Surfing in Mulki
A perfect blend of adventure and the countryside …
The plan was to meet up with an old friend and surfing became the perfect excuse to spend a good weekend together. Since it would get hotter in subsequent months, we decided to plan our trip around the end of February. My friend lives in Mumbai, and I live in Bangalore, so we wanted to meet somewhere in the middle, and Mulki turned out to be a great spot. Nestled along the southwest coastline of India, Mulki is a surfer’s paradise situated between the bustling cities of Mangalore and Udupi in Karnataka. We enquired about the village’s surf schools, finalised on one — Aquatic Indica Surf School and did the pre-bookings. There were multiple course options, but since it was our first time trying surfing, we decided to book a beginner’s course of three days, and booked our stay at the same place. I have always wanted to travel via the rail route in the coastal Karnataka part through the Western Ghats, so we booked train tickets from our respective cities. It was an overnight journey from Bangalore to Mulki, and the route was quite scenic as well.
Day 1: Catching Waves at Sunset
I got off at Mulki station around 10 am. Mulki is a small station, and there were very few people in sight when I reached. The rickshaw driver was cheerful and talked the entire route, topics ranging from the current ruling party to the town’s population and his family. He knew a bit of Hindi and English, so our conversation was in telegram style with enough words as I don’t understand the regional language, Kannada. Once I reached the stay, I met my friend and we spent some time catching up. We wanted to still utilise the day, so we booked our first session in the evening and the remaining two sessions in the morning(s). During lunch, we met another guy from Bangalore who would join us in the evening session. Bright and joyful, he quickly became friends with us, and a new companion in our adventure. Excited and loaded with sunscreens, we got ready around 3 pm and left for our first session. It was a small bicycle ride along the village’s narrow lanes, full of hibiscus, coconut, palm and papaya trees on the sideways. We then took a small boat to cross the backwaters of the Shambhavi River and reached Sasihithlu Beach, our surf destination. We took our surfboards, met our instructor and carried the boards to the beach shore. It was surprisingly tiring, we were clearly not prepared to carry the boards for a rough 200–300 metres walk :p.
After reaching the shore, the instructor explained the board’s parts and taught us how to pop up, stand, balance, and position on the board. He made us practice it on the boards multiple times before heading to the Arabian Sea. Excited and nervous, we went into the sea, ready to catch our first wave. I looked at the vastness of the sea, submerged in pre-sunset colours, and realised how dangerously beautiful and calm it looked. We hopped on the board and lying on the chest, tried to manage ourselves in the waves and waited for our individual turns to follow instructions. The instructor took hold of my board, and with the next wave, he pushed the board, leaving it on me to pop up and balance as taught. (Oh, God!) That was super fast, and I immediately fell into the water while trying to stand.
We all fell multiple times, nearly every single time that day, before finally standing up in the last few tries. After all, every new thing takes its own time… It was super fun, and we didn’t even realise how fast time passed. The sunset was nearly upon us, so we concluded our session and relaxed on the shores for some time. We sat there, quietly observing the sun sinking in the sea and beauty of the nature around us. It was already dark by the time we got up to leave, carrying our boards back to their place. While walking back towards our boat, we looked at the bright shining moon only to realise then that it was Chaudhvin ka Chaand, the day before full moon day. We sat in the boat and kept looking at the captivating reflection of the moonlight in the backwaters. We had dinner at our stay and then, spent some time with other travellers around before retiring to our rooms.
Day 2: Paddling
We woke up early and quickly got ready, as our session was around 8 am. Many more people were heading towards the backwaters with us for the session this time. We crossed the river on the boat, collected our boards, and dispersed on the shore based on session day. A new instructor quickly briefed us about the waves, their patterns, and taught us how to identify good waves. He made us practice paddling and popping up before entering the sea. We learned how to give directions to surfboards while paddling, moving them around and navigating them in smaller waves.
Next, we had to paddle our boards before the instructor would leave to catch the wave. After multiple failed attempts, my instructor noticed that my right leg was not moving forward while popping up. It was partly because of my yoga training in the past and wasn’t easy to unlearn, so the instructor taught me a 2-step technique to pop up, keeping the right leg a little bent from the start, and this worked for me. I was able to balance a few times after that, and although not perfect, those were still the best. I kept paddling in and out of the sea, riding the waves, bruising myself, but every time I fell, I would immediately pick up the board and go back nevertheless, ready to fall again like a kid (haha). What an enchanting and addictive process it was!!
While crossing the backwaters, the instructor(s) stopped the boat in the middle and asked if anyone wanted to swim there. Almost everyone, around 15 people, jumped into the river, some with life jackets, some without. I, too, did. The water was a little deep, and this was the first time I swam in the open water. After spending some time there, we left for our stay. We strolled around the village in the afternoon, and since we still had some time, we decided to visit a nearby tourist town, Udupi. We watched the sunset at Mattu beach in Udupi, played on the shores, and clicked pictures. Later in the evening, we visited a local fair and watched buffalo race. We wanted to see Kola, a ritual followed in the coastal Karnataka, happening in a nearby location, but since it was fairly late, we boarded a bus back to Mulki. It was a pleasant walk from the Mulki bus stop to our stay on aesthetically narrow roads with the full moon shining beautifully amidst the clouds, the moonlight scattered upon us through the palm trees.
Day 3: Stillness of the Sea
I woke up early feeling pain in different parts of my body, but it was our last day in Mulki and there was no time to rest. There were fewer people as many had concluded their sessions the day before. We took the boat, collected our boards and carried them to the beach shores. The instructor that day was a great fellow; he took a proper look at my techniques and patiently corrected me every time. Sometimes, the problem was my back leg not moving forward, or I was not standing up in the middle of the board or my knees were not bending after standing up. With every passing turn, I became more confident and managed to balance myself better. It was a perfect session, and in between, we talked casually about my hometown, how the instructor learned to surf, how long it took him to learn, and the growing popularity of the surfing destinations like Mulki. He also made me do a turtle roll on the board, which was terrific. Later, he instructed me to follow him on the surfboard a bit further into the sea. Initially, I felt a bit scared, but then as I felt slightly more confident in paddling on the board, I followed along into the deeper end. At the point where we stopped, the sea was calmer, with no waves, just water all around. It reminded me of so many poems, and was a great experience as I managed to tackle my fear of the deep waters, sitting on a surfboard in the sea.
After returning, I tried to catch a few more waves on the surfboard, was ecstatic when I could catch the full waves at the end and then happily concluded the session. We later played in the water without our surfboards and clicked pictures of our happy, tanned faces. It was a good time, and we indulged ourselves in the wishful thinking of spending some more time there but reality took hold — it was time to head back. We returned to our stay, got ready, and packed our bags. Before leaving, we spent some time in the common area with other travellers, discussing our experiences. Then one by one, we left.
It was a fantastic trip and was perhaps one of the best times ever since I moved to Bangalore. There were many firsts on this trip, I travelled alone to Mulki, swam in the backwaters, went into the deep waters, and, of course, went surfing, making it memorable for all time!! We didn’t get to see bioluminescence, but I believe that’s our sign to visit Mulki again, and I’ll likely revisit coastal Karnataka sooner as I had the best time there.
Here’s to happy surfing !!!
