Impressive Sri Lankan surfers say there’s lot more to learn after Indian experience
View(s):Three Sri Lankan surfers – Chanuk Anjana, Lesitha Prabath and Praneeth Sandaruwan — from Arugam Bay headed to Kovalam, India, to compete in the Asian Surfing Championship last weekend. This was the first time Sri Lankan surfers competed in India. The Sri Lankans had the opportunity to compete against other amateurs as well as professional surfers from India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Maldives and Australia.
Arugam Bay surfers -- Chanuk Anjana, Lesitha Prabath and Praneeth Sandaruwan
The three surfers Chanu, Lesitha and Praneeth, all representing the Arugam Bay Surf Club, are well-known surfers from the East coast with excellent track record. Lesitha ranked second this year in the Red Bull Ride My Wave Event in Arugam Bay while Praneeth won the Red Bull local hero tour in 2013 and ended up third in the Red Bull Both Ways event in Maldives 2014. Also Chanu was part of the East Coast’s winning team in the Red Bull Ride My Wave event in 2014.
Unfortunately the Sri Lankan champion Asanka was injured and was unable to participate this year. All Sri Lankans did well in the contest, however Praneeth was able to make it all the way to the quarter-finals where he lost to the Indonesian pro-surfer Dede Suryana, who won the contest in 2014.
Praneeth says “The Indonesians are all excellent, sponsored surfers”. The Indonesians took over the semi-finals and final, where Billabong athlete Raditya Rondi ended up winning the championship, and 3000USD along with other gifts. Also Lesitha was doing very well in his heats but got confused with the priority rules, which are not in use in the local Sri Lankan surfing competitions, causing his defeat in the second round. All surfers are of the view that they still have a lot to learn about the international surfing rules but consider these kind of events necessary to learn more.
For the Sri Lankan surfers it was a dream come true to participate in the championship, which would not have been possible without the support of the Surfing Federation of India, providing the surfers accommodation and meals during the contest. Within Sri Lanka there is no sponsoring for the local surfers, a reason for being this competition an extra burden.
Also the Arugam Bay Surf Club got many new ideas during the contest. The Chairman of the Arugam Bay Surf Club, Krishantha Ariyasena says that “we have very talented surfers in Sri Lanka, talented enough to compete internationally but we get no support from the community. At the moment we have to do everything ourselves.”
The Arugam Bay Surf Club already has a couple of more invitations for future Asian events but as there is no financial support for the surfers, they may not be able to participate all of them. However the Indian Surfing Federation is keen to get the Sri Lankan boys back to compete in India next year.