A swell guy: Wknd interviews India’s champion surfer, Ramesh Budihal
He recently won India’s first individual medal at the Asian championships. He loves the adrenaline of competing amid the unpredictability of the ocean, he says.
It started out rough. Mahabalipuram’s waves had not yet settled into the rhythm Ramesh Budihal, 24, was hoping for.
Then he found his opening curl and manoeuvred his way through it, to earn a score of 6.17. Indonesia’s Pajar Ariyana and South Korea’s Kanoa Heejae were racing ahead. In the dying moments of the heat, Budihal swept through volatile swells for a score of 6.43, and a total of 12.60.
The final horn sounded.
Budihal grinned and held up his board.
He had just become the first Indian to win an individual medal at the Asian Surfing Championships, clinching bronze on August 12.
“A few years ago, nobody would have said that surfing would grow this fast in India. But we’re getting stronger every year,” he says.
Budihal has watched this change unfold. He was five when he first took to the waves, in the coastal town of Kovalam in Kerala.
He and his parents had moved from the landlocked town of Muradi Tanda in Karnataka, so they could open a small clothing store here. In the long, lazy hours after school, Budihal was now learning to swim from children who had been swimming since they were toddlers. He was learning to love the sea.
Then, one day, he saw one of his friends, Krishna Thagarappa (now a surfing instructor), on a board. What was he doing? How was he doing it? Where did he get his wetsuit and that strange floating platform?
Budihal seemed smitten, so Thagarappa took him to meet Jelle Rigole, a Belgian who founded and teaches at the Kovalam Surf Club, a non-governmental organisation that promotes the sport as a healthy, outdoor activity for children to pursue in the empty after-school hours.
Rigole lent Budihal a board and gave him a few lessons. The boy seemed to take to it. He was unusually steady on the water. For me, Budihal says, laughing, it was pure love, from the first moment.
Rigole would become a core influence in his life, talking to his parents when they were nervous about the sport, and imbibing in Budihal and the other children a sense of surfer culture, underpinned by ideas of sharing, kindness and collaboration.
“Mr Jelle is the friendliest teacher there ever was, almost like a third parent,” Budihal says. “He would laugh with us, tell us stories, buy us great food. He still arrives from Belgium in surf season with many new boards and suitcases loaded with surf shorts.”
***
Teachers like Rigole have had a transformative effect on surfing in India. So far, 20 of the Belgian’s students, for instance, have gone on to pursue the sport professionally.
By the age of 13, Budihal was one of them. The national-level competitions turned out to be an entirely new experience, adding an edge to the sport he loved. He enjoyed the adrenaline and intensity.
“Free-surfing is meditative. There is no pressure. It’s just you and the water,” he says. “Competitive surfing is a different beast. Winning made me realise that I could catch the best waves under pressure. That I could actually make a career out of this.”
He opted out of further education after Class 10, and decided to focus on the sport.
Competition, he says, taught him the power of patience, and gave him the routine he now follows.
For about half an hour before every contest, he simply watches the sea, tracking the waves and trying to understand their patterns. Once he is on his board, he replays these images in his mind, “and it helps me calculate my next move”.
Barrel waves (the ones that close almost like a tunnel) are his favourite. They are a joy to ride, he says. The flatter “close-out” waves are the most difficult to navigate. It is harder to predict where they will close or how they will collapse, and that gives one far less time to figure out a strategy.
***
Scores, in surfing, are determined by speed, power, flow, and major and critical turns. The taller the waves, the more time a surfer has to impress the judges.
“For the Asian championships in Mahabalipuram (the first edition ever hosted in India), we were lucky to have 4ft to 8ft-high waves, which worked to our advantage,” says Arun Vasu, president of the Surfing Federation of India.
Budihal strode out confidently, and sure enough did win. But he still remembers his sense of wonder when he saw what some of the best surfers could do, at his first international meet, the REnextop Asian tour held in Malaysia in 2019.
“I felt just disbelief,” he says. “Seeing them compete live, I felt like I had no skill at all.”
