Surfing Business
How about leaving the usual office set-up and have meetings on the beach! Yes, beach and that too in an exciting way! How about taking on those massive waves and ride them effortlessly, just like movies. MICEtalk brings an ultimate joyride experience of surfing on Indian waves and options to play around with.
The minute someone utters ‘Surfing’, the first thing your mind hits is Hollywood where bronzed youngsters take on the waves on the beaches of Hawaii, Australia, Mexico or California. But when one has only a weekend, it’s not possible to visit those countries, so how about getting on the surf boards on Indian waves? Well, wave hello to The Shaka Surf Club, located just 20 minutes from Manipal on a lazy coastal village. The club guarantees that in no real time you will be standing upright on the surfing board and catching that perfect wave. Started last year as a passion of two young surfers, Tushar Pathiyan and Ishita Malaviya, the Club offers beginner level surf lessons with some great team-building activities to know your fellow colleague in a better way. All you need to know is swimming and being comfortable with water and yes, booking well in advance and avoid monsoons.
Starting at around 1000 per person per lesson (includes transfers from Manipal, equipment, surf boards, board shorts and t-shirts), which lasts for three hours, it will ideally take ten lessons for a person to be well trained in surfing, informs Tushar. In fact, the club also provides advanced level courses conducted by experienced international surfers travelling to India. He further informed, “Surfing is a fun sport though it’s still new to India and Indians. Through a small community of surfers, we are popularising the sport in this country. With online marketing tools like facebook and sales channels like interested travel agents and even few corporate travel operators, we are slowly building our market.”
Surfing paradise
India is slowly becoming a surfer’s paradise due to some obvious reasons like warm water, empty beaches for surfing and having more than 7000 km coastline. Indians are still newcomers to the joy of surfing on the ocean waters, and thus, surfing schools like The Shaka Surf Club are making an effort to make this sport popular in the country.
After training over 200 surfers of different age and nationalities, the company is now expanding horizons with next season. Starting September this year, it will also offer camping on the beach facility for the surfers, enabling water lovers to be close to the beach. There are also spa properties available at short distance from the beach for reliving the senses.
So, are you ready to be a surfing pioneer in Indian waters? It’ll be an adventure and a business holiday that combines beautiful locations, team building exercises, health benefits and the great outdoors. It’s surely worth a try.