As the three guys Alex, Roman and I were at the Hilton Beach, located in the same bay as the Separate Beach. When we got there, the manager of the Lifeguard station cooked us a great meal, with Humus, Pita, scrambled eggs, other sauces, and yoghurt with pineapples as dessert. He could speak a little bit german. As we asked him, where he learned that, he told us “On the beach, I got my english from here as well, school was always closed, when I got there”

Of course Roman and I took the chance to train with the hasaka. Since we had done this the days before, it got easier and easier. We especially trained the start from the beach, turning around on the hasaka and arriving on the shore again. After a while both of us got a “professional” trainer. While Roman seemed to be taking it serious, training different maneuvers, we decided to take try with the waves. OK to be honest: I was sitting in the front of the Hasake and Yosi, a lifeguard from Separate beach, paddled, searched for some good waves and got us in position. We catched one of them really good, that was the first time I understood, why there are so many people this excited about surfing. We actually tried to stay away from the Separate beach, because it was mens day. But while we were talking there was a guy outside the swimming area, who seemed to need help. As we reached him, he held on to the hasaka. I don´t know, what he told the lifeguard, but Yosi shoved him on the hasaka (he actually was not the sportiest person and very heavy) and told him to lay down.

As we paddled into the swimming zone, to bring him to the beach, it was a really strange feeling, because every (and by that I mean every) man in the area looked at me. Not because they had probably never seen a female lifeguard, but because it was mens day, and I was actually not allowed in there. But nevertheless I took part in a rescue the Israeli way. The day ended with me accompanying Roman to the hospital, because he got a cut from our trip with the Kayak.

On Saturday we had another afternoon at Hilton beach. Raviv(he is going to come to Germany) seemed to be excited to see us and told us to come to the water as soon as we had changed. So Alex and I took another round with the hasaka working on his balance and learning to work as a team. After that I went with Raviv and paddled behind the wave breakers, jumped into the water and talked a bit about the things we did in Israel and that we really enjoyed our stay (that was the most important thing to him “whatever you do, just enjoy”) and what he wanted to do in Germany. He actually thinks it will be too cold to do anything, I answered that it is just a matter of the right clothing.

After that they tried to teach me turning around the hasaka, if the waves had flipped it. I have to confess, that I am probably not strong enough and too light. Maybe with more training I will be able to do that (hint to Frank: I absolutely love your idea of buying one of them for the local club Pramort).

There are two ways to do that: I only tried the easy one, where you hold on to the keel and push the edge with your toes and feet under the water until it turns. The more dangerous one seemeds pretty crazy to me. You stand on the turned hasaka, the long paddle in your hands. You hook it under the edge of the boat, hold on really strong and keep going backwards and let yourself fall backwards too until it turns. But you really have to watch your head, while doing this. The hasaka weighs around 80 kg.

I walked and swam back to Hilton beach and I just got back in time to hear the closing speech of the lifeguards, at that day in hebrew, english and german.

Right now I am sitting on my bed, finishing this text and I wanted to take the opportunity to say something very important to me:

First of all I would like to thank Rouven for coming up with this amazing idea and taking it through till the end. He invested hundreds of hours and couldn´t even take part in all activities because there still are some unfinished things. I had 10 amazing days in Israel and I am really looking forward to the german part of the exchange.

Second I would like to thank the Israeli lifeguards for their amazing hospitality, kindness and sometimes patience( balancing and paddling the hasaka seems easier than it actually is) with us. Even if only 14 of you will come to Germany you all did an amazing job teaching us all you could in this short time!