M’luru girl to represent India in Stand up paddling in France, Singapore

Mangaluru: Tanvi Jagadish (18), who is the city’s stand up paddling sensation, is also set to own the foreign waters once again. The teenager from Mangaluru will be India’s sole participant in two international stand up paddling events to be held in the coming two months.

Tanvi will be the only person to represent India in the Singapore Ocean Cup scheduled for November 17^th and 18^th. However, the Stand UP Paddling Federation may send another surfer along with her for the Paris SUP Crossing scheduled for December second week.

Six times winner

Tanvi has won the national stand-up paddleboarding competition six times and was also part of the first Indian team to participate in an international paddleboarding contest. She is also the first professional female paddleboarder in the country.

“I get into the water after yoga and meditation. I venture out into the water for a few hours, every morning and evening. I also run on the beach,” informs Tanvi.

Since Tanvi discovered surfing and paddelboarding, she decided to dedicate her time to learning the nuances of the sport. She credits her success to her first coach Shamanth Kumar, a surfing instructor at the Mantra Surf School in the city.

She is currently being trained by Hayden Rhodes, who has been helping people athletes around the world in improving their human performance while Stand Up Paddling and snowboarding for over two decades.

Lack of government support

The government is hardly contributing towards promoting the sport of stand up paddling as it is in its nascent stage in India. Due to lack of funding, Tanvi had to let go the golden opportunity of participating in the World Cup to be held in China next month. Individual sporting events in the country are expensive and hence, Tanvi is looking for sponsors so that she could focus more on bringing further laurels to the country.

“The lack of funding is a problem. Being an individual athlete, I really wish the government would help. I spend a lot of time focusing on sponsorship which I could otherwise use for training. It would be good if we did not have to think about sponsorship because we are playing for the country,” says Tanvi.