JIYEH, Lebanon — Along the Mediterranean coastline south of Beirut, in the small farming village of Jiyeh, a group of surfers are taking a break from a life that in their country tends to revolve around politics tied to religion and a region at war.

Ali Elamin, 31, founder and owner of the surfing school Surf Lebanon, is a Lebanese-American who mostly grew up in California. In 2011, he returned to the place of his Middle Eastern roots and a year later jump-started the surfing community.

“It was always something I wanted to do,” Elamin told Al-Monitor. “We have a really decent coastline that almost no one takes advantage of, and we get awesome waves.” Elamin was not, however, the first person to surf Lebanon’s beaches.

Mustafa el-Hajj, 30, was riding the waves back in the 1980s. “I started surfing when I was about 16 years old. I was alone, with my cousin. It was hard for us to get stuff for surfing, like boards and fins. We’d stop people and say, ‘Hey, stop. Come surf with us.’ There would be five or 10 people, but the sport wasn't improving,” said Hajj. It wasn’t until around September 2012, when Elamin came along to open his surfing school, that it grew locally in popularity. Enthusiasts and novices were then better able to learn the sport and improve their skills.