Surfing in Mulki

We are staying at the Hare Krishna Ashram a.k.a. Ashram Surf Retreat for the past 2 days (20-Sep-2011 to 21-Sep-2011). The wife wanted to learn surfing.

It’s amazing how much surfing is picking up in India especially with a lot of surfing, including competitions, happening in Mahabalipuram.

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Take a small boat to cross the river to the beach on the other side. Because of this barrier, there is nobody else on the beach other than the occasional local fishing for food for his family.

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Taking out the surfboards:

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And here start’s the first lessons, and boy, is getting on the board and paddling much harder than it looks:

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Our coach Satya, all of 18 years, then explained a few principles of waves and how to stand up on the surf board, which almost seems insane to do for a beginner:

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Surfer chick!

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Here comes the scary part, getting into the ocean!

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After one go at it, the surfing terminology and “this is what I meant” guru-shishya chatter started:

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And then another go and another one…

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At the end of the day, this was the result :

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When we got back to the ashram, Satya cracked open a coconut and Sharvari gulped in glee and in satisfaction after a hard day of surfing lessons.

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We finished day 1 with watching Step into Liquid surfing movie. And day 2, Sharvari went at it again!

Special thanks to the Ashram members – Satya, Dhruva, Shyam, Kishore and Nataraja for their hospitality and company in these couple of days.

Update: Here’s a video of Satya surfing the waves:

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Jamie Larson
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