Last summer, a moment after Israeli surfing recorded another "almost" at the Olympics, Gal Friedman was busy with his photography business.
Some of the cruises he did not get to see because he just made a living.
Then, as he sat in front of the TV, he said, "The system may not like me because I'm tough. Because I'm incumbent, because I tell athletes the truth inside and I don't agree to compromise with them on a respectable performance. It has not worked between us in the past, maybe in the future it will work."
Indeed, after the strange situation in which the only gold medalist of the Israeli surfing team sits at home and does not coach any team, the sailing association woke up and this week appointed Friedman as the coach of the Israeli surfing team, in the new model Puyol.
"It's hard to know what the full potential of the team is, I just know we have a lot of work to do that will take time," Friedman agreed to say this week, after reaching an agreement with the sailing association on his terms of employment.
It is important to remember, Friedman was previously the coach of both Nimrod Mashiach and the team surfers, but the affair ended quickly after the surfers did not agree to give up their personal trainer.
Friedman felt he was not getting backing from the system, preferring to pet rather than his tough approach.
"At the end of the most important mental preparation, I tell my athletes to always get into a fight, not to be afraid, not to gamble and not to throw dice when they get to the buoy. In that sense the athletes can't scribble me."
So will this Friedman approach stand up to the new generation of athletes this time around?
First evidence of the real desire of all parties to cooperate we can see in Friedman's contract clause, which states that he will give interviews only through the Sailing Association and will not be interviewed on his own.
Of course, this is a trauma left by Gur Steinberg, the coach who was fired and that hatred for interviews is not his characteristic feature.
Friedman himself also does not run away from the media, but as part of the new beginning between the parties, he has not spoken much since he was appointed to the position.
Zubari, Photo: Kfir Ziv
The goal: to close the gap
So how exactly will Friedman work this time?
First of all Gore Steinberg will remain a secret man and advice: "Gore's help is always not self-evident, without his support and without his blessing of the way it would have been different. His support is important and also appreciated."
And what about athletes?
The Puyol is completely different from the models that have been so far, so Friedman gets a team that will look for itself, with Tom Reuben as the prominent name at the moment, even though it seems that the world has already flown forward with the new model, while Israel has been delayed.
The blue and white team now has three years to fill in the gaps until the moment of truth in Paris.
In women, the situation in the new model is better, with some interesting potential names, and there Friedman will meet a friend-enemy, and today also a colleague - Shahar Tzobari, who will coach the women's team.
Given the long history between the two, this is an interesting experiment that could end in dizzying success or a big explosion.
Friedman celebrates Athens 2004, Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friedman is embarking on a new Olympic campaign while the corona signs are still evident in Israeli and international Olympic sports, so time is short and the workload is plentiful.
If he succeeds in recreating his success as an athlete, he will go down in the history books.
If that does not work, he will put his ego aside and return to his photography business.
In the end, this is another day in the history of the telenovela called Israeli surfing.