In time he realised there were two sides to that picture: he had never seen such surfing, but he had also never seen such waves. Travelling gave him the exposure he needed (some trips were sponsored, some he paid for with his earnings as a surfing instructor).
He grew to love the barrel wave and the A-frame (which forms a symmetrical, triangular, peak in the centre, allowing surfers to ride along both sides). He met long, generous waves that let him get five or even six twists in.
“In India, these are rare to come by,” Budihal says. “But wherever you are, conditions are always changing in this sport. So athletes have to spend as much time as possible in the water. There is no other way.”
***
Budihal still surfs and sometimes teaches in Kovalam. Now, it is less about funding his trips and more about passing on his love for the sea.
“A beautiful thing about this is that you get to share this energy with local communities in coastal regions around the world,” he says.
He and Rigole remain close friends. But his coach now is the Frenchman Samai Reboul, head coach of the national surfing team. “There is one thing in this sport that you cannot teach, and that is style,” Reboul says, of Budihal. “I saw that he had it, even when he was just a shy 13-year-old. He had good flow, technique and timing.”
He still doesn’t talk much, Reboul adds, smiling. “That hasn’t changed. But he expresses himself on the waves. You just have to watch him on the board. All that he has to say, he says out there.”
***
Budihal has been saying it eloquently.
He has made it to the top three ranks in the National Surf Series every year for the past four years. In 2024, he finished the season as India’s No. 1 male surfer.
In 2023, he competed at the Asian championships and made it to the quarter-finals. His next stop will be the 2026 Asian Games, to be held in Japan.
“Before time runs out, I want to level up… maybe even as far as the Olympics,” he says. “But the reason I keep returning to the waves is that they make me happy, and make me feel at peace. I’m happiest when I’m out on the water.”
It started out rough. Mahabalipuram’s waves had not yet settled into the rhythm Ramesh Budihal, 24, was hoping for.
Then he found his opening curl and manoeuvred his way through it, to earn a score of 6.17. Indonesia’s Pajar Ariyana and South Korea’s Kanoa Heejae were racing ahead. In the dying moments of the heat, Budihal swept through volatile swells for a score of 6.43, and a total of 12.60.
The final horn sounded.
Budihal grinned and held up his board.
He had just become the first Indian to win an individual medal at the Asian Surfing Championships, clinching bronze on August 12.
“A few years ago, nobody would have said that surfing would grow this fast in India. But we’re getting stronger every year,” he says.
Budihal has watched this change unfold. He was five when he first took to the waves, in the coastal town of Kovalam in Kerala.
{{/usCountry}}Budihal has watched this change unfold. He was five when he first took to the waves, in the coastal town of Kovalam in Kerala.
{{/usCountry}}He and his parents had moved from the landlocked town of Muradi Tanda in Karnataka, so they could open a small clothing store here. In the long, lazy hours after school, Budihal was now learning to swim from children who had been swimming since they were toddlers. He was learning to love the sea.
{{/usCountry}}He and his parents had moved from the landlocked town of Muradi Tanda in Karnataka, so they could open a small clothing store here. In the long, lazy hours after school, Budihal was now learning to swim from children who had been swimming since they were toddlers. He was learning to love the sea.
{{/usCountry}}Then, one day, he saw one of his friends, Krishna Thagarappa (now a surfing instructor), on a board. What was he doing? How was he doing it? Where did he get his wetsuit and that strange floating platform?
{{/usCountry}}Then, one day, he saw one of his friends, Krishna Thagarappa (now a surfing instructor), on a board. What was he doing? How was he doing it? Where did he get his wetsuit and that strange floating platform?
{{/usCountry}}Budihal seemed smitten, so Thagarappa took him to meet Jelle Rigole, a Belgian who founded and teaches at the Kovalam Surf Club, a non-governmental organisation that promotes the sport as a healthy, outdoor activity for children to pursue in the empty after-school hours.
{{/usCountry}}Budihal seemed smitten, so Thagarappa took him to meet Jelle Rigole, a Belgian who founded and teaches at the Kovalam Surf Club, a non-governmental organisation that promotes the sport as a healthy, outdoor activity for children to pursue in the empty after-school hours.
