KAYAKING IN KERELATHE MALABAR RIVER FESTIVAL by Sarah Kingdom

Until relatively recently, apart from climbing and trekking in the Himalayas,and some white water rafting, mainly on the Ganges River, India was not knowninternationally as an ‘adventure destination’. But that is starting to change, andthere is now a growing interest in a variety of adventure sports across India, andsomething that is really starting to take off is white water kayaking.

I have just returned home from a month in India, where I spend a lot of timeevery year, predominantly in the mountains climbing. I had gone to climb andguide in the Himalayas inLadakh, in the north of thecountry. After a rainy andsnowy climb I decided itwas time to head down tothe south of India for somewarmth. So after a thirteenhour, frankly slightlyterrifying, drive throughthe night from Leh (thecapital of Ladakh) to Srinagar (the capital of Jamu and Kashmir) on mountainroads with sheer vertical drops just inches from the wheels of the vehicle, Iboarded a flight to Delhi and then flew down to Kozhikode (formally known asCalicut) in Kerela.

I had some friends taking part in the inaugural Malabar River Festival, a whitewater kayaking festival and first of its kind event in India. The festival consistedof a series of downriver extreme adventure races, being held in the small town ofKodenchery, Kerala on the Chalipuzha and Iruvanjhipuzha Rivers. I have to say,as a person who, before now, hardly knew the front end of a kayak from the back,it was an amazing few days, with a great crowd of people who are both

passionate and excited about theirsport.The overall aim of the festival was toboth promote kayaking in the south onIndia, and also to highlight Kerela as anadventure tourism destination. It alsobecame rapidly clear, that the aim of thebulk of the participants, who had comefrom all over India and indeed from all overthe world, was to have a good time… andthis they certainly did. It was a great bunchof people who, despite my total ignoranceof their sport, welcomed me with openarms, and made me feel just like one of the

group. I pretty quickly found myself volunteering (or being volunteered, I’m stillnot sure which!) to help out behind the scenes. Though somehow along the way,this ceased to be ‘behind the scenes’ and I found myself up on stage with amicrophone in my hand for the two days of the festival, doing ‘commentating’,making general announcements and then finally, just as I thought my ‘job’ wasdone, being talked into announcing the winners during the prize givingceremony; during which, I might add, I felt decidedly under dressed in myscruffy shorts, standing amongst the various dignitaries, including the StateMinister for Tourism, all dressed is saris and formal attire.

The Western Ghats of Kerela are an amazingmountain range that runs for hundreds of kilometersalong the western coast of India and are the source ofnumerous river systems, many as yet unexplored bywhite water kayakers. A group of white waterkayakers from Bangalore and Chennai, going by thename Southern River Runners, got together and haveworked as pioneers of the sport in India’s south,battling everything from the lack of decent kayakingequipment available in India, to general ignorance and

apathy from various officials, who have frequently tried to hinder kayakers fromexploring the rivers of Karnataka. Indeed there are recent reports of a forestryofficial actually arresting and threatening to detain a group of kayakers whowere running a non-commercial trip on a river that is used by commercial raftingcompanies. Fortunately though, district officials in Kerala saw the tourism andcommercial potential for white water kayaking in the district, and so were verysupportive of the idea of the Malabar River Festival, which was six months in theplanning and was inaugurated by the State Minister for Tourism.

During my days at the river I had a crash course in all things white waterkayaking; and can now relativelyconfidently impart the followinginformation, of primary interest toactual kayaking readers I’m sure; thatthe festival had a race launch ramp,the first ever to be used in India;twenty entrants in the pro categoryand ten entrants in the beginners

category who came from all over India, the UK, USA, Italy, Denmark and Nepal,and that there were races ranging from a challenging slalom course with 9 gates(3 upstream and 6 downstream), to an individual down river race on the ClassIV+ Iruvanjhipuza River. There was even a women’s race, which, from myvantage point on the stage, I saw drew a great deal of attention both from themale spectators who were amazed at the skill and speed of the femalecompetitors, and from the women spectators who had never before seen such athing, let alone contemplated actually getting in a kayak themselves. There weremonetary prizes for all races and the grand prize winner of the day, a youngIndian kayaker, from Rishikesh on the Ganges River, was crowned the ‘RiverRaja’, paraded around on an elephant and took home considerable prize money.

The organisers of the event, had estimated an original audience attendance ofroughly 1,500 people, but to everyone’s surprise there were over 5,000 peoplewho turned out to watch this novel event. This has led to the sanctioning of aKerala Kayaking Academy, to be built to promote local interest and talent. Thefestival will run again next year between sometime between the 15th and 30thJuly, and it is hoped to increase the number of participants to 50. I’ve beeninvited back next year to make myself useful with the microphone again and, justpossibly, I might even be enticed into a kayak and out onto the river.

The Malabar River Festival (www.malabarfestival.in) was organized byMadras Fun Tools

About us

Getupandgo.in is an adventure travel company that operates out of Mumbai andChennai, focused on helping create life changing travel experiences for peoplefrom all walks of life.

Contact us

Getupandgo.in,Brindavan Apartments,

19 Khader Nawaz Khan Road,Chennai 600006, India

Website:www.getupandgo.in