The Kovalam Surf Club has one rule: "No school, no surfing". Kids in Sebastian Indian Social Project's second-change education center earn the opportunity to go surfing on the weekends as long as they've shown up for class during the week. All members of the Kovalam Surf Club are local boys and girls from Kovalam and the surrounding villages. Kids here grow up in extreme poverty but surfing has become a positive outlet for these groms. The main objective is for the kids to regularly attend school and have a solid shot at realizing a better life. Surfing also makes the kids feel a sense of pride and happiness because for the first time in their lives, they feel respected, strong, and free to play with their friends and foreign people from diverse cultures.

 

We spent several months at a time over two years with the Kovalam Surf Club and S.I.S.P. assisting with surf lessons and trying to involve more girls in the club. Join the local surfers of Lighthouse Beach in Kovalam, Kerala in Southern India for an afternoon surf session.