Searching for Suffe-India’s West

Searching for Suffe-India’s West

By Angie Takanami

Photos Kuni Takanami

Special thanks to the Mulki Surfing Ashram, Jelle Rigole and the Kovalam Surf Club, SISP, BLUE Magazine and Patagonia Japan.

‘Madam, this is boat yes?’ chirps a skinny man with a toothless grin, patting my Ryosuke Hori epoxy surfboard with his mangled hand. ‘Yes, it is boat’, I smile, amused at yet another face puzzling over how we would sail a frail piece of plastic along the Ganges. Throwing the board under my arm, I re-adjust my rucksack and take one last look around. A yellow top rickshaw stops suddenly on the dirty road and a grinning Indian man jumps out, squashing us and our luggage into the three-wheeled people mover then strapping the board onto the soft top roof with flimsy looking rope.

For now we are done with the ancient city and read to do what we came for: to find epic waves along India’s remote west coast.

Researching where to get good waves along the 7,000km of primarily untouched Indian coastline is far less hairy than negotiating the dark streets and alleyways of Delhi and Varanasi where we began our adventure. Over here in Karnataka, the ‘Surfing Swamis’ of Jack Hebner’s ashram in Mulki town are thrilled to take us into their communal home, providing us with delicious vegetarian fare and guiding us to uninhabited surf breaks up and down the coast. Hebner’s ashram is home to an intimate number of Krishna followers who share a love for their religion as well as surfing. Getting in the water daily, they make up the bulk of the surfing population in India and run a retreat-style accommodation and surf tour business out of the ashram for travelers.

Outside our modest blue walled bedroom window, a cheerful rooster is stuck on 24 hour mornings. Combined with the ashram’s devotees singing their morning mantras, waking for an early surf is hardly a strain. Chanting complete, prayers are switched for blocks of wax and before long the Zodiac is thrown into the adjacent river ready to transport us to the local break. As we ferry across the calm water, overhanging trees reflect off the glassy surface like a mirror’s review. Tranquil and serene, is this really India?

The Zodiac propels us through the river mouth and we disembark onto the golden sands, shared only by starfish, coconut trees and the occasional washed-up brown leather sandal. Eyes still caught in a battle between dream and reality, clarity is met with clear, sparkling waters and a smorgasbord of left and right empty beach breaks.

Without proper transportation, local knowledge and a decent map, accessing the waves in India is close to impossible. With the ‘swamis’ taking care of us, we strapped boards onto the roof of our rented driver’s black 4WD and headed north at an hour even the rooster hadn’t heard of. Desperate to catch some sneaky z’s in the back of the car, our lead-foot driver with an addiction to insistent horn honking and high-speed death defying overtaking in blind spots crushed any ideas of even a swift nap.

Arriving pale and swearing off vehicles forever, panic quickly subsides into awe as we stand before shoulder high point break lefthanders back dropped by a giant statue of Shiva and one of the tallest Gopurams in the world. Most certainly one of the most unique surfing destinations we have ever come across, this man-made peninsula is actually funded by an incredibly rich Indian businessman and is a hub for local tourists.

Waxing up in the car park, our group is immediately swamped by a pack of ragged looking Indian kids trying to sell us photo-shopped postcards of Shiva. Their sales pitches are halted as they baffle over our surfboards, one kid asking “what are those plastic things you are rubbing white stuff onto?”

“Boats”, I reply to which the smart-ass of the group pipes up boasts to his mates, “I told you so”.

As we migrate to the deep green, murky waters it seems all the Sunday’s tourists have followed to cheer us on; more than a hundred onlookers are hooting our waves as if we are Kelly Slater out at Huntington Beach.

Typical Indian beach culture doesn’t allow much more than a frolic in the shallows, fear of the ocean and clothing limitations preventing most from learning to swim. Ironically, the word ‘surf’ in Etymology is derived from the Indic word ‘suffe’, used to describe the coastline of India from as early as 1599. It is hard to fathom that the very roots of surfing in the literal sense were born in India, a country with no more than a handful of surfers and where drownings occur daily.

Our extended stay is up at the ashram and, enlightened by our discovery of great surf, we haul our luggage onto an overnight train in B-class, battling sticky vinyl seats in un-airconditioned sleepers. Next stop – sultry sea air and fresh fish in Kovalam in the state of Kerala.

Crystal clear waters, clean beaches and sand-side hawkers are met with a relaxed touristy vibe down here in the south. We start the morning with a bowl of biryani, which is quickly becoming Kuni’s favourite Indian delight. Settling for beachside accommodation at no more than US$10 per night, our final week in India falls upon a full moon and we are eager with anticipation as we wait for the swell to pick up.

It does.

Kovalam’s easy going, safe, island feel makes it ideal for surfer’s not wanting to deal with the stresses of everyday India. Ideal for surfing couples travelling with their kids, the main break to the north of the lighthouse provides great quality surf when the swells hit.

