The east coast of India is pretty poor for surf. I checked beaches at Gopalpur and Mamallapuram without seeing much potential. I spoke to an Aussie in M-puram who said he’d seen it break once in six months. Monsoons do push swell up into the Bay of Bengal, but there doesn’t seem to be any regular surf on the east coast. The SW coast, Kerala, is rumored to have waves (and cleaner water than the east coast), however, I can’t confirm season or quality.
For good surf Sri Lanka and the Maldives are the go. There are cheap flights from Madras (now called Chennai) to Colombo, Sri Lanka for about $200 US RT and you can fly from Trivandrum to Male in the Maldives for about $70US, one way.
The Andamans are rumored to have good swell, although Nicobar and the southern islands in the chain are off-limits to most foreigners. Surfing Magazine ran a pictoral on the island group that showed some nice, i.e., small, waves in the spring of 2000. The Surfing crew also had a charter yacht to get around in. There’s a cheap 4-day boat ride from Madras to Port Blair in the Andamans, but reservations are a big hassle. Flights to Port Blair cost $400US, RT from Madras.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to find a surfboard in India. The best bet is to bring your own. Do not attempt to ship a board (or anything else) to India as you will end up paying its weight in bribes to get customs to release it. However, given the paucity of decent waves on the Subcontinent and the difficulty of getting around, you may as well leave the board at home unless you intend to surf the Maldives or Sri Lanka.
Visitors to India can learn more from ExpressIndia, a guide to the newly wired culture, Incredible India, a good general resource for tourists, and TempleNet, an overview of India’s wealth of religious architecture.
– Ed
