I am not your textbook adventure junkie. The thought of jumping off a cliff with a glorified rubber band around my waist connecting me to terra firma does not excite me, neither does rolling down a slope standing up in what looks like a giant bubble (why is that fun, again?) So when Showkath Jamal, the young managing partner and founder of Bay of Life (www.bayoflife.com), Chennai’s first surfing school, suggests I give surfing a go, the instinctive reaction is a familiar churning in the nether regions of the stomach. “Okay, but I’m nervous,” I confess sheepishly. Jamal brushes my trepidation aside and soon, I’m walking down to the beach with Venkatesh aka Venky, one of the instructors at the surfing school.
Like the other teachers at Bay of Life (apart from Jamal), Venky too is from the adjoining fishing village and his father is a fisherman. He has completed a diploma in hotel management and a course in bar-tending, the latter giving him easy temporary employment at the many beach parties Chennai’s East Coast Road, also the location of the surf school, is famous for, but he is now a full-time surfing instructor.
Bay of Life has its origins in the period after the tsunami, when Jamal and the others became acquainted with Jack Hebner, who had come to their coast to explore its potential for surfing. Hebner is an American surfer-turned-swami, and one of the founders of Surfing Federation of India as well as Mantra Surf Club at the surfing ashram in Mangalore. He introduced them to surfing, which they immediately took to because of their inherent knowledge and connection with the sea. “When we were children, our favourite pastime was to take the window frames or doors from our own houses and use them to ride the waves. So we already knew whatever he was telling us — it’s just that we had never used a surfboard,” says Venky.
| SURFING SCHOOLS |
Ashram Surf Retreat
Soul & Surf |
- Sopie and Ed gave up their careers in Brighton, England, to start Soul & Surf in Varkala, near Thiruvananthapuram. They offer various packages, which include accommodation at the resort they run and surfing sessions with Ed. (www.soulandsurf.com)
Kallialay Surf School
- Located in Pondicherry, it is run by two brothers from Spain, Juan and Samai Reboul. They offer beginners and advanced courses in surfing. (www.surfschoolindia.com)
The Surfing Yogis
- They organised the country’s first surfing festival. Based in Puri, they are looking to “produce a surfing tribe in India”. (www.surfingyogis.com)
For more on surfing in India, including a detailed map of recommended surfing spots, check out www.surfingindia.net
“Once we began surfing, I started to wonder why more people weren’t doing it, considering we have a 7,000-kilometre coastline… and realised there was no professionally-run school where they could learn,” says Jamal. Bay of Life began taking shape shortly, though Jamal initially juggled it with his full-time job as a human resources professional. The school was accredited by the Surfing Federation of India two years ago, and Jamal finally gave up his HR job last year to focus all his attention on Bay of Life. His school friend Dhanush Viswappan, an architect, also came on board as a partner. The school currently has 70 people from the ‘city’ learning to surf, and 12 children from the fishing village. Jamal has hit upon a unique method for these children — they are taught surfing for free, with the rider that their academics don’t suffer. Their report cards are checked at the beginning of the course and they can continue only if their grades have not slipped. “These children can read the sea like a book,” he says. And reading the sea is critical — understanding the different currents, what to do when you’re caught in one (never try to swim against it) and being able to judge when to catch a wave. “That’s something that usually takes someone years to learn but for us fisher folk, it’s second-nature,” says Venky. Of the others coming to learn, around 60 per cent are expatriates, and the school gets 8 to 10 new students a month.
At India’s first surfing festival, held earlier this year in Puri, the Bay of Life folks picked up a couple of prizes, while a 15-year-old boy from the village was the only Indian to make it to the final round of another international surfing festival held in Pondicherry last month.
A complete module at Bay of Life, which consists of eight three-hour sessions, including lessons in stand-up paddling where you use the board like a canoe, will set you back by Rs 13,000. (There is also a trial session for Rs 1,500). The advantage is that once you’ve completed the course, you should be able to surf by yourself — you will not have to shell out more for advanced levels and the like. But surfboards are expensive — though you can get one for Rs 15,000, a good board will set you back by around Rs 30,000.
Back at the beach, Venky launches into a quick low-down on the basics, including a mock paddling session that has me stretched out face-down on the board scrabbling the sand frantically, which attracts a couple of curious onlookers. Venky goes into the sea first to show me what it’s like, riding the waves with an ease that beguiles me into enthusiasm. And then it’s my turn. First I paddle into the sea on the board. Since I’m an absolute novice, I’m not expected to stand — when the wave is right, Venky will push my board, and all I have to do is lie flat, hold on to the board and enjoy the ride. I’m lucky enough to catch a good wave that sends me scudding towards the shore (wheeee!) But attempting to stand and ride the wave turns out to be a little too ambitious for a one-hour session — I wobble and wipe out, repeatedly. I finally give up and contend myself with one more short ride.
Venky consoles me, saying that it takes more than an hour to learn to balance on the board. Oh well. But I was glad Jamal had dismissed my apprehensions — at least this turned out to be one adventure sport I had fun trying.
