As one of India’s youngest surfers, Aneesha Nayak is riding the wave of success

It was love at first try for Aneesha Nayak when she first paddled her surfboard into the ocean at Mangalore. She started swimming from the age of four and started competitive swimming at 10. 

After years of swimming and training, Aneesha felt a sense of monotony and decided to take a two-month break from swimming. 

Before she took this break, she had her first tryst with surfing. Her swimming coach introduced her to the sport, and she learnt surfing at the Mantra Surf School in Mangaluru. 

Speaking about her first surfing experience, Aneesha says, “I went into the water and actually felt content, complete and connected with myself and also nature. It was the most beautiful feeling I had ever felt. I immediately fell in love with the ocean. I knew that day that surfing was to be a very great and important part of my life.”

From that time onwards, surfing took up most of Aneesha time. An ocean child, she spends at least six-seven hours of surfing every day. She travels extensively to countries like Portugal and Bali hone her skills on the surfboard. 

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Going places 

The 19-year-old hasn’t studied institutionally after grade 12. Last year, she dedicated herself to surfing and has travelled to various places to get more time with the waves. 

Aneesha is an advocate for equality and has been promoting the cause through her surfing journey. She is part of an organisation called the Paddle Paddle Charity Project started by French nationals, Mathilde Metairie and Mathieu Maugret. They repair surfboards and travel to different countries to teach people to surf and empower and educate children through various activities. 

As part of the charity, Aneesha spent a few days in Sri Lanka helping the local women with surf lessons. The Paddle Team conducted workshops with the help of a local organisation called Sea Sisters, which is set up by two women from Austria and US who impart swim and surf lessons. She has conducted women empowerment focussed workshops, ocean safety and ocean rescue workshops, water safety and how to safeguard oneself in the waters.

At every opportunity she gets, Aneesha also engages in healthy discussions with people and makes them understand why equality is important. 

She herself has heard sexist comments and tried to stop her from following her passion. 

“Initially, when I started out, there weren't many women surfing and surfing by itself was a new sport. Not many people around understood what I was doing and why. I was told stuff like you  are a girl, you shouldn't be going out in the sun for such a long time, you will get a tan or it's a dangerous sport, you might get injured or you might get scars and then if you do, what about your future. For them, my future meant marrying a guy. And that definitely wasn't the future that I saw for myself,” she says. 

Aneesha details other challenges that female surfers face in a 2018 documentary called Chicks on Boards directed by Dörthe Eickelberg. The documentary features five female surfers from five different countries who rebel against cultural and patriarchal notions to follow their dreams of surfing. 

The young surfer also features in another documentary Wild Women, which features 15 female Indian extreme sport athletes from sports like ice climbing, skateboarding, downhill mountain biking, and more. 

Through all these tough times, her pillar of strength has been her mother, a single parent. 

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Plans for the future

The 19-year-old surfer was one of the first 20 Indian surfers to represent the country in the Asian Surfing Championships in 2015. She has also consistently participated in one of the most prestigious surf events in India - Covelong Point Surf Classic and the Indian Open of Surfing. 

Recounting her experience at the Asian Surfing Championships, she says, “I saw surfers from all over Asia and they were ripped. They were so amazing at what they did. I got to see so many different tricks that surfers could perform on waves and it was like the kind of surfing I had never seen before. It was very inspiring and I think after that I started to try out different tricks on the wave as well.”

Aneesha recalls how when she took part in competitions, there would be only four or five female surfers and she would have to participate in the open category. After surfing for nearly seven years, Aneesha says it’s heartening that the number has increased to about 15-16 women at competitions. 

Aneesha recalls how four days before the Indian Open of Surfing event she discovered that she had a broken rib. On the day of the event, Aneesha was the commentator and announcer. She did not divulge this fact to anybody because she knew they would stop her from competing. 

She announced her own heat, ran back out in her surf suit, jumped into the waters, paddled into the oncoming waves and surfed. Even though it was a painful experience and she didn’t qualify for the next round, Aneesha says that she would have regretted it if she hadn’t participated. 

Though the surfing calendar looks empty for the year because of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown, Aneesha is working on her future plans. She hopes to open her own surf school soon. She envisions it to be a place where everyone is welcome and everyone is treated with equality, where people build each other and empower and inspire each other. 

She is also planning to conduct workshops along the Indian coasts and help people learn surfing.