Don't Fear The Curl interviews Gal Tirza, surfer

Tell us when you first began surfing and where?

I started surfing during Med school when I was 23. I saw Yoni Klein (now Dr. Yoni Klein) teaching other girls SUP and saw someone yelling to him from the beach something. I asked him “who is it? and if he can teach me”. Turns out it was Bubble (Yoni’s brother), he answered me- “It’s Yoni Klein. Don’t you know who he is? He's like a 6-7 times Israel surf champion. You should write to him”so I wrote to him on Facebook and the rest is history. Fun fact- since we both studied in Med school at the time, between waves we studied for Anatomy tests haha spell out nerves and muscles they nerve. I started surfing in Sea&Sun beach. My home beach (learned to walk there), and then as the sand went north I moved to Mandarin beach, and then Dromi Beach. (In between I went to Sri Lanka twice :) ).

Do you surf in Israel and what is that like?

Of course I surf in Israel. It's mostly wind swell but if it’s a big swell then the next morning when the wind turns off it’s actually pretty good, every swell the window we have for good waves is really short, that’s why you need to always be on your toes in order to surf the good stuff. Also in recent years Israel got really crowded.. If I sum Israel's surf community in a few words; it’s stoke and rudeness! When there are even little waves it’s full house (most of them are rude kooks..). but for the surf culture- Israel gets an A plus! Lots of good shapers (like mine- Hani) and the best equipment always gets here, any shaper you want, any fins, leashes, surf-skate.. you name it.

I understand that you are a medical doctor. Have you ever had to in fact help someone medically in the water?

Ummm no. Not as a major trauma, just cuts and bruises.. but usually at least once a session I do get asked about medical stuff and medical issues people have (sometimes at my home break they are waiting for me to come for a session to ask me something… haha! The closest thing to a trauma accident I’ve been next to, was when a SUP surfer hit his head with the SUP and people got him out from the water. I was just getting out from a surf and walked through that beach to my car when I saw lots of people on the beach. when I got closer I realized something happened, but help was already there and sadly this surfer was already dead...

What are some of your most exciting surfing experiences?

Wow, I don’t know how to answer that, because every time I get a new “skill” surfing, or a good wave, or score some empty lines with some friends it’s exciting for me. I’m always excited to surf whether it’s at home or on a surf trip or just when I suddenly have some time to go between work...

Please share some surfing experiences in Portugal.

This trip was more about finally getting my citizenship and passport. Now I can get into Indo which is a surfing destination I always wanted to go as a goofy. (Israelis can’t enter Indonesia). I stayed at Matosinhos, a small town near Porto. Mostly it was flat but there were 2 days with decent surf a bit north to Leça da Palmeira. The beach is called Aterros. Last time I surfed Portugal was before Covid in Nov 2019. I stayed at Ericeira, and went everywhere with Idan Morag who is a surfer from Israel that lives there with his family. I was there a little bit off season and there were 3 big storms in a row. Ericeira was very big and stormy. So stormy that Pescadores Beach was closed because of the stormy weather. So I surfed a little at Ericeira, and we also went to Cascais and the area and Penish in Supertubos and Balealand one day we went to see Nazaré. They were supposed to run the big wave tour that day, but it was too big! Haha… so they didn’t run the competition but of course some teams were still getting out there and scored some mountains. I loved the diversity of waves Portugal has.It’s really magnificent! I don’t like the cold and the wetsuit part, but still it is a remarkable surf country. Now also my country, and I’ll definitely come back again.

Have you ever seen the waves of Nazaré during the winter season? And if so, what was that like?

Nazaré is a wonder! I love the physics of the Phenomenon. The Museum there is really one you should visit even if you hate museums. This one you’ll like for sure. I think Nazaré is the gnarliest wave in the world because it doesn't have a channel. If you crush you crush all the way to the beach and then crush on the sand.. it’s not like you get some on the head and paddle to the channel. It can easily become a trap for your jet ski assistant pal as a wave can rise in the middle between the two main peaks, so you need to be very experienced just to stay around the break on the jet ski.

