The third edition of the Indian Open Surfing or National Surfing Championship 2022 will be held at Panambur beach near Mangaluru for three days starting May 27, according to Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner K. V. Rajendra.
Over 70 top surfers from across India have confirmed their participation in the event, which is being organised by Surfing Federation of India and Mantra Surf Club and supported by the Department of Tourism of Karnataka.
The premier surfing competition of India is recognised by the International Surfing Association, the global governing body for the sport. National champions D Manikandan and Shrishti Selvam will defend their titles over the weekend.
Surfers will compete in two disciplines — Surfing and Stand Up Paddling —across different categories — Male Open, Female Open, Male and Female Groms (U – 16), Male 17 + Surf.
Arun Vasu, president of Surfing Federation of India, said: “This edition of Indian Open will be more focused on having a structured contest based on the performances of the previous events. It is encouraging to see how the participation has spread across various places and is not concentrated to one place.”
Champions & challengers
D. Manikandan, men’s national champion, said, “I don’t feel the pressure of defending the national title. I will be doing my best and concentrating on my performance.”
National women’s champion Shrishti Selvam said: “It is going to be a very tough and challenging field of surfers this year. I am happy that more women are participating in the sport. It will be a fun contest, and I will be doing my best to defend the title.”
Shanti Banarse of Goa and Sinchana Gowda of Karnataka will be the other top surfers competing for the title in the women’s category while Nithishvarun T. and Babu Sivaraj of Tamil Nadu are expected to give a tough competition to D Manikandan for the men’s title.
Kishore Kumar and Tayin Arun of Tamil Nadu are the favorites in the Groms (U 16) category.
The competitions will be held from 7 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. every day.
Surfing tourism has gone up 20x
Dr. Rajendra said that surfing will be one of the glamorous sports activities that will help to increase footfall of tourists in the coastal belt. The Department of Tourism will provide ₹15 lakh for the event.
“Organising the Indian Open Surfing in Mangaluru in 2017 led to a 20x growth in surfing tourism in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts,” he said.
