.

For those of you new to surfing, there are 2 types of surfing. Longboarding and shortboarding, and as the name mentions, longboarding you use a longboard or log, while shortboarding you use a much shorter board. Now, I don’t have to mention this, but I want to, because as a longboard a lot of people have misconceptions about this, and that is, anything shorter than a 9’0ft board is not a longboard. It's a mid length, or fun board. It can be used as a longboard or shortboard depending on your style.

Ok back to my story…

Batu Karas pre-covid was filled with tourists from all over the world. I remember one time when I was there in February 2019, my sister and I counted over 100 people in the water. So when I went in August 2020, it was quite a shock. I was pretty much the first and only tourist in town. There were a few people who got stuck in the village till June that year because of the lockdown, but until October that year, I was still the only tourist living in BK.

For me, it was the best place to be stuck in during those times. Magical longboarding waves where I am the only surfer in the water? Yes please and thank you very much. I would wake up for the sunrise surf session with my surf instructor and the afternoon session being the only one because no one likes to surf in the scorching sun, and mostly miss the afternoon session when everyone in the village is in the water, mind you it was less than 30 people, but I was surfed out from the morning and afternoon sessions. When you are alone in the water in a reef break or point break, you’re making rounds, as in, you catch any and every wave you want. I was truly living the dream.

How I improved surf

And that’s pretty much how I improved my surf. When I first started surfing in BK in 2020, I hadn’t surfed since March when I was in the Philippines. Before Covid hit, I wasn’t a good surfer. I surfed 3 months a year. I could catch a wave on my own, but that’s pretty much it. And after a few months of not surfing, I would lose all the muscle strength and have to start from zero. It sucked. I remember the first few times I surfed in BK in 2020, I couldn’t paddle after 45minutes, my instructor was laughing at me because I had to hold onto his leg while he paddled for both of us.

I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay in Batu Karas, but I recognized the opportunity I had, and I took full advantage of it. After I got my strength back, I surfed daily, 2-3 times a day, 4-5 hours a week. I spent my time till April the next year, with a few weeks or month in BK, and one or 2 weeks back in Jakarta to chill with my parents. After the first month in BK I became close friends with my instructor so I wouldn’t take lessons anymore, but as a friend, I asked 100 questions about surfing and how to improve. I became close with a lot of people in the village, and being a surfing village, everyone was a Master longboarder, and in the water, everyone was so helpful. They always gave tips on improving. In just 3 months I started doing tricks on my board, and everyone was so impressed with my improvement.

Photo by jenal_kupu_kupu

Lombok, one of the most beautiful Island in Indonesia

After spending nine months in BK, and feeling confident enough with my surfing skills, I decided to move to Lombok, I spent 6 months in Lombok not consecutively. I went to Bali, Jakarta and BK in between. Summer in Lombok is amazing, the waves are big and great for shorboarding. But not so great for longboarding. But Lombok is a beautiful untouched Island and I enjoyed roaming around and exploring every nook and cranny. In winter, Lombok is a dream for a Longboarder, the waves in Tanjung Aan go right and left and is one of the longest waves I’ve ridden. The only problem I had when I lived in Lombok was in 2021, they were building the tracks for motor racing, and that made it hard for the people living around the Kuta area. It caused a lot of floods and that cause breaks in the roads. There were so many road accidents and I had more than 3 bike accidents myself, sometimes with my board. And that’s when I decided to go back to BK. Again, this was only in 2021-2022, I am not sure how things are right now.

I spent a couple more months in Batu Karas before I decided to move to Australia. I’m currently based in WA, its winter but come spring and summer you will hear more about the surf scene in Australia.