Every wave has a life, an energy of its own. It rises time and again, gathering strength, and as it travels, for a fleeting moment, presents two choices to the person waiting to dip their toes — the urge to dive in or step back. For those who choose the latter, the wave passes, leaving behind only its vibrations, a moment’s memory. But for those who choose to dive in, its energy often keeps pulling them back to the ocean.
For a growing group of women surfers along Chennai and its neighbouring coastal towns, the sea has become more than a place to experience the waves. It is a space they are attempting to claim. In that process, as more women enter the water, they are confronting layers of lacking — from basic facilities and cultural acceptance to the absence of enough women role models to show them that this is a sport they can belong to.
For 16-year-old Kamali Moorthy from Mahabalipuram, the women surfing today are standing on a path created by an older generation that ventured into the ocean when surfing was barely a practised sport in India. “The older generation has carved a good path for us to not have any challenges right now,” she says. “Their competing and travelling to other cities and countries made people aware of the existence of surfing in India.”
Chennai-based Devi Ramanathan, who was also inspired by watching women with surfboards riding waves, adds, “I was inspired by a few [women surfers], and then they were inspired by a few before. But I wouldn’t say it’s been going on for many generations.”
One among the many who made surfing an attainable dream for girls and women in Chennai and Tamil Nadu, was 29-year-old Shrishti Selvam. She made a conscious decision to shift her base to Kovalam seven years ago. “Back then, surfing wasn’t a sport like how it is now. It was still very wild, and to see girls do it and have a passion for something so out of the ordinary was very inspiring, and it kind of validated my passion and told me that I can do this too,” she says.
Today, her work, along with her peers’, lays the groundwork for the next generation that’s coming. “Younger girls will probably see us, and they’ll know that they too can represent India internationally through the sport. It’s not that we weren’t given the opportunities; there weren’t people before this who were doing it. And now that we have, we have gotten all these opportunities and this exposure mainly,” explains Shrishti.
A student herself, viewing the sport from a women’s lens, Shrishti, along with her partner, has started a surf school in Kovalam, Kove Surf & SUP School (@kove.surf on Instagram). This establishment stems from the need to have more surf schools for surfers to have a choice to learn, practice, and eventually participate in competition.
Competing concerns
Now that reaching the water is made possible by various schools, the facilities at the beach is a hindrance. Take Karikattu Kuppam for example. Here, women surfers do not have changing rooms, no proper washrooms, and limited facilities to manage the hours they spend in the water. “At Karikattu Kuppam, the garbage strewn across the grass makes us uncomfortable; we are pushed to stay in our wet clothes because of no changing rooms, leading to rashes since we surf for four to five hours,” Kamali says.
Overcoming the health concerns, women get tangled in societal standards. For Devi, the barrier lies in the beauty expectations placed on women. “The cultural difficulties that come with being a woman and being out in the sun for so long,” Devi says. The comments about skin colour are familiar. “Oh, you know, you’re so dark now,” is something she has heard several times. In a culture where women have often been subjected to meet beauty norms, choosing to spend hours in the ocean can itself become an act of defiance. Surfing, Devi says, is a “pretty stark sport to choose” within those expectations.
Even after making it into the water, women can encounter subtle differences. Devi says that some surfers, particularly when they know a woman is in the lineup, may give unsolicited advice or try to guide her because they assume she can’t surf. “Sometimes, because of that assimption, they end up taking the waves. Only if you keep catching waves can you learn. So if somebody doesn’t believe that, then they come in your way, then naturally, your progression is slow,” she says.
One of the biggest gaps remains in coaching. “We want women coaches, even if not for us, for the next generation, so they feel safer,” Kamali points out.
Shrishti estimates there are far more male coaches, many of them from fishing communities. “Because most of the surf instructors are from the fishing community, they are familiar with the moods of the water. Physical strength and knowledge of the ocean are already there. It’s very easy for them to both pick up the sport and also to become instructors,” she highlights. Most women who are in the surfing scene are from cities or from a lifestyle where they’re not exposed to the ocean. “So we’re still figuring out the safety aspects and taking care of ourselves in the ocean before we can take care of other people,” she adds.
The Surfing Federation of India has taken congnizance of this gap and is beginning to address it. Following the federation’s government recognition last year, bringing more women into surfing has become part of its mandate. “In the last two years, we have been pushing athletes,” says Arun Vasu, president of the Asian Surfing Federation and the Surfing Federation of India.
The federation has been conducting camps at the grassroots level as well as alongside annual competitions, he says. “The sport is changing; it is growing. I am confident that the sport, particularly women’s participation, will grow significantly over the next three to five years,” he notes.
For now, the women in the water are making space — sometimes where there is none — for those who will follow. “We have the ocean, now we just have to call it our own and settle despite the roadblocks and keep carving ways for challenges to wash away,” says Kamali. Because a wave always offers the same two choices: step back or dive in. It is just the beginning.