Indian Open Of Surfing: Top national surfers confirm participation in 3-day event

MANGALURU: Over 70 top surfers from across the country have confirmed their participation in the third edition of the Indian Open of Surfing-2022 in Karnataka.
The three-day competition will be hosted by the Mantra Surf Club at the Panambur Beach in Mangaluru in Dakshina Kannada district from May 27-29.

It is the most popular, well connected and the most visited beach of Karnataka.
The event is organised by the Surfing Federation of India (SFI) — the governing body for the sport of surfing and stand up paddling in India.
The premier surfing competition in India is recognised by the International Surfing Association — the global governing body for the sport.

Defending champions D Manikandan and Shrishti Selvam will also be seen in action to defend their titles over the weekend.
Arun Vasu, president of SFI, said “This edition of Indian Open will be more focused on having a structured contest based on the performances of the previous events. It is encouraging to see how the participation has spread across various places and not concentrated in one place.”
Surfers will compete in two disciplines — surfing & stand up paddling, across different categories which are: male open, female open, male and female groms (U – 16), Male 17+ surf.
Karnataka Tourism has come on board with the Indian Open of Surfing as the title partner, while Chennai based TT Group are the associate partner.
Action Camera majors GoPro are the action partners for the premier surfing competition.
“I don’t feel the pressure of defending the national title. I will be doing my best and concentrating on my performance for the surf contest,” said D Manikandan, defending national champion.
The defending National Women’s Champion Shrishti Selvam said, “It is going to be a tough and challenging field of surfers this year and I am happy that more women are participating in the sport. It will be a fun contest and I will be doing my best to defend the title."
Shanti Banarse of Goa and Sinchana Gowda of Karnataka will be the other top surfers competing for the title in the women’s category while Nithishvarun T and Babu Sivaraj of Tamil Nadu are expected to give a tough competition to D Manikandan for the Men’s title.
Kishore Kumar and Tayin Arun of Tamil Nadu are the favourites in the Groms (U16) category.