Surf in India
Surfing is slowly becoming one the things that I enjoy doing the most, although I am extremely clumsy at it still. Not only do I come from a country where surfing is unknown, let alone be popular, my hometown is at least 15 hours away (by train) to any respectable beach.
I thought I’d write a short post on my trip to the Shaka Surf Club in Kodi Bengre near Manipal, and tell you a little about the small but burgeoning surfing community in India.
I flew the first leg from Ahmedabad to Bombay, where I met up with my friend Karan, who planned the trip with me (and deserves a lot of credit for making it happen). We were taking the Mangalore express to Kodi Bengre which left Bombay at about 10 PM. We were due to reach at noon the next day. Important point to note here is that the station to get off at is Udupi.
We reached and hopped straight into a prepaid rickshaw that would take us to the village of Kodi Bengre, which was about 30 minutes away. The third friend coming with us was Vishal, who had arrived earlier in the day by an overnight bus from Bangalore.
Now to get a little categorical:
About Shaka Surf Club
The Shaka Surf Club is run by a really cool couple — Ishita and Tushar. They graduated from Manipal University nearby, and decided to follow their passion for surfing — one they developed while studying close by. Not only is it inspiring for two city kids to take the risk and follow what they love doing. Great respect for all the hurdles I am sure they had to cross to make this happen. Totally worth visiting.
Surfing
Some of waves were actually quite decent. I am pretty sure we had some waves going to about 3.5 feet (which though seem small, and more than what one can ask for as novice surfers). The undercurrents were quite strong, and it made getting out there quite tough.
At a personal level, I shifted to a much smaller board than what I had used on my earlier surfs. In retrospect, this might have been too early for me because I had a rough time.
I also felt like the waves broke quicker here than what I’ve seen in Sri Lanka and Maui. These things are seasonal of course, but this was my experience in mid March.
Food
The food was AMAZING! Manglorean fish curry with neer dosa and what not. Ate at some of the village joints, some of whom did not even have any lights. Turns out lanterns, moonlight, beach and awesome food make for good times ☺
My trip there was from noon Friday till noon Sunday. So that’s two full days — which can realistically get you 4 sessions (one session is 2 hrs). I got 3 of them. I have tried it twice before so some of the stuff was familiar, but the wave are still challenging (and fun).
You will have the option to stay there with; they have a camp site with tents. They charge 7k for 2 night, 3 days — with I think 3 sessions (each session is at Rs. 1,200) and meals included. My friends and I found that to be a little expensive for the budget we were on so we opted to stay at a Nature Cure center about 4k away. Its very basic accommodation, but its clean and workable since the only thing we did there was crash at night.
When you aren’t surfing, you’d mostly just chill at the camp site. Its nice and quiet. They are in the middle of a quaint fishing village, so there isn’t much else to do there. You could go to Manipal which is close by for a night out or something — they have pretty cool student joints.
Originally published at abhikbasu.com.
