Mangaluru, May 24 (IANS): Defending Champions D Manikandan and Shrishti Selvam will be seen in action at the 3rd edition of Indian Open Surfing 2022, starting from May 27-29 at the Panambur Beach, Mangalore.

Shanti Banarse of Goa and Sinchana Gowda of Karnataka will be the other top surfers competing for the title in the women's category while Nithishvarun T and Babu Sivaraj of Tamil Nadu are expected to give a tough competition to D Manikandan for the Men's title. Kishore Kumar and Tayin Arun of Tamil Nadu are the favourites in the Groms (U16) category.

Over 70 top surfers from across the country have confirmed their participation for the 3-day competition, recognized by the International Surfing Association.

Surfers will compete in two disciplines viz; Surfing & Stand Up Paddling, across different categories which are: Male Open, Female Open, Male and Female Groms (U - 16), Male 17+ Surf.

"I don't feel the pressure of defending the national title. I will be doing my best and concentrating on my performance for the surf contest," said D. Manikandan, defending national champion.

Arun Vasu, President of SFI said, "This edition of Indian Open will be more focused on having a structured contest based on the performances of the previous events. It is encouraging to see how the participation has spread across various places and not concentrated to one place."

The defending National Women's Champion Shrishti Selvam said, "It is going to be a very tough and challenging field of surfers this year and I am happy that more women are participating in the sport. It will be a fun contest and I will be doing my best to defend the title."

Karnataka Tourism has come on board with the Indian Open Surfing as the title partners, while Chennai based TT Group are the associate partners. Action Camera majors GoPro, are the Action Partners for the premier surfing competition.