Israel held its first championship for physically-challenged surfers on Friday in the Mediterranean Sea off the port city of Ashdod, organizers said. /VCG Photo

Twenty-one competitors, some of them amputees, paraplegics, deaf or blind, rode the waves assisted by volunteers from the Organization for Advancement of Surfing and Sea Sports in Ashdod. /VCG Photo

Family and friends cheered them on from the sandy beach as the competitors, smiling triumphantly, returned to shore. “It was difficult, almost impossible - but definitely worth the effort. We made history,” said Yaron Klein, one of the event's organizers. /VCG Photo