While Devdatt Manjrekar (left) has finished making his first board (in picture) and is on to making his second one, Manoj Kumbhar (right) is in the middle of making his first two surfboards too. Photo Courtesy: Devdatt Manjrekar/Manoj Kumbhar
After completing his course in graphic art, Devdatt Manjrekar wanted to be a sculptor but it never came to be till recently when he decided to make his own surfboard. After falling in love with surfing a little over two years ago, he started surfing at Rajodi Beach in Virar at the Mumbai Surf Club. However, he soon want to have his own board so that he could surf any time he wanted.
After researching online and getting in touch with surfboard makers like France-based @zeuglodon_surfboards and India-based Nico Erni’s @erni_surfboards on Instagram, he started making his surfboard. It took him seven months to make his first surfboard because sourcing the material wasn't easy. Now, Manjrekar is on to his second surfboard, and thinks he will be able to finish it in as many as 12 days if he sits with it daily.
Right from sourcing the plywood for his rocker (the curve of the surfboard) to hunting for the foam – he sourced every single material and made it on his own. This isn’t a one-off attempt for Manjrekar, as he has also rented a beachside place in Arnala when he started making his first surfboard. Manjrekar says shaping the board is a very therapeutic activity for him and intends to continue making surfboards. There are many people have asked him to make boards for them, but none have confirmed it; the prices for the boards he intends to make are Rs 30,000 onwards.
Manoj Kumbhar has been a surfing instructor at the Mumbai Surf Club at Rajodi Beach in Virar for the last three years. He joined there after completing his graduation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike Manjrekar, it was more of a gradual progression of being a surfer and repairing surfboards that encouraged him to make his own board and also because he found boards to generally be very expensive for him to buy.
Kumbhar is currently making two boards at the same time over the last one month after a month-long visit to Covelong Surf Festival and Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu – where surfing competitions are held annually. While the first one is 6 feet 3 inches, the second one is 8 feet mid-longboard -- both of which are his favourites while surfing. He is only waiting for the fin plug to complete the first one, but has thought of directly attaching the fin to the second one.
The growing interest in surfing and his students who want to get their own board has made him start his surfboard enterprise, ‘Turtle Surfboards’, distinctly identifiable with the turtle logo. With this initiative, he intends to not only repair and make surfboards but also make longboards. The price range, though, he says is anywhere between Rs 27,000 to Rs 45,000 depending on the size of the board.
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