Surfers of Mahabalipuram

“I used to work as an assistant cook at a restaurant when I met Mumu,” says Rahul, an instructor at Mumu Surf School in Mahabalipuram. Rahul asked Mumu to teach him how to surf and slowly the whole fisherfolk colony began taking up surf boards. Rahul, who makes his own surfboards in his garage, is also a competition surfer.

He participates in competitions organised by Surfing Federation of India (SFI). There are 3 to 4 such competitions each year. “Earlier we would see many foreigners during the competitions but now there are more Indians and each year you see more and more Indians taking up the sport,” adds Rahul. Kamli, another Mahabalipuram girl belonging to the fisherfolk community, was only 3 when she began her affair with the waves. All of 13 today, she is already competing nationally and internationally in surfing competitions.

“Each year newer people take up the sport and even in the community we notice that each generation is better than the next when it comes to their performance in the sport,” says Rahul. As these youngsters come from fishing families, they have been used to water since childhood. “I used to go out in the ocean with my father for fishing when I was young, so we know the ocean very well. It’s our backyard,” he adds. Kamli says she knows no other way than water. “My ambition, my everything is surfing,” she says. “And I will keep doing it.”

Mahabalipuram hosted the International Surf Open – Tamil Nadu, World Surf League (WSL) QS 3000 event in August 14 to 20, drawing international attention to India as a surfing destination.

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Filmed by: Novita Singh, Vaibhav Gupta