Good Sports: Budhial Wins India’s First Medal at Asian Surfing Championships
Ramesh Budhial made history at last month’s Asian Surfing Championships, becoming the first Indian to win a medal at the event. Budhial captured the bronze medal in the Open Men’s category after gaining 12.60 points in the medal round. He finished behind gold medalist Kanoa Heejae of Korea (15.17 points) and silver medalist Pajar Ariyana of Indonesia (14.57 points).
Budhial, a Karnataka native, was drawn to surfing at age 5 while watching a friend tackle the waves at Kovalam Beach in Kerala. Budhial’s parents operated a beachside store selling handicrafts and clothes. The boy soon started taking lessons from a veteran surfer at the beach, Jelle Rigole from Bruges, Belgium.
Rigole is the co-founder of the Kovalam Surf Club, where Budhial is now an instructor. The 25-year-old surfer also teaches at Shaka Surf Club in Kodi Bengre, Karnataka. His bio on Shaka’s website describes him as “one of the youngest from the first generation of surfers to have consistently stuck to surfing against all odds to become one of the best competitive surfers currently in India.”
More of ChaiTime here:
http://www.khabar.com/magazine/chaitime/
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
