Turning the tides and making waves
Mahabalipuram beach town breeds a group of budding Indian surfers who dream to make it big
CHENNAI: After practising for six hours straight, Nithish Varun (19), son of a fisherman, can barely open his eyes the following morning. Exhausted but determined to do well in the upcoming competition Surf Turf Classic 2021, he picks up his surfboard and walks to the point break to chase the tide.
Mahabalipuram, a little beach town, which is known only for its temples, sculptures and a weekend get-away for Chennaites has a lot more than what meets the eye. Look towards the far end of the beach towards the shore temple, you will see heads bobbing in the water and colourful surfboards.
A very common sight in fisherman’s colony is surfboards outside homes.
While surfing is still alien to India, it’s been one of the popular haunts for surfers locally and internationally for decades. Dave and Rob, two Australians, lived here and set up shop for surfers. They have been instrumental in helping the first-generation surfers learn the sport, understand building boards and even helped them with launching businesses. Rahul Paneerselvam (30) is one of the only surfers who continues to make surfboards. Today, there are ten surf schools, of which seven are owned by fishing communities. There’s one school in Mahabalipuram, seven in Kovalam and two in Pondicherry. Surfing has been a boon to the fishing community, said Murthy Megavan from Kovalam fishing village. “Surf culture has given a sense of ownership to these kids who teach tourists surfing for a living. It also helps them build their personality as they need a lot of soft skills. A lot of them are learning English,” he said.
These children from the fishing community who cannot even afford a pair of shoes are selftaught surfers.
How and why did this sport become a big part of this fishing community?
Most of them come from families with cases of alcohol abuse and surfing helps them focus on themselves, giving them a purpose. The first-generation surfers along the coast of Tamil Nadu are Mukesh Panjanathan known as Mumu, Velu, Santosh, Murthy and Shankar, who learnt surfing by watching foreigners and continues to pass on the knowledge to the younger generations. While they wanted to surf, they had no access to equipment.
Mumu said, “The children who surf here are from fishermen communities, and the sea is their playground, which gives them an advantage of understanding the waves better than anyone else, and that’s how they pick up sport very easily.”
All of them accompany their parents in the morning to fish in wooden boats and when the boat is pulled apart to dry, Mumu along with his friends takes a plank and skids into the sea. These planks are similar to boogie (body) boards.
Mumu (36) dropped out of school and did odd jobs, such as working in restaurants, cleaning homes, toilets and more. He hated his life and decided to pursue surfing seriously, but no one gave him a board. “I approached foreigners who came here to surf and most of them said no. It’s only after I got my first board, I realised why. They are not only expensive but delicate. If anything happened to the board, fixing it would be impossible as we didn’t get raw materials in India then,” he said.
Two foreigners left their boards behind, and one of his friends took them and used to give them on hire. However, it wasn’t easy to afford one. A Japanese surfer wanted to sell his board before leaving and when Mumu asked him for it, he said, “I am not giving it away, I am selling it.” He managed to gather ₹1,500 by borrowing from friends and family and told the Japanese surfer that this is all he has. The surfer then laughed and said, “A leash costs that much, but I will give this board to you for this price. I wanted you to earn the board and understand the value of it.” This board has been passed on for generations and now stands as a signboard outside Mumu surf school. He lets the children borrow boards from his shosp in return for cleaning the beach. That’s how the surfing culture began.
However, this struggle continues as everyone does odd jobs to be able to afford a second-hand board, and maintaining them is harder. All these surfers start their day at 3:00 am with fishing, followed by surfing if the tide is good, and if not, they finish school and other chores before hitting the water.
Nitish and his cousin Sanjay almost always surf together. He said, “Sometimes when I am sleepy, Sanjay comes and pulls me out of bed. And we go surfing. We always push each other to do better.” While their only access to a coach is the older generation who monitor them, they take the help of YouTube, photos and videos of their practice to improve their skills and do better the following day. Áine Edwards, an Irish lady who has been living here since 2011, works closely with the kids by taking videos of their practice sessions, which they review every day. Paneerselvam says, “While there is a lot of potential for these kids to do well, they need a coach to help them make it big. Until then, they can only enter local competitions.”
While they work hard on trying different stunts and their favourite aerials, many times, they end up damaging their board. Nitish said, “It takes 3-4 days to fix a board, which means no surfing. Instead, as a quick fix, we use tape to mend the board and continue surfing. I love surfing so much that I fake stomach pain or some illness to escape school and go surfing. It means the world to me.”
In this big group of boys, there’s one girl from the village, Kamali (11), who skates and surfs. She started when she was eight, under her uncle Santosh’s training. Surfers have their own beliefs.
Kamali pulled up her trousers to show her anklet and said, “Every surfer has a shell either around their ankle or neck. It is a sign of respect for the sea. Some also believe that this helps ward off evil eyes.”
When one spends time with the surfers, they are in for a lot of trivia about the sea, animals and more. They said that when a dolphin is seen travelling south, it means the sea is rough, and that week the waves are rough, but they love it.
The tougher the waves, the better it is for practice. Most of these boys dream of being able to surf in Bali or Hawaii one day