My First Never-to-be-forgotten Surfing Experience

Ever since I was a child, surfing has been a dream of mine.?

I am from Bangalore, too far from the sea (at least 6-7 hrs by car) and my chances of visiting the beach weren’t frequent. At the end of 2021, with a drop of Covid cases, the world slowly started getting back to the routine. After spending months with my parents at home, I thought this would be the right time to take a workation.

A friend of mine referred me to ‘KADAL Surf School’ on the west coast of India at Malpe. The school focuses on water adventure sports especially surfing, stand-up paddling, and kayaking.

Long story short, I decided to take up an advanced surfing certificate course at KADAL. The course duration was for 28 days.?

I can proudly say that my instructor ‘Tanvi Jagadish’ had represented India in SUP World CUP, 6X SUP National Champion, ISA Certified Instructor & top 3 in Asian SUP Cup, and ‘Rohan R Suvarna’ a super passionate surfing instructor.

How can I skip without talking about the location, Malpe is a beautiful beach town in the Udupi district, which is surrounded by stunning Islands, beautiful backwaters, magnificent waterfalls, lush green forests, and the majestic ancient temples of Udupi. Malpe is one of the prominent and safest beaches of coastal Karnataka.

My new routine during the workation

I usually find it easy to adapt to a new location, food, and people. I did stay along with the team for the entire 28 days course. The team was kind enough to give me a cycle for my internal commute.?

My day goes like,?

·??????I rise at 6 AM and Pull-on my surf suits

·??????Cycle to the beach?

·??????Relish surfing from 7 AM to 9 AM

·??????Cycle back home?

·??????Take a shower

·??????Sit to Work with my breakfast plate

·??????During evenings, cycle to the nearby beaches and watch the sunset

·??????Have dinner and back to bed at 10 PM

I am a night person and my sleep routine was a mess before I came here. It was a bit challenging to regularise it initially, but later my body clock did it naturally. . I was able to wake up without an alarm.

Soft-top surfboards are fun to handle

Along with me, there were a few more surf students. We had a fantastic coach who explained the basics of the sport detailing the accessories being used to do the same. He introduced the surfboard and illustrated how to get acquainted with it. He also made us familiar with the different parts of the surfboard.

He taught us how the body posture should be when to pop up, how to catch waves, and all the other related details. My enthusiasm grew as he kept on explaining.

All that I noticed, was there was a pack of action which has to happen in split seconds, doubting myself if I could do it.

Baby Steps in the water

After 30 minutes of a theory session and a quick warm-up, we were asked to put up our leash and get into the sea.?It was a vast sea with a pleasant sunrise. The moment I stepped into the cold sea was thrilling and magical, for I had realized my childhood dream becoming a reality.?

Overlooking the sun about to rise, we paddled on the surfboard to the depth of the sea.?We had to wait for a bit to catch the waves.?Usually, the beginner boards tend to be long and thick. For me, initially, it was difficult to handle it in water. But on the bright side, you will feel powerful after nailing it!

Struggles with pop-up

Popping up on the surfboard is one of the critical areas of surfing. While practicing it on the ground, it was smooth but in water, I never thought it would be that hard for me to reach the center of the board. My feet would always reach as far as right behind the middle line of the board, which made me fall. Sometimes, I stood on the rails of the board which flips the board to the water.

I did practice pop-ups before sleep and before my class started. Also, watching some online surfing videos gave a better picture of how to stand on the board. It helped me to get the right posture on the board. Therefore, I recommend you do so before your first surfing experience.

Falling is not failing, Learned Lessons

The waves were unpredictable. it was a bit of a task to glide with them on the board. It takes a lot of patience and coordination to surf.

Many times, the timing was not accurate enough, other times it was hard to maintain the position and gain balance on the board. Catching on the wave, changing the position, and balancing on the board should happen at the same time. It took me almost a week to adapt to this technique.?I would say ‘Timing is everything in surfing’.

Finally, I was on cloud nine after multiple trials and errors, I caught a huge wave, which I was sure could take me to the shore.?

Moving along with the wave, on top of the board, with the abundance of water beneath is a great feeling.?The sound of splashing water when the nose of the board hits the wave surface. With the speed of the board gliding on the wave and the wind on your face, for a second it felt like I was flying, and when I reached the sand my face ached from smiling so much.?As it sounds, it is truly an incomparable feeling when you are completely in sync with a force?

Advancing the technique

Well,?after getting hold of back-to-back waves, my instructor focused on fine-tuning my paddling posture and spotting waves on my own.

Paddling is another crucial part of surfing. To catch a wave, you have to paddle hard enough to match the momentum of the wave. Also, it needs to be on the right proposition. If it’s less or more, you would end up missing the wave or overtaking the wave (waste of energy). Paddling requires a lot of muscle power.

Spotting wave is not an easy task, as it sounds to be. Waves are extremely confusing. You spot a wave expecting it to rise, it gets flat. Sometimes they revise. Sometimes they are choppy, sometimes they are too rough, and sometimes super flat. As a surfer, it’s important to spot the right wave and a chance to think it through is rare, every second we hesitate to catch the wave is a lost game.

Another important part of surfing is falling off the board when nearing the shore.?We have to pick the right depth that is not shallow enough to hurt ourselves. The fall in itself should be sidewise covering the head with arms to protect any head injury and this has to become a habit of surfer. But I was personally a bit lethargic on this.??

All these are a bit challenging but not impossible, it did come with practice. The tempo and learning to feel the sea and understand your board is a long process that includes plenty of falls and rolls under the water. But it’s worth it!https://youtu.be/UqQ50cZ-_eU

Final Thoughts

The strange thing about the sea is that you lose track of time. My session time is 2hours per day, but each day feels like an eternity and not enough time. Similarly, my 28 days of the course also passed swiftly.?

This was one of the best 28 days of my life. What made it even better was the people involved: the team members are highly welcoming and friendly and didn’t ’t patronize even if I had never surfed before.?

While leaving Malpe, I did not just earn advanced surfing certification but also a bunch of friends.?I couldn’t recommend surfing enough. It is a wonderful experience, and I think everyone should try it at least once. It is difficult, and you may not get it straight away, but once it clicks there’s no stopping you.