On the second day of the All Cargo Indian Open of Surfing, preliminary rounds for the Under 16, Junior’s (17-22 Years), Senior’s (23-28 Years) and Open category were held. In the Groms Under 16 category, Pondicherry’s Perceval Fayon, D Sanjay, Santhoshan, Manikandan T Nithish, Sanjay Selvamani and Manivanan from Tamil Nadu alongwith Yuvaraj progressed to the semi-finals.
The Junior’s (17-22 years) category, however, saw Raghul Govind, Ajith Kumar, Satish S, Manimanan and Surya P from Chennai along with Chinnakonda from Vizag, Swapnil Bhinge from Goa and local lad Dekshith K Suvarna progress to the semi- finals.
While, in the Seniors (23-28 years) category, Varghese from Kerala, Dharani Selvakumar, Vicky V, Raghul Paneer, Raj Sekhar, Manikandan D from Chennai sealed their semi-final spots.
And the Open Category saw Auroville’s Samai Revoul, Varghese from Kerala, Raghul Govind, Sekar Pachai & Dharini from Chennai, Kiran Kumar from Mangalore and French surfers Belize Pinel & Dyllan Imhoff, Marcello from Brazil, Dustin Ellison from California and David Hearn from Australia surf through to semi-finals.
Speaking about the activities on the day, Maade Sachang, the Head Judge, said, “the conditions were good today but tricky for the surfers to compete. The competition has got fierce. Tomorrow is going to be an early start to get best surf conditions for the semis & finals.”
Day 2 also marked a special visit by Young Cricketing sensation and surfing enthusiast Sanju Samson, who was recently seen hitting sixes and boundaries in the ninth version of Indian Premier League for Delhi Daredevils.
Marcello and Jehan Driver put on exhibition, a kite surfing demonstration for the audience.
The semi-finals and finals would be held tomorrow from 6 AM onward. The three-day surfing extravaganza is the first ever surfing championship being hosted in Karnataka and is a part of the Karnataka Surfing Festival, promoted by Karnataka tourism. Surfers in these four categories showcased their skills to fix their slot for the semi-finals. Both the semi-final and final round will be held on the 29th May 2016.