Mangaluru (The Hindu): Twelve-year-old Ajith often stays up till past midnight to fill up pots at home with drinking water. The pipe at home gurgles to life only at ungodly hours. But he is at Panambur beach, one kilometre away from home, at 6.30 a.m. the next morning for training in surfing.

He is on time on most days, but when he is late, he has to sit and watch Australian Jamo Borthwick, instructor at the ‘Walking on Water’ free school for underprivileged children, training his friends Manjunath, 14, and Chandru, 13, until it is his turn. “Ajith needs to help his grandmother, who sells groundnuts on the beach, and his 14-year-old older sister in household chores,” says Austin O’Brien, the other Australian surfing instructor at the school.

Ajith, Manjunath and Chandru are among 40 children from Korikatta near Panambur who began receiving this training three months ago from Walking on Water. All of them come from poor socio-economic backgrounds and most of their parents make a living as small vendors on the beach. “It’s not just surfing. We want to make these children proficient not only in surfing but also in life-guarding and life-saving,” says Mr. Borthwick. He believes that these skills will help in bringing a change in the lifestyle of these children.

“Just out of curiosity, I joined surfing along with my friends in the locality. Now, I really enjoy it!” beams Manjunath, a native of Bagalkot, who has been a regular for the one-hour surfing training held every morning and evening. His parents are migrant workers.

Dhruv, a local surfing instructor, has joined Mr. Borthwick in running the school, which gives free surfing training for these children while charging those who can afford it.

Ajith and 14 other children are being trained for the second edition of the Indian Open of Surfing competition, to be held in the Sasihitlu beach in the last week of May. Mr. Borthwick hopes to one day take these children to international surfing competitions too.