Clean up Kovalam beach and get surfing lessons for free

CHENNAI: Clean up the Kovalam beach near East Coast Road and get a free surfing lesson. This is the deal that a surfing school is offering to get volunteers for a beach clean-up drive.


Siddharth C, chief instructor at Bay of life surf school, said the school was started eight years ago. “Since the Muttukadu backwater is close-by, we noticed that it was polluted.

Since it’s a river mouth, pollution is taking a toll on the diverse marine life. Waste from Buckingham canals and city rivers end up on the beach. We started to clean it up. To make it a sustainable model in which the community is involved, we came up with this idea,” he said.

Around 15-20 volunteers gather every weekend at the beach at 7am and collect single-use plastic and other waste accumulated on the beach. So far, about 30 such drives have been completed and about 500kg of waste has been collected. “The waste is segregated and disposed in a scientific manner through a private vendor,” said Noel, a volunteer.

Ashwin J Chandran, an architecture student, said, “For the first clean up, only two volunteers had turned up, including him. But it has picked up. We clean up the beach for an hour and then enjoy a surfing lesson for another hour,” he said.

Noel, however, said it’s high time that people start disposing waste responsibly. “We should avoid using plastic. We need to understand that the waste we put into our dustbin will finally end up to the ocean and destroy marine life,” he said.