Daesappan Manikandan Biography 
Daesappan Manikandan or simply D. Manikandan is an Indian surfer from Tamil Nadu. He is fondly called Appu. Fishermen-turned-surfers, Manikandan and Vignesh won top honours at the country's first Surf Festival held in Orissa in 2012. Vignesh came first and Manikandan second. Both are friends since childhood days, who learnt the sport of surfing together. Manikandan has conquered the Spice Coast Open, India's first official national surfing contest, held at the renowned beach town of Kovalam, Kerala. Currently Manikandan is one among the valuable surfers who play for his country and a rising star. It was India's first official national surfing contest.
Daesappan Manikandan was born into a poor fisherman family in Tamil Nadu. V. Vignesh and D. Manikandan are friends who were born in the sea shores of Kovalam, Chennai. Both were born in the fishing villages that dot the shore of Kovalam beach. They have been friends since school days, and fathers of both of them were fishermen. Manikandan and Vignesh usually picked up a catamaran and used to go out to the sea during summer vacations. They untied the logs and just pick one to balance on, long before they knew of surf boards. Their time was divided between school and helping their fathers with fishing.
One day, while at work, the duo spotted a few tourists surfing, and they got curious watching their action. It was for the first time they saw a surfing board. They asked them if they could try it out and they gave it for a while. The duo learnt how to use it before they returned it. They later tried surfing with catamarans and eventually learnt to surf by themselves. The two along with their friend P. Venkatesh met Showkath Jamal to join his surfing school Bay of Life as trainers in 2011.
When the tsunami struck in 2004, the friends got involved in a lot of relief work in the area and this brought them closer to the fishing community. They started training boys and slowly more students joined it. They also set up a local community with the help of a few others to help youngsters earn an income by employing them as trainers. They trained them in life support, stand up paddling, surfing, and took them to a surf ashram in Mangalore for further training. Daesappan Manikandan claims first ever Indian surf contest in 2013, held at Kovalam, Kerala.
Published: November 18, 2018
Updated: November 18, 2018
