City to host national surfing festival

A national-level surfing festival would be held at the Panambur beach here from May 29 to 31, Surfing Federation of India vice president Ram Mohan Paaranjape said today.
It will be the first time that the national event in surfing, named Indian Open Surfing (IOS) festival, is being held in Karnataka.
Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty will inaugurate the event.
Judges from Thailand and Indonesia would be here to judge the competitors, Paaranjape said.
The surfing festival would be held in four categories- Under-16, 17-22 years, 23-28 years (seniors) and above 28 years (masters), he said.
The winners would be given cash prizes totallilng Rs six lakh, he said. More than 100 surfers from across the country are expected to participate in the festival. A total of 20 participants had already registered for the festival.

Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim said the tourism department wanted to promote tourism in the city through this surfing festival and that the administration would send a proposal to the government to make this an annual event.