As the small motor boat carrying our boards glided over the serene Shyambhavi river, I finally took a deep breath. Finally a break. After a gruelling 6 month spree of work and hectic pointless weekends I took days off to finally visit Mantra surf club. I was planning this visit for years, when I finally got a chance for this solo trip. I had surfed before at Shaka surf club in 2013. This was my second foray into surfing. I also wanted to immerse into the Mantra way of life. I had signed up for 3 days of awesomeness, at the end of which I felt so fortunate to have experienced. Surfing, food, unique and very importantly stepping aside from the usual.
After a bad night of sleep in a bus from Bangalore to Mulki, I reached the Ashram at 7.30. Yes its a Surf Ashram, not a resort or a hotel. I checked into a nice clean room which accommodates 3 people, I was lucky that I got it entirely for myself. After a quick change and breakfast of bananas and pears, we got to the main event.
The schedule is flexible but usually goes like:
- Surfing from 7.30 – 11 (or till you get tired);
- Brunch 11.30 then siesta
- 4.30 ~ 6.30: Kayaking, Stand up paddling (you can also do some jet ski, wakeboarding, etc), but the main event is watching the beautiful sunset from the tiny dock
- Dinner 7.30
- Conversations with Guests who are from myriad backgrounds, countries and hold interesting views
So we begin day 1 - we took a boat ride through backwaters, walked through mangroves to ‘Swami’ beach. This beach was discovered by the 'Surfing Swami' Jack, the head of this Ashram. After the Ashram brought this place on the surfing spotlight with a surf competition a few years ago, its now being developed as a tourist spot by the local administration. My instructor for the next 3 days is Swami Sham who has been surfing for more than 13 years. We start with basic warm ups and yoga. Through my previous experience with surfing, I had retained my lessons on pop ups’ which is getting up from a laying down position to a standing / crouching position on the board aligned with its central line with proper weight distribution. You need to swivel your body, hips especially from a flat prone position to a crouch. Thats the whole point, but it takes practice to time your pop up, align your weight and shift your position in the rapidly moving water. The stylish low crouch that you must have seen in surfing photos do, is to keep you from majestically hitting the water, fun though as it is.The water temperature was perfect, and I mean the right hot and cold. The chest high water was clean, though wasn't transparent. Sham studied the waves and we waded to a point where the waves parted and was relatively calm, but we had to float or jump up when waves did come. I laid flat on the wide beginners board (damn! I wanted a narrower board,makes for cooler photos) and we waited for the first big wave to come through.
The first wave hit us fast and I caught it before I realised! The sheer thrill as the wave caught up to me and I was flying over the water was absolutely exhilarating, it was almost perfect except for the dismount. And I was hooked again. I caught many more, some long rides, some wipe outs. Every ride to the beach means a wade back lancing your board through waves, which takes work and quite a bit of paddling - I realised I was woefully short on stamina. Each wave I caught and ride made me go back, the adrenaline making the trudging wade and paddle back through crashing waves easy. I called it quits around 10.30 as I wanted to pace out my 3 days of fund rather than max out and lie in bed.
Oh and I realized I am a Goofy! One who surfs with his left leg back. Its an unconventional stance but it came natural to me.
Sham let me steer the boat (has an outboard motor) some of the way, and its pretty fun. Remember turning left makes the boat go right and vice versa, its difficult! When we headed back an amazing brunch was waiting. I was ravenous. Great food – idli, lemon rice, fruit juice, gulab jamun. I had mailed in advance of my peanut allergy which they gladly accommodated. The food was simple, tasty made with a lot of devotion to the Lord. A fellow guest from Brazil also liked the food a lot.
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| Simple Food on Day3 |
I slept like a log made out of lead ; I was sleep deprived and had just surfed 3 hours. Woke up late in the afternoon had a second helping of lemon rice. I headed up the small dock of the ashram with a a cup of tea to drink at. A sailboat was casting off in which a few guests and Swami took off. 5PM, time for kayaking or stand up paddling. I chose kayaking, while the Brazilian guest who was a seasoned stand up paddler (SUP) chose to do just that. I came back after 30 minutes for some more fruits, and went down to the dock to watch the beautiful sunset. The sailboat came in to dock. It was one of the best sunsets I have seen so far in my life.
Dinner was a sumptuous spread of fried sweet potato, vada, chapathi, veg curry, lemon rice. Some other guests joined us for great long conversations at the dinner table. Perfect end to day 1.
Link to Day 2 :Day 2 Blog
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