The best surfers from India will convene at this competition in Covelong, near Chennai

Fans of The Covelong Point Surf, Music and Yoga Festival might have to wait a year or two before the popular carnival by the beach makes a comeback. But serious surfing enthusiasts have no time to waste as Covelong Classic at Surf Turf kicks off next week. Taking place between August 9 and 11, the Indian National Surf and SUP Championship 2021, will see best surfers from around the country in participation.

“It is a Surfing Federation of India event. We are trying to do it differently this time by following the World Surfing League format,” says Arun Vasu, president of Surfing Federation of India, partner Surf Turf and one of the sponsors for the event. The idea is to get more serious now that surfing is part of the Olympics as well, he says.

The older events had about 200 surfers and various categories like U-17 and Masters because the idea was to encourage people to come out and surf.

“Now we want the best of the best and we want to strengthen them so they win more competitions abroad,” adds Arun. For the upcoming competition, there are 60 participants so far, registered from Covelong, Puducherry, Rameshwaram, Mamallapuram, Mangaluru, Goa and parts of Kerala among others. Given the pandemic-related restrictions, the event will focus only on national participation. Unfortunately, it is also not open to spectators this year.

Categories include Boys — Under 15 and Girls — Under 15, and Open categories for both, for ages 16 and above. For stand up paddling, the distance is six kilometres for men and two or three kilometres for women. Winners will get ₹40,000. There are also prizes for the top five finishers. “We are going to have a talent watch and identify two to three new surfers. The SFI will take them on and train them,” says Vasu. Post that they will get to participate in the Asian Surfing Circuit that takes place in Bali, and countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Japan. The best from that lot will then qualify for the next level which is the World Surfing League.