Musicsport: Indie Music and Offbeat Sports

How Indie Music Has Inextricably Tied Itself To Surfing/Skating Culture

Skateboarding and surfing aren’t traditional activities in our subcontinent. Western ideas, adjusted to the Indian setting have seen a number of niche sports such as these emerge from the bowels of our own Indian culture.

Holystoked Collective are a skateboarding group that have consistently been spreading awareness of the sport into even rural homes. Skateboarding earlier from an unfinished bowl in Sarjapur, the new skatepark, which opened up last year, is a huge boost to the promotion of independent sport in the country. After the inauguration of a brand new skate park, funded by Levi’s and built by the skaters themselves(with some help from a European troupe), they really hit some publicity which in turn has led to a nationwide encouragement. Working solely on manual labour for two weeks, Holystoked and a bunch of German skaters come together to design, construct and smoothen out a decently sized skatepark.

The completed Skatepark

The inauguration saw three live acts also take a makeshift stage for what turned out to be like a happy day at the fair. Metal band Orchid performed, along with bassist/founder Abhishek’s now defunct band, The Bicycle Days and a third, Levi’s sponsored band. Free water and beer, along with food, for everyone, really gave the event a bohemian vibe as we could see music and art melding together and people from all backgrounds enjoying it. Constant commitment to free sport has led to them opening up skateparks across the country to widespread acclaim.

This connect between music and sport is one that has been going on for centuries (remember the Olympics?), and a successful culmination of both usually results in a productive session, both in terms of sound, and skating. With the one sole blue shed present on the skatepark serving as a stage, the three performing bands had to shimmy up a tiny bamboo ladder with all their gear, and set up right on top. The concept of Jugaad was brought out nicely, and the success of the HSR Layout new skatepark inauguration is what has prompted the collective to take things national. They are currently building a ramp in Kovalam(Covelong).

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Covelong Point Project, founded by fisherman Murthy M, is quite a story. After losing his boat and livelihood to the 2004 tsunami, Murthy turned to social work until his interest in surfing was harnessed by Yotam Agam of Earthsync. Unlike much of the straight coastline south of Chennai, Covelong Point has a contour, the setup for a perfect right hand point break in surfing terms. Armed with just a surfboard, Murthy began organising competitions, anti-drug awareness programs, and eventually, in November last year, an all-out IndieEarth sponsored gig.

Inaugurated in 2012, the group has already played hosts to two rock shows and several competitions. Akin to skateboarding, this connect with music has further helped strengthen support and awareness of such an obscure sport. In 2012, the inauguration saw acts like Karthick Iyer of The Raghu Dixit Project, Ghatam Karthick, Sean Rolden and Mahesh Vinayakram; acts that consciously imbibed some of our folk culture into their sound too. There were also traditional Thappattam drummers performing, and children from the village put on a dance performance. Incidentally, Murthy also sang at the festival. The second music bonanza over there happened last year, with louder rock acts from Chennai and Bangalore performing as part of the Covelong Point Classic Surf Contest, which, again, saw some formidable competition, both from Indians and foreigners alike. Bands like Skrat, Live Banned, and Franks Got The Funk, along with Australian singer-songwriters Edo and Jo performed over the course of the three day contest, along with numerous yoga and meditation workshops.

A feature documentary film called, Covelong Point featuring Murthy’s rise to prominence in the India surf scene released in February 2014. The film is the first professionally made surf film about an Indian surfer. With a growing surf community of about 150 surfers of all ages, and numerous competitions every year, surfing in India is catching up fast with the rest of the world. The film was nominated for Best Surf Film Award at Byron Bay Film Festival.

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Now, Murthy hosts these competitions more as an awareness given the context of his own background. Making it to the advanced level of other national surf competitions, he and the youths he has trained are a notch ahead of the rest of the crowd.

In retrospect, the tying up of obscure sport to music is an innovative and useful step, both in terms of promotion, and raising awareness. Showcasing both the skate and surf examples, it is fascinating to see where this interesting mix may lead to in the future.