The Surfing Trip- Chennai!
Hello all!
This is a short post on my recent trip to Chennai which I undertook in the last week of December with the sole purpose of improving my surfing skills.
It was around November end when I thought it would be nice to solo travel after a 4 year gap and in the process take up something which I had always wanted to learn more. Surfing was the first thing that came to my mind. I had seen a surf school in Pondicherry, hence I knew that surfing wasn’t an outlandish choice. What followed was a search for the best surf spots in India. (not abroad because even Sri Lanka — arguably amongst the best surf spots in Asia, would have been tad too expensive for my budget and slightly more cumbersome with all the Covid guidelines in place). I finally narrowed down to Kovalam (Covelong beach) near Chennai, mostly because of the large number of surf schools present in the area (an indicator of perennial decent waves ), and much lower covid cases in Tamil Nadu as compared to Kerala,which boasted a few good spots itself. No sooner had I finalised the location, I booked my hotel, flight tickets and started “the prep”.
The prep:
I had done surfing before once in Israel so I had a fair idea of what I was in for. And I remembered very clearly the physical demands of the sport and the need to improve my pop-up (the act of taking the standing position on the surfboard). With these two in mind, I hit the gym fairly regularly trying to increase both my strength and stamina. I even looked up the RedBull website to see some of the main exercises to prepare well for surfing. (do check it out if you are into adventure sports. Quite neat)
To learn more on surfing techniques, I was able to find many online videos by surf schools mainly operating in Costa Rica like Barefoot Surf and Surf Simply. They gave a proper breakdown of the physics involved in surfing and some home practice lessons. My flatmates were amused to find tape ridden all over my home exercise mat marking the positioning of my pop-up.
No prep is complete without a book. So I parallely also started reading the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life” by William Finnegan. It’s a beautiful memoir which details his tryst with surfing since he was a child. Reading the book forced me to increase my surfing knowledge and pick up some of the jargon used in the sport.
At the end of the day, I wasn’t just trying to learn the sport, but dive deep into the world of surfing and understand about the ways of the sport. Every time you take up a new activity that is totally unrelated to what you have ever done before, you enter an entirely new world. You realise that there are so many beautiful things in life that you don't know about and they are all there waiting to be experienced.
It’s similar to learning a new language. Suddenly the movies, the books, the news in that language, which felt alien and incomprehensible, open up to you like never before.
The real deal:
I stepped out on the tarmac at Chennai airport and was greeted by the humid but cool breeze. Having reached a little later that afternoon, I decided to go surfing the next morning. For the evening, I decided to explore the Kovalam village (the village next to the sea which houses most of the surf schools in the area).
Going into Kovalam village felt like stepping onto foreign land. There was a village fair that day. Not much different from other village fairs I had seen except for the variety of seafood. It was not surprising (I was after all, in a fishing village) but it still freaked me out.
What unnerved me and made the village even scarier were the stares from the villagers. I had obviously ventured too deep into the village looking for a beach-side cafe. Google Maps could only help me to an extent because the path wasn’t really mapped out, so I had just entered the village with a rough idea of where I was going. I had built this fantastical image of sipping cold coffee looking out into the Bay of Bengal with waves gently washing the East coast. That did not materialise. With the receding daylight and the sharp stares, I had lost my courage and decided to turn back to the main highway. The village visit was enough adventure for the day.
First Surfing session (accompanied by a lot of pain)
The next morning was my first session with the wonderful instructors at the Ocean Delight Surf School. I told them that I had done a session before in Israel so my instructor, Venky asked me to do some warmup pop-ups. With a few tips on my stance, we were quickly out in the water.
So surf coaching works like this: You are taken 20–30 ft. off the shore and the instructor pushes into the wave and you are asked to stand on the surfboard to perfect your pop-up technique. On my first day, I was able to stand up and ride on the wave for a decent amount of time till the wave died. So I basically spent the day trying to improve my pop-up technique until it became natural. The coach also instructed me to try the chicken-wing popup technique instead of the standard pushup because I seemed to be taking a longer time with the normal technique. It was a good change and I was able to catch waves much better after that.
