Making waves: How one surfer coaxed the ladies of Sri Lanka into the water

For Tiffany Carothers, it started with a straightforward idea. She wanted more girls in the line-up. The California native had moved to Sri Lanka in 2011 with her family, drawn by the quiet life of Arugam Bay and beautiful waves of Main Point. She pointed out that there weren’t any Sri Lankan women in the water, so she started asking her neighbours, Shamali and Inoka Sanjaya, to go to the Indian Ocean with her.

“She'd take me to secret places,” Shamali, 31, remembers. “My brother didn’t like that I was surfing. He'd say: ‘Why are you going surfing? No other girls are surfing. Other girls stay home. Why are you acting such as a boy?’

“Our culture is quite not the same as European culture,” Shamali adds. Her brother objected to her being the only local girl in the water, as he concerned about what others would say. They had lost their parents at a age and he was in charge of caring for his younger siblings. He was also concerned that she wasn’t a solid swimmer, as may be the case with many Sri Lankan women.

Eventually, Carothers gave her neighbours some extra boards. And, with Shamali’s help, she organised a female-only surfing meetup for the bigger local community. She was shocked when 30 women arrived.

“I wasn’t even sure the way the first Girls Make Waves would go,” says Carothers, who has since opened chapters in Hawaii and Mauritius. The goal is to teach basic ocean skills and promote a love of surfing. In A-Bay, the nickname for Arugam Bay, they hold surf events every Monday.

In 2018, Shamali started her own initiative: Arugam Bay Girls’ Surf Club. The pair’s collective efforts have been profiled in Surfer magazine and broadcast all over the world. “Any problem we have in our life, whenever we go in to the water, we forget,” Shamali says. “A new happiness comes.”

But things weren’t always straightforward for these erstwhile surfers. Though it became easier for Shamali to surf when she married an area man who supported her love of the activity, there is still a stigma connected with surfing for local women. There may be the perception among many local villagers that western women surf in small bikinis and spend their nights drinking and likely to parties, says Shamali, who thinks persons in her community associated the activity with those other activities.

Per month after their weekly surf meets began, the ladies began to be harassed by some men in their community. And so for the next 1 . 5 years, they would co-ordinate secret surf meetups - at different breaks or by going on trips south where persons wouldn’t recognise them.

“When it was scary and we did need to hide, [surfing coach] Tim Jones with the International Surfing Association and Red Bull were encouraging me,” Carothers says. “They were a huge inspiration if you ask me. They will be the big guys in surfing.” With time, the surrounding community began to accept the women’s love of the sport. “We keep our culture … We are not going to party or wear a bikini,” Shamali says, pointing out that the ladies “wear nice clothes” when they surf - generally leggings and shirts.

Carothers says: “It’s a lot more freeing now to know that the ones who were threatening and against it are actually organising training therefore the girls may use surfing to work within the economy.”

On the other hand of Sri Lanka, one south coast surfer is fostering an identical future for his daughter. Surf guide and guesthouse proprietor Lucky Laksiri first started surfing the well-known Coconuts break decades ago by himself board, made from wood, fishing line and a bucket. The now crowded line-up was considered a secret spot then.

Therefore, when his daughter Hiruni, then 12, found him asking for surf training, he couldn’t have been happier. “She’s the first local girl in the water,” Laksiri says. “It’s best for her.”

Hiruni always loved the water and was raised 50 metres from among the finest breaks on Sri Lanka’s southern coast. Although the waves made her nervous, she knew her dad would be the best coach - he’d been taking her in to the ocean since she was a little child.

I first meet Hiruni after an evening session in the water, carrying my board under my arm. She arises to tell me that she was after the only girl surfer in Sri Lanka. When I ask if she really wants to visit the Olympics, she answers with a resounding ‘yes’.

Hiruni practises weekly with her dad, heading a few kilometres south to the beginner-friendly beach break in Weligama. She says a few of her girl friends want but, for the present time, her dad is her biggest ally.

If you watch out at the popular breaks on the south coast and in A-Bay through the surf season, you’ll see huge crowds of beginner surfers bobbing around on neon-blue and yellow foam boards, with a local guy often wearing a bucket hat encouraging them behind the break. But there are no female teachers. Some Sri Lankans see this as a business opportunity.

“No woman gives lessons. I'd like to see that,” Laksiri says. “It will be better for business.” Although he’s been teaching surfing for many years, he believes more tourists would be interested in surfing if indeed they may find female instructors.

On the west coast, Sanjaya similarly hopes that the Arugam Bay Girls’ Surf Club may become an monetary hub. “Some girls inside our club say that they don’t have an excellent job or good money.”

She is working with Australian Aid to fund International Surf Association training. As well as lessons, she hopes the club may also direct tourists to other local women who offer massages, cookery classes or laundry services.

“Before, women stayed at home working or taking care of kids,” Sanjaya says. “Now, we’re given time for our surfing also … they such as this change.”