About
I'm Haim.
And wood is how I make dreams real.
Woodworker, instructor, walker, and dad to Niv and Omer. Born and raised in Petah Tikva, and owner of the boutique woodshop at 9 Gazit Street. This is my story, and how it led me to the studio.
How it started
Just for fun. Then I fell in love.
Good hands run in my family. My father could build and fix anything, and I grew up by his side. About twenty years ago I started woodworking just for fun, and I quickly realized it was much more than a hobby.
Little by little I got better, and I found the name too: “Haim Baets – Crafting Dreams in Wood.” In Hebrew it's a name full of meaning for me: life, wood, fulfillment and creation. Each of them is a part of me.
August 1989
My shadow and me. I refused to give up.
I was 26 and coaching a team of triathletes. During a cycling session at the Mesubim junction, a car ran a red light and hit me hard. I lay unconscious for nine days in intensive care at Tel HaShomer, and from there I was moved to Loewenstein Hospital's head injury ward, paralyzed on my left side and with severe memory damage.
My family was told that if I could get to the bathroom on my own, that would count as recovery. I refused to be labeled “disabled.” From a wheelchair I went to crutches, from crutches to walking, and from walking to independence. For my checkup at Loewenstein, two years after the accident, I ran there from Petah Tikva: 16 kilometers.
I went back to sports, to triathlons and races, and nine years after the accident I won first place in the Israel Open Championship in the 10 km race walk. Today the trophies sit on a shelf I built in my woodshop.
If I could do it, anyone can.
- 23
- times at the Four Days Marches in the Netherlands
- 1
- first place at the Israel Open Championship, 10 km race walk
- 11
- times cycling the length of Israel, Metula to Eilat
- 75
- km on the Golani beret march, alongside my son
The flag
200 kilometers. With the biggest flag in the march.
In 1999 I walked the Four Days Marches in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, for the first time, and swore I'd never go back. A year later I was back, this time with my walking groups and the Israeli flag. I've been there almost every year since, more than twenty times now, carrying the biggest flag among tens of thousands of walkers.
But my most important walk was close to home: on the beret march of Golani's 51st Battalion I walked alongside my son Omer, and I was the first father to complete all 75 kilometers.
The studio today
Building, teaching, and giving back.
In 2020 I opened my new woodshop on Gazit Street in Petah Tikva. Every morning when I open it, I enjoy the colors of the tools and the smell of the wood all over again. I build from a photo, a sketch or an idea someone brings me, and quite a few of my pieces are made from reclaimed wood. Because one person's trash is another's treasure.
I teach woodworking in workshops and weekly classes, for kids, families and teams, and for years I've led a wood carving class at Beit Halochem in Afeka and worked at the IDF Disabled Veterans club. Some of my pieces, like hammocks and loungers, are built especially to be donated to wounded IDF soldiers and their families.
You're welcome to come visit, build something, or just have a coffee with me at the studio.
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