Who are we kidding anymore? Summer is here, and there are but a few things to do, to beat this inevitable heat wave. It is only a while till the beloved gola too will fail to soothe our summer woes, and it definitely won’t help salvage a weekend plan. However, like a beacon of hope, comes Kshitij Mittal and Ankit Saboo who unknowingly solved this dilemma, with their event: The Mumbai Underwater Festival.
The duo are diving aficionados — Kshitij in fact, was Ankit’s diving instructor, before they started FinKick Adventures together. “Diving is our passion. When we dive, we absolutely love every minute of it, and that is exactly what we want to share with people. The beauty of a good dive, and our love for it. But we knew if we wanted to reach out to more people, we were going to have to take a different route,” explains Ankit when asked about what led to hosting an entire underwater festival. The first edition of The Underwater Festival was held in Pune, and was attended by about 200 people.
He continues, “We knew it was working out well, because we managed to achieve our goal after the festival — people were now more open to diving. A lot of people from there on, wanted to come with us on dives into the ocean.” Considering Pune was such a success, it only made sense to move to Mumbai, a bigger city, with their next edition. Their vision as of now, is to take this Underwater Festival to different cities, and then plan for one massive Indian Underwater Festival.
The Mumbai edition (May 6 - May 7) has taken them over three months to plan, and finally put into action. After securing the necessary permissions, FinKick Adventures took their festival one step ahead this time. Besides water-related activities in the Underwater Zone, they’re also introducing an Action Zone, that’ll be host to Skateboarding, Slacklining and Spikeball. If the last two activities seemed unfamiliar, it’s because they’re fairly new sports that are picking up internationally.
As for underwater sports, the festival offers a range of activities, right from cycling underwater, to playing chess, and another new sport — Underwater Hockey. Originally, a game played by divers to keep warm in cold water, Kshitij is introducing the sport here for anyone and everyone. “In fact, we’ve even been invited to come to the UK with the first Indian Underwater Hockey team,” laughs Ankit. (Hint: Stun them with your underwater skills, and who knows, maybe you’ll get to be part of the team. too!) For serious divers, they’re also introducing ‘Technical Diving’, which requires different equipment, multiple tanks, and is surprisingly not done elsewhere in India.
The Visitor Zone is where one can wander about, and if you didn’t get a picture at their underwater photo booth, definitely get one taken at the photo booth here. If you’re the type of person who would rather appreciate a photograph, than be in it though, they’ve got photo exhibitions, with work from mainly underwater photographers. Lectures and talks will also be held, about marine life and adventure sports.
A good swim, is nearly always accompanied by a ravenous appetite after (it can’t be just us), which is where Mumbai’s food trucks come to the rescue. Three to four food trucks will be at the venue, ensuring your every food craving is taken care of.
So Mumbai, if you still want more details, you can visit the event’s official website here. However, if we have already convinced you and you’re just looking to book tickets ASAP, click here. We’ll see you there!