One is never too old or too young to learn new skills, especially when the activity involves water, beaches and huge waves. The White Collar Hippie understands this only too well says Anjum Chevalwala.
While the thefreedictionary.com is pleased to describe ‘surfing’ as the act of riding on the crest or tunnel of a wave especially while standing or lying on a surfboard. However, the White Collar Hippie has a fun new description.
They like to call it – standing on a surfboard, riding a little wave and not falling, looking stupid and most importantly, not drowning. Sounds simple? While this might not be the case, they promise that by the end of the course, you will be able to stand on a surfboard correctly and catch a wave. Not falling flat on your face while doing so is just a little bonus, we think.
White Collar Hippie organises three-day surfing trips for beginners, the earliest one being on 30th November until 2nd December, 2012. The surfers-in-training stay at ‘The Blue Matsya’ – a charming little beach house in a town near Manipal on the Konkan coast. The crash course includes both theory lessons in the morning and practical training sessions in the evening. The theory bit comprises of fun lessons like basic safety rules and observation of the waves.
Why should one spend time studying surfing in theory rather than jumping head first into the water? Plainly, it will help you understand all the technical aspect of the spot- the ocean currents and the waves, their magnitude and force, surfing techniques, essential gear and basic safety rules as well as survival measures in cases of emergency (read: in case you’re drowning because you tried to act all cool). Moreover, the whole ritual builds up a lot of excitement for the evening practical lessons.
Excited yet? The best is yet to come. The advantage of this trip is that the Shaka Surf Club (SSC for short), a group of professional surfers, will train everyone. So you don’t need to worry about safety and proficiency. For the same reason, they also make it very clear that they would prefer people with at least basic swimming knowledge enrol for class.
After the fun filled evening at the beach, everybody can sit around a bonfire marinating a barbeque and share their travelling stories. If you feel like being evil and want to add to some mystery to the whole experience, perhaps you could look up some spooky surfing stories and share them instead.
Once you accomplish this, on your way back, do a little happy dance because you survived it all and can strike off ‘become the coolest surfer’ from your bucket list. Sush! No one needs to know that you probably did look stupid while attempting to surf. Keep it under wraps and flaunt your new skills to the hilt, we say.
For more details on the event, click here.
