Prof. Guy Antebi (NEJS) was flying down a steep hill when his back wheel blew out and he looked down. Big mistake. As he pulled his head up, he saw a car right in front of him. "When I pulled my head up, I saw a car right in front of me," Antebi said. "I tried to stop, but I crashed into the car and got [thrown] from the back window all the way to the front window of the car; I saw the driver and I said 'hey.' And then I had to go to the hospital."

He's a Hebrew professor at Brandeis now, but he was a teenager at the time of the accident from which he suffered only a broken chin.

"[At the hospital], my parents said, 'Thank God you're OK,'" Antebi recalled. "And then they said, 'Thank God we have insurance.'"

Antebi grew up in the hilly city of Haifa, Israel and learned to ride a bike at a young age.

"I have pictures of me [biking] from since before I could walk," Antebi said.

He joined a club in Haifa called Dav Shanim (the Pedal Pushers) at 10 years old. A few years later, Antebi was invited to bike with the Israeli National Youth Team and went on to compete in international events throughout Europe.

Cycling was just beginning to emerge in Israel at the time, and Antebi recalled the difficulties of participating in the fledgling sport.

"The roads in Israel are not as good as in America, and the drivers are even worse. We didn't have special roads [for practice], or even country roads. Every road had a lot of cars on it which made riding very dangerous."

The young Antebi and his teammates practiced for hours every day under the guidance of their strict Russian coach. Antebi recalls more experienced teams harassing the Israelis at international competitions.

"When we were in Germany, they really didn't like the Israeli riders," Antebi said. "Cycling is a pretty violent sport at times; there are a lot of things happening inside the peloton. In Germany, they used to get the Israelis inside the peloton where nobody can see, and then they would attack us with elbows to the face and to the whole body, sometimes even throwing us out of the course."

Antebi downplays the harsh treatment as typical of tough international competition and looks back at his stint on the Israeli team with a smile.

"I was really proud just to be on the national team and to represent Israel," he said. "Especially in the beginning when the sport was just starting."

Antebi's upbringing in Haifa exposed him to another sport-one that boasts a much greater following in Israel-that captured his enthusiasm. Antebi lived five minutes from the beach and would often watch scores of people windsurfing in the Mediterranean Sea. It was there that he developed his dream "to eventually go to Hawaii and surf the big waves."

Windsurfing would become his passion in life, one he describes with a glow in his eyes.

"It's the best feeling in the world," he said. "You just sail. It's enormously fast and you're out there by yourself in this huge ocean."

The young Antebi windsurfed at every opportunity, even during his service in the Israeli army, when he was given military honors for outstanding behavior and outstanding soldier. Meanwhile, Antebi and his friends would use every vacation to windsurf.

"Whenever the wind was good enough, we would be windsurfing in Haifa," Antebi recalled.

After his time in the army, Antebi was able to make his childhood dream come true.

"I bought a ticket with a couple of my friends and we traveled to Maui, and the only thing I did for six months from the money I saved was surf," he said.

After his time in Hawaii, Antebi earned a scholarship to the University of Alabama, where he spent the next eight years studying educational technology and Middle Eastern studies. He received his master's degree in agency administration, but he missed the enormous waves in Hawaii.

"In Alabama, the ocean is very far from the University," Antebi said. "So I connected a sail to a skateboard. And whenever there was wind, I would surf in the street.