{{/usCountry}}Rigole lent Budihal a board and gave him a few lessons. The boy seemed to take to it. He was unusually steady on the water. For me, Budihal says, laughing, it was pure love, from the first moment.
Rigole would become a core influence in his life, talking to his parents when they were nervous about the sport, and imbibing in Budihal and the other children a sense of surfer culture, underpinned by ideas of sharing, kindness and collaboration.
“Mr Jelle is the friendliest teacher there ever was, almost like a third parent,” Budihal says. “He would laugh with us, tell us stories, buy us great food. He still arrives from Belgium in surf season with many new boards and suitcases loaded with surf shorts.”
***
Teachers like Rigole have had a transformative effect on surfing in India. So far, 20 of the Belgian’s students, for instance, have gone on to pursue the sport professionally.
By the age of 13, Budihal was one of them. The national-level competitions turned out to be an entirely new experience, adding an edge to the sport he loved. He enjoyed the adrenaline and intensity.
“Free-surfing is meditative. There is no pressure. It’s just you and the water,” he says. “Competitive surfing is a different beast. Winning made me realise that I could catch the best waves under pressure. That I could actually make a career out of this.”
He opted out of further education after Class 10, and decided to focus on the sport.
Competition, he says, taught him the power of patience, and gave him the routine he now follows.
For about half an hour before every contest, he simply watches the sea, tracking the waves and trying to understand their patterns. Once he is on his board, he replays these images in his mind, “and it helps me calculate my next move”.
Barrel waves (the ones that close almost like a tunnel) are his favourite. They are a joy to ride, he says. The flatter “close-out” waves are the most difficult to navigate. It is harder to predict where they will close or how they will collapse, and that gives one far less time to figure out a strategy.
***
Scores, in surfing, are determined by speed, power, flow, and major and critical turns. The taller the waves, the more time a surfer has to impress the judges.
“For the Asian championships in Mahabalipuram (the first edition ever hosted in India), we were lucky to have 4ft to 8ft-high waves, which worked to our advantage,” says Arun Vasu, president of the Surfing Federation of India.
Budihal strode out confidently, and sure enough did win. But he still remembers his sense of wonder when he saw what some of the best surfers could do, at his first international meet, the REnextop Asian tour held in Malaysia in 2019.
“I felt just disbelief,” he says. “Seeing them compete live, I felt like I had no skill at all.”
In time he realised there were two sides to that picture: he had never seen such surfing, but he had also never seen such waves. Travelling gave him the exposure he needed (some trips were sponsored, some he paid for with his earnings as a surfing instructor).
He grew to love the barrel wave and the A-frame (which forms a symmetrical, triangular, peak in the centre, allowing surfers to ride along both sides). He met long, generous waves that let him get five or even six twists in.
“In India, these are rare to come by,” Budihal says. “But wherever you are, conditions are always changing in this sport. So athletes have to spend as much time as possible in the water. There is no other way.”
***
Budihal still surfs and sometimes teaches in Kovalam. Now, it is less about funding his trips and more about passing on his love for the sea.
“A beautiful thing about this is that you get to share this energy with local communities in coastal regions around the world,” he says.
He and Rigole remain close friends. But his coach now is the Frenchman Samai Reboul, head coach of the national surfing team. “There is one thing in this sport that you cannot teach, and that is style,” Reboul says, of Budihal. “I saw that he had it, even when he was just a shy 13-year-old. He had good flow, technique and timing.”
He still doesn’t talk much, Reboul adds, smiling. “That hasn’t changed. But he expresses himself on the waves. You just have to watch him on the board. All that he has to say, he says out there.”
***
Budihal has been saying it eloquently.
He has made it to the top three ranks in the National Surf Series every year for the past four years. In 2024, he finished the season as India’s No. 1 male surfer.
In 2023, he competed at the Asian championships and made it to the quarter-finals. His next stop will be the 2026 Asian Games, to be held in Japan.
“Before time runs out, I want to level up… maybe even as far as the Olympics,” he says. “But the reason I keep returning to the waves is that they make me happy, and make me feel at peace. I’m happiest when I’m out on the water.”
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