Rough-water ready

The duo that represented India at the SUP world championships in Copenhagen, spell out what keeps them steady on their paddle boards

September 11, 2017 02:01 pm | Updated 02:01 pm IST

Scorching sun, salty spray, vast open waters, a trusted board and a paddle. These are the only companions that a standup paddler has, while maintaining balance and posture and navigating the waves for kilometres-long stretches, on a narrow strip of wood. For a sport that — from the shore — looks as simple as standing, the challenges are daunting.

With the 2017 ISA World StandUp Paddle (SUP) and Paddleboard Championship having just wrapped up in Denmark, it’s been a demanding fortnight for two of India’s top surfers. Tanvi Jagadish and Sekar Patchai headed for Copenhagen before the dust of the Covelong surf fest had settled — Covelong, in fact, was akin to a very useful warm-up for them.

“There are two kinds of races in competitive StandUp Paddling,” says Jagadish. In the technical race, participants are judged on their ability to navigate bumps and turns over a short distance, say, 3 km to 3.5 km. The other is the distance race — a flat-out, 18-km-long fight to the finish, often under the blazing sun. Needless to say, each race challenges the athletes in a different way, and they have their own fitness regimens crafted out to deal with it.

Crack of dawn

Jagadish, for instance, begins her day at 6 am and ends it by 9 pm sharp. While the former is her choice, the latter is her parents’, says the junior college student with a laugh. As a result, sleep gets almost as much priority as workouts in her daily routine. She does an hour of exercises before taking to the water, where she practises intensively before heading off to college. After class, she goes to the gym for 1.5 hours before hitting the water again.

For Copenhagen especially, the Mangaluru girl has been training under Pilates instructor Namrata Purohit, at the latter’s studio in Mumbai. “The Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani fitness centre also lets me use their services free of cost,” she says.

Patchai, on the other hand, hits the water only once a day, and has been following a regimen of running, cycling and surfing for the past eight months. Native to the Covelong fishing village, he begins his day with a long run. “I run along the beach, and after that, practise both surfing and paddling. In the afternoons, I cycle, go the gym, and then cycle some more,” he says.

Unlike Jagadish, he needs to be careful not just about dehydration, but about injury as well. “I had to rest for a month because of a ligament problem, and I had to go to a progressive care unit to fix my knee,” he says, “Usually, with paddling, I have back problems at most, but with the right exercise I’m fine again.”

Keeping it simple

Jagadish, on the other hand, had to battle dehydration during her early days in the sport, and still recommends a certain water-based home solution to anyone she sees beat by the seaside weather. Her other nutritional needs are met by her mother’s cooking.

“Dal and paneer are my main sources of protein,” she says, “I’m lazy with salads, and eat them only because I have to. I prefer sprouts, dates and chia seeds.” Brown rice also forms a major part of her diet, says the girl who fell in love with hummus on an overseas trip and gorges on it whenever she can.

Patchai depends on a predominantly non-vegetarian diet. “In the morning, I usually have egg and some rice. Then there’s fish, chicken and beef. And fruit juice every day,” he stresses, adding that he never has to worry about things like oil content. “Basically, we are fishermen, and in a fishing village, we don’t use much oil.”

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