DUBAI // Mohammad bin Merjan rode out his friends' ribbing when he returned from California with his new love.
The thin, tall beauty hanging off the Emirati's arm as he left the airport in 2011 was not a West Coast blonde, but his very first surfboard.
Mohammad, 24, remembers perfectly the day he watched surfers paddling out into the sea off Civic Beach in San Diego.
"It was a typical, sunny Californian day, blue skies and warm," he said.
When he saw a sign offering surfing lessons, he knew "I had to do it."
By his third lesson, and after several mouthfuls of salty water, Mohammad was able to stand on the board. "I was hooked," he said.
Of the 45 days he spent in California, 38 were spent in the swell perfecting his ability to ride a wave.
With the surname bin Merjan (Son of Coral), it is not surprising that he found his passion in the sea.
Growing up a stone's throw from Al Mamzar beach, he spent many a day watching the waves pound the shore and was learning to free dive within years of learning to walk.
By the age of 15, Mohammad was diving to a depth of 20 metres - the same depth a scuba diver can reach with a tank of air.
"I just understand the tides, the waves and swells," he said.
He started by taking his board to the waters off Al Mamzar beach.
"I was surfing really small waves. Any wave would do," he said. "Then a big swell came in one weekend and after a few wipeouts I caught my first big wave. I was beside myself. Whoever said you can't surf in Dubai?"
He calculates there are at least 80 good days of surf a year, 10 of them producing perfect waves, and he has made Al Khan beach his territory.
For the other 285 days of the year, he can throw his surfboard in the car and head for southern Oman.
His skills in predicting swells let him down the first time he made the 1,000-kilometre drive to Salalah and he ended up watching a flat sea for a few days. "But I went back again February and there were head-high waves, and I caught over 100 in the time I was there," Mohammad said.
He has also taken to the waves alongside the professionals in places such as Bali and the Maldives.
And when all else fails, "Wadi Adventure is a perfect training ground and gives us the opportunity to surf."
Next weekend, Mohammad will share the Al Ain wave pool with local surfers of all ages at the Just Add Volcom Surf and Skate Jam.
It is a gathering, not a competition, with no set divisions, elimination rounds or age limits - just 11 hours of enjoying a surf or skate together.
"This event is all about having fun and building awareness of these unique sports developing in the UAE," said Luke Cunningham, Dubai Desert Extreme marketing manager.
Judges will hand out more than 100 prizes, from stickers to vouchers, for those who catch their attention. There will be bigger prizes for the standout surfers and skaters.
eharnan@thenational.ae
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Results:
Men’s wheelchair 200m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 27.14; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 27.81; 3. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 27.81.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Fixtures
Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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