The Shaka Surf Club is extremely happy to announce that we are now partnering with an organisation called Project Swim International, in an effort to educate local communities in water safety, and prevent the number of drowning deaths in India.

We recently had a group of PSI volunteers – American Red Cross Lifeguards from Tuscon, Arizona - who visited us in Manipal, and trained us in Surf Rescue, First Aid and CPR. During their visit, we also conducted a Water Safety Education Program in a local college to a group of nearly 40 students, which was a big success!

We even got the opportunity to record a show about water safety on Manipal Radio 90.4 FM- a community radio station that broadcasts programs to smaller towns within 30 kms distance from Manipal!

Big Thanks to the Project Swim International team – Ben Schaub, Nicole Manuel, Jenna Lee Curtis and Kelsey Didier – for all your help! We are excited about taking your work forward in India

Check out more pictures of their visit here.

TUSHAR AND ISHITA

Seems like we’re in the business of shocking the villagers of Kodi Bengre. First they knew us as the fools who went swimming in the ocean and surfed big waves. Then, we were the fools who converted a 30 year old abandoned bar, into a surf shack. Now, we’re responsible for creating a new landmark in the village!

Ever since we set up the shaka shack, we had been dreaming of painting a surf mural on one if its walls. Call it coincidence or destiny, we recently had the good fortune of meeting an amazingly talented graffiti artist from Serbia, named Artez, who just so happened to be doing an internship in Manipal!

We were stoked to have found an artist and he was even more stoked to have found an empty wall! Over the course of three days, we watched his ideas come to life as he painted from sunrise to sunset (occasionally taking a break to go surf of course!) and realized the truth in his painting : Our roots are in the ocean!

Thank you Artez for making our wall look so awesome! It looks better than we could have ever imagined!

For those of you want to check out more of Artez’ graffiti, click here!

ISHITA

TUSHAR

TUSHAR AND ISHITA

Watch videos 1 & 2 to see how it all went down!

Okay, so turns out, it wasn’t poisonous, but it was a PYTHON!!! We were pretty stoked that we were able to get it into the garbage can. And from the looks of it, it didn’t seem like it could get out of the garbage can!

So, for the rest of the day, our shack became a mini-zoo and we had kids and families, all coming by to see the village python! But, the story doesn’t end there!!! No No No!!

The plan was to bring it back to Manipal in the evening and set it free in the valley behind our building. But, before we did that, Tushar wanted to see it feed on something. So, we had another brilliant idea to bring it home! .. Yes.. Home!! By the time we got back, it was a little too late and we figured we’d just set it free in the morning.

So, before I sat down to write this very blog post, I went to the hall to ask Tushar to come up with a title for the video. This is how our conversation played out:

Ishita: “Dude! What should I name the video?”

Tushar: “I dunno! Why don’t you ask the python?”

Both our heads turn towards the garbage can…

Tushar: “Dude! Why is it outside?”

Seconds later…

Ishita: “#@*^!!  #@*^!!  #@*^!!  #@*^!!  #@*^!!”

Tushar:”#@*^!!  #@*^!!  #@*^!!  #@*^!!  #@*^!!”

Remember how we mentioned earlier that the snake couldn’t get out of the can? Well, WE WERE WRONG!!!

The python was actually sitting on top of the can, because “SOMEONE” left the lid slightly open so it wouldn’t suffocate to death!

It wasn’t moving much, so Tushar grabbed a broom and tried pushing it back into the can! Before we knew it, it jumped on the floor and was running all over the place! Do you have any idea how scary it is to watch a python running free in your house???!!

Tushar tried catching it with two sticks, but everything was slippery! The floor was slippery, the brooms were slippery, the damn snake was slippery… And then just like that, Tushar was possessed by Steve Irwin’s spirit and he decided,

“to hell with the brooms, I’m gonna catch it with my hand!”

And like a pro, he first pinned its head to the ground with a stick, sneaked up behind it, grabbed it by its neck and then safely returned it to its garbage can!!!!

He friggin grabbed the friggin python!!! If you’re wondering what I was doing all this while… I was watching from a safe distance haha!!

What a CRAZY DAY! Wish we could have gotten a video of the madness at home

ISHITA

TUSHAR AND ISHITA

Summer’s here and the schools are closed for summer vacation. There’s nothing better than having the Kodi Bengre kids surf with us almost everyday now. It’s been seven months since they started surfing and they’ve already improved so much! For starters, no one uses the life jacket anymore!

I still remember the day we first took 11 year old surfer girl Tejaswini surfing. She couldn’t swim and was terrified of being in the water. She’s come such a long way since then. It felt SO GOOD today to watch her grab a board and paddle into the waves on her own, without even looking back to check if we were watching. She caught some epic waves and looked so cool doing it! I can’t tell you how happy it made us

She’s such a fighter too. No matter how badly she wipes out, she hops back on her board and paddles in for another wave. I love that about her! Did you know she also ranked first in her class this semester? SO PROUD of her!

ISHITA

The event was a huge success! Not only did we score some epic pictures, but we were also able to spread the stoke of surfing to a whole new group of people. Not many Indians know that you can surf in India. We hope that by organizing similar events in the future, this will slowly change.

To see all the other entries, CLICK HERE

Shaka!
TUSHAR

This past week was amazing for us. We got to hang with Aussie pro surfer CHIPPA WILSON and his film crew- STEFAN HUNT, RUSSEL BROWNLEY and JOSH SECOMB, while they filmed what’s going to be the best campaign FCS has ever seen!

Fortunate fools that we are, Tushar and I got to accompany the crew to Kerala, to scout some bigger waves (and we did it in style! First class yow!)

I guess praying to the Surf Gods helped because not only did our train arrive on time, but the waves were pumping at ED’s local break. This was no ordinary morning. Picture Ed, Tushar and I hooting and screaming from behind the scenes as we watched Chippa land some insane airs. We were living life in HD!

As if watching him wasn’t enough, Tushar even got to surf Chippa’s board! He caught one awesome ride and that was enough to make his trip. I wasn’t so lucky. Does catching two half waves count as one? I guess it was a little reassuring to know that even Chippa was finding it a bit hard to surf those waves. He still surfed like a pro!

Just so you know how crazy it was, this is how many boards we damaged that day:

Chippa- broke 2 boards beyond repair.

Tushar- broke a nose off Ed's board and lost a fin off another one.

Ishita- chipped off a chunk of the board rail.

EPIC TIMES!

After an awesome night in Kerala it was time to say bye to Ed, Sofie and their ambassador and head back to Manipal to film Chippa with the Kodi Bengre surf crew.

The kids were super stoked because they got to bunk school and be in the video. Obviously they or their parents had no idea who Chippa was. So we told them he was Australia’s surfing Sachin Tendulkar! That did the trick.

Just mucking around in the water with everyone, has got to be one of the best sessions we’ve had at Kodi Bengre. Chippa even got our 5 yr old grommet Dixit to catch a couple of waves. Never seen the kid more stoked!

Going in for this experience, we had no idea what to expect, but after hanging with these guys for just a couple of days we found them to be some of the most genuine and down to earth people we’d ever met. We’re so stoked we got to hang out with these legends. It made us wonder if the rest of the surfing world is just like them

ISHITA

 RBUMZCYZFFN8

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