Board Sport Event: India Surf Festival 2015 to begin in Feb
The India Surf Festival, now in its fourth year, taking place from the 6-8th of February at Ramchandi Beach, Puri-Konark Marine Drive, Odisha; is all set to break the boundaries of art, adventure and music. The festival is all about showing the worldwide audience its massive potential for board sport activities such as surfing, kite- surfing; Stand up Paddling (SUP) and long boarding (Skate)
Amongst other activities it features a SUP Cup competition with $1,000 USD prize money, the Yoga on Water and Yoga on the Beach workshops, a long boarding workshop, kite-surfing performances, the Hungry Lens photography event, art and music performances and much more. One highlight of the festival is the game of SUP Ball, with India being the third country in the world to have witnessed the game only after Australia and The UK.
The support of Odisha Tourism department has given additional strength to the event, which has already garnered a reputation of being one of the premiere festivals of India.
According to India Surf Festival’s founder Sanjay Samantaray, surfing in India started in 2010 with a hand full of guys surfing along the 7000 km coastline of India. In 2012 ISF created history in making a small and humble beginning to bring together Indian surfers on one platform and invited the foreign surfing community to help kick-start the movement. Since then surfing in India has taken a new leap and identification as a life style sport, with SUP and kite boarding leading the way to inspire the people of India to experience and learn the art of playing with water.
“The mission is to make people realize the importance of low-impact water sports and to make it an open festival and not make it limited to just the sports enthusiasts” said Sanjay Samantaray, Founder of India Surf Festival
Speaking on the occasion, CEO of Mindfire Solutions, the main sponsor, Mr. Chinmoy Panda said “We are proud to be associated with ISF and sponsor the festival this time. The festival offers a perfect gateway for our creative developers and designers. Our people are all excited to be part of this surfing festival.”
This ISF festival kicks off with a Girl power workshop by3 women surfers from Portugal,to be held on 31st of January 2015 at Rangers Adventure Foundation, Puri-Konark Marine Drive.ISF Girl Power is an initiative of India Surf Festival to empower women in India by involving them in adventure, art and music.Adding girl power to the team is Nikkie Gargi from Bhubaneswar who is busy making paintings for the festival and will exhibit her work during the 3 days.
What’s more unique about this festival is the design and installation of ISF that is made from natural materials and involves manpower from surrounding villages. Materials like bamboo, jute, cloth, coconut ropes and wood will be widely used in building the festival.
India Surf Festival 2015 is poised to be included in the Asian Surfing Championship (ASC) tour, a move that would not only catapult Ramchandi beach and the long Odisha coastline into the global surfing map but also project the State among hottest world surf tourism destinations.
India Surf Festival is sponsored/supported by Mindfire Solutions (main sponsor), Odisha tourism board, Prelude (event partner), Outlook Traveller (magazine partner), My life on board (sports partner), NRS (Gear Partner), Nalco (Outreach Partner), Travel link (Travel Partner), Yummyies (Food Partner) and other local partners
India Surf Festival is the only festival in India, which presents the popular beach culture of the west and has grown into a unique annual event in India.