Having been brought up in water-scarce environments, Samer sought out water bodies in his life and work. He is an excellent swimmer, and took up scuba diving in the 1970’s and gained life-saving underwater lifeguard skills in the USA.

Eventually, Samer dove in the waters of Aqaba, Sharm El Sheikh, and Nuweibaa. He also taught his children to be highly skilled swimmers at a young age, and has designed two swimming pools and two ponds across his career.

Samer studied sculpture at Youngstown University in Ohio, which is located only minutes away from the Hocking River, where many of his earliest sculptures currently lay in its bottom.

Early in his sculpting career, he would collect stones from riverbanks in Ohio, carving and shaping them before returning them to the water. Throughout his practice, Tabbaa explored the delicate interplay between water and stone, often challenging nature itself—while fully acknowledging which is the greater artist.