Being from Israel, have you been to the US to surf? If so, where?

Sadly for me, no. I only recently got my Visa to the US, before a convention I had from work at Miami beach. Israelis without a Visa can’t enter the US, and the process is long and costly and not everybody gets it. I tried to get a visa when I was 19 and after I’ve paid lots of money and waited for so long I didn’t get it, so I couldn’t enter the US for my big trip (nor connection flights which sucked), and after not getting it for no reason I kind of resented the US for a while and went on my surf trips to other places. But now that I got the Visa, one of a planned surf trips I have in mind is Cali- Mexico, and Hawaii. To tell the truth, the US is not a cheap destination and I would rather do this trip with friends, so I don’t really know when it will come to pass. Maybe I'll have a go to every destination separately.

Have you had any experiences with sharks?

Haha we have sharks in Israel actually. At winter time in Hadera which is a beautiful beach city 40 min north from Tel Aviv. Lots of good gorgeous empty beaches. And also the Maldives have sand sharks .Almost every time when I fall at Sultans next to the beach (Sultans is a break next to Himafushi at North Male atoll) I fall on the sand sharks. But yeah not a Jaws movie experience.

Who do you admire as a surfer?

I love S. Gilmore, Tatiana Weston Webb, Laky, Carisa and Marks. And I absolutely adore Anat Lelior, for the history she made and how many doors she opened here in Israel for women surfing. I watched her really closely during the years. I know her since she was a child. I know she worked very hard for every accomplishment she had, and as a grown woman I’m still always looking up to her, because all that she does and accomplish influences directly on how I feel about what I can achieve, and what I can accomplish by being a woman-Israeli surfer.

Tell me more about your physical training in general and how that affects your surfing?

In 2020 I had a bad accident. I still haven’t got back to being in shape and most of what I need to do still involves physiotherapy. But before then, I ate around 1350-1400 calories per day. remained 56-58 kg, watch my glucose closely because I have Type 1 diabetes. Every day that was surfable I managed to get at least one session a day. and trained at least an hour a day. It could've been yoga, body movement, Ginastica natural, Pilates, power, or HIIT. I rode my bike everywhere and stayed active. I felt this weight was a good fit for me in order to surf in Israel where the waves are kind of soft and I need to be easy on my feet, and also the body fat muscle ratio was good for decreasing the insulin resistance, (yes type 1 has this issue as well), so I could be more glucose balanced, which directly affects my performance. From the different training methods I enjoyed the flexibility and the range of movement I gave to my joints in order to prevent injuries. Actually I have a bit of over flexibility and my shoulders and knee caps are always popping out. So the training helped to prevent them from popping out all the time. Yoga, body movement and Ginastica taught me to work with my body and not against it, and try to listen to my body needs. And most importantly not causing damage to it while training, by over training.

How important is your diet to your well being?

Because I'm diabetic, the answer to this question is by all means; diet is everything and it’s a game changer with managing my blood glucose levels and improving my performance.

As you may or may not know, Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a life threatening disease/condition. it is an autoimmune disease, causes destruction of beta cells in our pancreas that make the hormone insulin. insulin inserts the glucose from the blood vessels to the cells so they can have energy. if you don't have insulin your cells wouldn’t eat, and eventually will shut down and die. So we need to inject insulin every single day multiple times. And if we accidentally inject a higher dose, we can have low blood glucose levels which can also lead to brain shut down (because our brain can only eat glucose) and death. At the sea or ocean we can’t check our blood glucose levels (because we need a glucometer for that), so we can’t be in total control. That's why we need to be extra balanced with our glucose levels when going out to the water. This balance depends on a lot of things; what we ate, when we ate it, how much insulin did we inject, and when did we inject it, and how much of aerobic activity we are doing (and how much in shape we are). so diet is, as I’ve mentioned, a big part of it.

Where would you like to surf in the near future?

ummm Indonesia, Australia, Hawaii, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Mexico.. I just can’t decide.. if I could only surf (and had all the money in the world in order to do so) I'd just go from one place to another. I don't mind living out of a suitcase. I actually kind of love not having stuff.