Top Indian surfers gear up for Indian Open

Mangalore, May 24 (IANS) Star Indian surfers including Ishita Malviya and Dharini Selvakumar will be seen riding the waves for the top slot in their respective categories during the second edition of the Indian Open of Surfing, which gets underway at Sasihithlu beach here from Friday.

Besides Malviya and Selvakumar, the other big Indian names in the premier competition include Sinchana Gowda, Aneesha Nayak, Manikandan and Sekar Pitchai along with Tanvi Jagadish.

The Indian surfers are expected to face stiff competition in their respective categories from their Australian, US and French counterparts in the three-day event.

Tanvi is a top-ranked Stand Up Paddler and will be the surfer to look out for at the event. She had recently achieved major international glory by emerging third in the Stand Up Paddling event at the West Marine Carolina Cup in the US.

Tanvi has been the national champion in the SUP surfing and SUP racing since 2014, and the 17-year-old Mangalore girl has been making waves on international shores as well.

Ishita Malaviya is India's first professional female surfer, who began surfing in 2007 after meeting a German exchange student.

She currently runs a surf club named the Shaka Surf Club as well as a camp called Camp Namaloha in Karnataka.

The 23 year-old Manikandan has achieved quite a lot in the sport of surfing. Coming from a small fishermen family in Tamil Nadu, he took up surfing about 10 years ago.

Murthy Megavan is India's top male surfer while Dharani Selvakumar, a computer science engineering graduate, turned his hobby into a profession.

The 23-year-old Dharini was the national champion at the Indian Open of Surfing in 2016.

Though the competition will see a few international surfers like Maldivian surfer Ismail Miguel in the open category, it will be interesting to see how the Indian surfers will raise the standard of the competition.