![\"\u05ea\u05de\u05d9\u05e8](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/r1tqyplOfg_0_0_1500_844_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"After")
<\/a><\/p>\nAfter 17 surgeries and an amputation, wounded IDF officer Tamir Dudi fights his way back onto a surfboard <\/p>\n
(Photo: Yuval Chen)<\/p>\n
He and his soldiers were sent into communities near the Gaza border, where they fought in the Sha\u2019ar HaNegev area and at Mefalsim and helped evacuate wounded people from the Nova music festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked the soldiers that whoever was afraid should raise his hand,\u201d Dudi recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t wait for an answer. I told them this wasn\u2019t the time to be afraid. This was the time to save lives. We saw everything no one should have to see and did everything we had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
On January 16, 2024, his unit was fighting in Jabaliya when militants emerged from a tunnel shaft and tried to surprise them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose were 20 minutes of hard fighting and about 20 seconds of survival, when we were face to face with the terrorists, and the whole time I was muttering to myself that I was getting out of there alive and, more importantly, making sure my entire team got home safely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree fragmentation grenades were thrown at me and I was shot in the leg. I was lying on the ground and saw that my whole body was torn apart, but luckily my team pulled me back and saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another officer was wounded alongside him. Dudi was evacuated by helicopter to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem and began a long series of operations in Israel, the United States and Austria.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had severe nerve damage in my leg and arm and understood that I would never return to full function,\u201d he said. \u201cI went through an emotional and physical roller coaster knowing that I had lost my independence.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a year and a half, doctors tried to save both his left leg and right arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a year and a half of hospitalizations, releases and attempts to save my left leg and right arm, I looked for something that would comfort me, something that would give me hope again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He eventually called a friend who worked as a surfing instructor and asked what it would take for him to return to the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe answer I got was: \u2018You\u2019re nowhere near it,\u2019\u201d Dudi said.<\/p>\n
By then, his right arm was completely paralyzed and causing severe pain. After doctors told him there was no realistic prospect of meaningful recovery, he made the decision to have it amputated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI flew to Austria for the amputation. The doctor there told me, \u2018You need courage.\u2019 It was done on September 30, the eve of Yom Kippur. I woke up from the amputation with my whole family outside and I was smiling. I believed things would be okay and that I would find a way to get somewhere good.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the amputation, Dudi\u2019s desire to surf only intensified.<\/p>\n
He went to a beach in Tel Aviv and tried to get back on a board. At first, he could barely stand in the water, let alone paddle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried again and again and saw that it was getting better,\u201d he said. \u201cI managed to do it, barely, far from where I needed to be, but there was a direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
When someone asked how he could surf with one arm, Dudi said his answer was simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do everything. I don\u2019t give myself any breaks. I learned to love my body again.\u201d<\/p>\n
His progress accelerated after he discovered Surf Park TLV, a facility with an artificial wave pool. There, he made a decision that would reshape his recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I arrived for the first time, I decided that I wasn\u2019t surrendering to any limitation and that I was going back to surfing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One of the coaches, Daniel Sigura, encouraged him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have the potential to go very far, you just have to keep at it,\u201d Dudi recalled him saying.<\/p>\n
Dudi began training three or four times a week and gradually turned surfing into the center of his life.<\/p>\n
He later traveled to California for a training camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are endless falls and the question of whether to get up in the morning and why,\u201d he said. \u201cSurfing is a great reason to start the day. The water is healing for me, and after I nearly lost my life, I\u2019m entering this journey with everything I have and with maximum focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
His recovery brought another major change.<\/p>\n
In March 2024, Dudi, originally from Holon, began looking for an apartment in Jerusalem. He posted on Facebook and received a message from a woman named Nov, who offered to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked for a home and in the end we built a home,\u201d he said. \u201cWe fell in love and got married a year and four months ago. I can say it\u2019s a classic case of unconditional love.\u201d<\/p>\n
After five months of intensive training, coaches around him increasingly began to see Dudi as a major prospect in adaptive surfing, a discipline that is not currently part of the Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n
Surfwear company Billabong and surf-equipment company Ultra Wave have also begun supporting him.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the world championship, Dudi is realistic about the challenge but clear about his goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had to, I would go out another thousand times to fight for the country without thinking twice,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be world champion in November, but I want to stand on the podium. To know that I won.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, he already has his next ambitions in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I check that goal off, I\u2019ll go study psychology and, God willing, the big dream is to become a father soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tamir Dudi survived a fierce battle in Jabaliya, underwent 17 surgeries in three countries and ultimately chose to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-600125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}