However, my coach felt that I was a bit too tense and rigid. He was right. I recall that when I went surfing for the first time in Tel Aviv I was completely relaxed. Even just paddling out into the ocean felt exhilarating because it was my first time. However, I had come here with all this prep, videos under my belt and was ultra-focussed on trying to learn as much as possible in the time span of 3.5 days. The expectation of trying to maximise my learning in this time frame was making me rigid. I took some deep breaths and tried to be more present, soaking in the scenery around me and be more relaxed and fluid with my movements. I was after all on a holiday, trying to learn a sport which gave me this wonderful chance to be so close to nature.
At the end of the morning session (2 hrs), almost every part of my body was asking for rest. I had planned to do an evening round as well but had soon realised that I might push my body to the extent that I won’t be able to surf the next day. So that was it for day 1.
Day 2:
Today we started the same practice of doing our pop-ups. It was in the last hour that I had the most fun. I asked the instructor to let me go out into the water (50–60 metres off the shore) and try to catch the waves all by myself. That would mean paddling out deeper into the ocean, readying yourself at the line-up, picking up the right wave and once you have decided to go for it, then paddling hard to catch the momentum of the wave to be able to ride it.
For most of the time, I was wiped out with some near misses. But for a couple of big waves, I was able to actually ride the wave! And to be able to do this on my 2nd day! The thrill was unmatchable!! The feeling that one gets when you are finally up on the wave is completely undescribable. You lay on the board glancing over your shoulder to watch for the wave coming in behind you. You start paddling to the front as hard as possible to match the momentum of the wave coming in behind you. You can feel the wave lifting you up and pushing you forward with its energy. At this moment, you push yourselves on the board and voila! You are finally riding the wave.
I was so motivated and full of adrenaline rush that I had made up my mind to come back for the evening session this time around and catch a higher percentage of waves. But nature had other plans. It rained heavily along the coast of Northern Tamil Nadu and a red alert was issued. Both Kovalam and Mahabalipuram were now out of options for surfing in the remaining 1.5 days.
Off- surfing activities:
I wasn’t going to let the rains play spoilsport to my trip so I decided to visit Mahabalipuram for a day. Mahabalipuram is a renowned UNESCO World Heritage site and was a major port for the Pallava dynasty that ruled over most of South India during 6th century BC.
I had actually secretly hoped that the conditions might be slightly better there to catch some waves (I had packed my surfing bag with me). However, that did not work out. Nevertheless, I was able to see some of the most beautiful monuments built by the Pallavas.
Mahabalipuram is famous for its 3 locations- Krishna’s butter ball, the Pancha Rathas and the Shore Temple. I found the Shore temple was the most exquisite of them all.
It was fascinating to see the rock carvings done on the temples. In fact President Xi Jinping was invited by PM Narendra Modi for an informal summit to watch these 3 sites. The Pallavas were a major trading partner for the Chinese and many believe that to be the major reason for the Indian Govt’s. decision to host the Chinese Premier here in 2019.
In fact as I stood at the Mahabalipuram beach, I could not help but think that this was the exact same coastline which was battered by the 2004 Indian Tsunami. The places where I was standing were the places where there were waves 50ft high on that fateful night of 26th Dec 2004.
Many of the tour guides told of how they just managed to save themselves and others from the coast in the nick of time. Everyone I met in the town, from the taxi drivers to the tourist guides, had their own story of how the tsunami affected them and their beautiful town.
Epilogue
I think any new activity we take up is after all an attempt to get a new perspective. Having started my prep almost a month back, it helped me dive into the world of surfing and feel more connected with what it is I was trying to do. Understanding about the boards, the importance of weather conditions (made doubly aware by the 2 days of rain and heavy wind at Chennai) and the general capabilities required to become a good surfer. While meeting the instructors for surfing; we asked them about their journeys- how did they start about surfing, wave conditions, other activities and sports they took up. Handling surfboards, from carrying them on our heads to placing them across the surf school’s yard, learning some surfing lingo made me feel a bit more connected to that way of living.
Solo trips are different in their own way because they are not vacations. A lot of days you can feel defeated and tired just by navigating everything by yourself. However, you get to explore places you wouldnt otherwise in a group setting. I was especially glad to be able to visit Mahabalipuram, listen to the stories from the people affected by the tsunami and learn some history along the way.
I believe the beauty of solo trips lies in the fact that it makes you a tiny bit wiser about the world and slightly more confident about yourself.
I feel incredibly lucky for the fact that I was able to undertake this trip and come back in 1 piece. Moreover, I was elated that India had such wonderful locations for surfing especially for beginners and intermediates. Hopefully many more people will take notice and try out this wonderful sport.
Thank you