In search for unchartered waves, we hire a cheap scooter and set off, wobbling through the dusty streets of the neighbouring fishing villages. After hours of scooting in and out of roads we are sure will take us to the surf, an encounter with a gang of toothless beggars induces our acknowledgement of a failed mission. We make it back to our second storey, stone floored room and agree to settling for the double overhead beach break out front for the rest of our stay.

At the peak of the full moon the swell rises to a solid 4-5ft. My pregnant belly now bursting with the growth of our unborn son Ryder, Kuni hides my leash cord declaring my surfing on this trip has come to an end, “You are NOT going out this time Angie, if anything should happen to your tummy…” After half a day sulking from the restaurant opposite the break, tears dripping into cold mango lassies, I soon discover a number of second hand bookstores in the winding alleyways and spend hours reading on the balcony. With majority of our shooting complete, Kuni is finally able to set his camera and housing down and sneak some water sierras himself. As I sneak a peak between the pages of ‘The Hungry Tide’, one lucky Aussie bloke gets himself slotted into a stand up barrel on the last day of his month-long Indian adventure.

Kovalam is also home to the ‘Kovalam Surf Club’, made up of local street kids and headed by Jelle Rigole, a professional Belgium windsurfer from Sebastian Indian Social Projects (SISP), a volunteer-ran school for local kids that includes a great surfing program. Jelle and his surfing protégés share many sessions with us, kids from 6-16years old all ripping and revelling in the stoke. Whilst all the kids touched our hearts, two in particular will forever stick in my mind. ‘Buffalo Soldier’ may not be the best at surfing, but his Bob Marley renditions in the water make every surf a plenary session of laughter. Jelle tells us that he had brought a surfboard over from Belgium for ‘Buffalo’, but it had been sold for cigarette and alcohol money. Jelle then returned another time with a second board, to have the same thing happen.

“To get out of India these guys either need to marry a foreign girl or get a scholarship for college.” I wonder how these conditions will fare for our mate Buffalo…

The other kid who is making waves is young Nissam. Staying closer to Jelle than to his own shadow, Nissam is the stand-out surfer amongst the kids and has a brain that has already taken him off the streets and into a private education with a solid hope of stepping up in this world. Jelle keeps the kids in step, banning them from surfing unless they attend their classes at school. And surfing has got these kids hooked, their aura of pure enjoyment addictive.

That surfing is getting these kids off the streets, out of the slums and away from domestic violence into sound education and preparation for the workforce, is a humbling thought. To many of us surfing is all about the smiles, but for these kids it goes much deeper.

As we board the empty Air India plane bound for Tokyo, tears stream down my cheeks. One month hasn’t been long enough. Kuni and I grip each other’s hand as the plane propels us into the sky. Wiping my tears I close my journal and open my Lonely Planet Guide to India. “So next year we go east?”

Travel Essentials

When to Go: Dec-March is good for sightseeing and long boarding, with very little rain and warm temperatures. May-June is the pre-monsoon season; hot weather and good swells. July-September is the big wave season, when the monsoons bring a lot of wind, rain and big surf.

Getting Around: Autorickshaws are cheap and exhilarating, a great way to get around the cities and villages, but if you need to travel far think about paying the extra to hire a taxi for a day. Trains are more comfortable than buses on long trips, book ahead to avoid sold out seats www.irctc.co.in.

Visas & Money: Australians can stay in India on a tourist visa for up to 6 months. Apply online at http://www.vfs-in-au.net/. The Indian Rupee is reasonably cheap against most major currencies, making India a good destination for those wanting to save their coin.

Surfing India: Access to most of the surf points in India is incredibly difficult without a guide and a car. The ‘surfing swamis’ run surf tours, lessons and hire boards out of their Ashram in Mulki. www.surfingindia.net. The water temperate is warm so you only need long length board shorts and a long sleeved rash guard; the culture requires you to cover up as much as possible.

Accommodation: Aside from the Ashram in Mulki, cheap accommodation in India is abundant but be warned: booking in advance doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a room. Kovalam has everything from budget to resort style accommodation and it is possible to negotiate the price with some of the cheaper places.

Family Safe? YES, there are certainly areas in the north that require extra caution, however the majority of the coastal villages we visited were fine for traveling families. Maintaining your kid’s health in India is of upmost importance but can be done so easily with regular vitamin supplements, the appropriate vaccines, drinking sealed bottled water, sleeping under mosquito nets, eating cooked vegetarian fare and staying smart. Kovalam was perhaps the most appealing for surfer families with upscale resort style accommodation a popular option.

Sebastian Indian Social Projects (SISP): Donate to the school or sponsor the kids for private education. Surf supplies are non-existent in Kovalam and Jelle single handedly provides the kids with boards, wax, leash cords and clothing for the surf. Any donations would be much appreciated. To find out more about donating surf gear, email to angie@surferseyes.com

Further Info:

www.incredibleindia.org