WoW Jokul

The WoW Jokul Program was initiated for the sole purpose of providing opportunities to local children, or local jokul, from the fishing and coastal villages. It is to provide a positive influence and opportunity to learn and grow, to empower them to better themselves and give themselves a better, brighter future ahead for themselves and their families.

Living in an environment where there is a complete lack of opportunity other than often basic menial work and employment. These villages are often wrought with disadvantaged and underprivileged families, with little or no financial security, parents working full days, 6-7 days a week every week, just to be able to survive, many living in temporary housing which can often be shared with one or more other families. The jokul from very young ages are forced to also work before and afterschool to help supplement the family income so there is enough food for everyone to at least get something to eat each day. For the jokul growing up in this environment, there is little hope for a bright, fulfilling future with basic opportunities that the majority of the world take completely for granted.

WoW Jokul was started for this. To provide a pathway for a much brighter future with opportunities far greater than jobs like collecting and carrying rocks. To provide an avenue of hope and something to drive and motivate them to work hard to improve themselves, their skills, their knowledge and help build their self confidence, self belief and belief in their own self worth!

Within this program, we teach basic aquatic and surf skills beginning with swimming and teaching the jokul to be able to put their faces and then heads underwater without panicking and reacting like they are drowning. This leads on to skills such as body surfing, dolphining, being able to start to read and understand the ocean and surf conditions, understanding dangers and hazards and to build the skills and confidence to hold their breath underwater and surface dive down in deeper water. Another vital skill is teaching how to remain safe while in the water and how to help themselves or others if they get into problems. Then we begin to work on surf sport specific skills like surfing, SUP, prone paddling and want to build our offering to a wider larger range of aquatic sports and skills.

The joy and delight we see on faces when someone catches their first wave body surfing or on a surfboard, when we have paddled out to 10 or 12ft deep water and these little jokul, who are maybe only 5ft tall, surface dive down double their height or more to pick up sand from the surface. The self satisfaction and stoke for them is mind blowing to see!

The avenues that being part of WoW Jokul can lead to include

  • just doing the sport(s) for fun and enjoyment, as a healthy activity and release from their normal daily life
  • to become a competitor in their sport in local, regional, state, national and potentially even international events and contests and become serious elite professional athletes
  • to become lifeguards on the beaches
  • to become surf or SUP instructors or guides
  • to join and work with aquatic operations in other roles other than instructing or guiding
  • to potentially own and run their own operations in the future

 

 

To be part of this program however, there are a number of rules that must be followed, and obligations met. These include

  • Going to school daily
  • Doing their studies and completing all work required of them at school
  • Doing their home duties and fulfilling any thing required of them by their parents and family
  • No alcohol
  • No drugs
  • No bullying or unsociable behaviour towards anyone in the group or towards others
  • Committing to consistent regularly training

It is for us a huge privilege to be able to contribute to this and be part of the WoW Jokul Program. It is our dharma to do this but it is an honour to be able to provide and run programs that directly affect the lives and futures of those where opportunities are not abundant.

Supporting Kudla Surf, you are directly supporting this WoW Jokul Program and directly supporting us to help support, develop and grow the whole aquatic industry in India.