9 Indian Women Who Are Dominating The World Of Adventure Sports

Fast cars, tasty waves and threading through the concrete jungle on a beat up Alien Workshop skateboard are the characteristics that define these ladies. Watch out lads, these thrill seeking athletes will make you regret all your third standard playground banter. I’m afraid this is a clear case of ‘boys drool and girls rule’.

As the Rio Olympics demonstrated to us, our female athletes are highly underrated. India is home to some seriously talented athletes who turn heads in the world of sport, but it seems like they get less recognition by the mass media, perhaps, because of their Y chromosomes. That’s why we thought we’d take a look at our women in adventure sports because there’s no way you can deny the tenacity of these adrenaline junkies.

I. Alisha Abdullah- Motorsport Racer.

Alisha is a veritable powerhouse. Her CV is chockablock full of achievement as a superbike racer, car racer and actress. Alishia got the petrol head bug/ need for speed bug from the seven time national superbike champ, RA Abdullah who is Alisha’s proud coach and father. At nine years of age this gumption filled gal strapped herself into a go kart and won the MRF National Go-Karting Championship and the Best Novice Award in the National level Formula Car Racing in the open class at 13.

In an entry level racing sport dominated by males one can be sure her peers shed a few tears that day. This trait continued into racing as she made it fifth in the JK Tyre National Racing Championship, rode the Superbike route winning the Honda All Ladies Race in 2016 and was the first woman in history to take the 2011 Polo Cup (now Vento Cup) podium.

Author’s note: Alisha first competed with Superbikes against male riders, however she took a bad spill commenting to the media: “In a completely male dominated sport, I think I bruised quite a few men’s ego. They couldn’t stand a girl push past guys and many a time they deliberately hit my bike. Being a no-nonsense girl, I always fought back. But the crash was the threshold. I didn’t want to race bikes anymore, though I loved it.”

II. Ishita Malviya-India’s First Professional Female Surfer

India’s burgeoning surfer culture has to salute the German student Ishita Malaviya ran into in Manipal as he was the inspirational force behind her travelling to a surf ashram near Mangalore. It was there young Ishita, gliding atop her first wave at 18, realized her life belonged to the ocean.

Although it took a few years to power through all the BS associated with being a young woman following her unconventional dreams in India, Ishita and her love for surfing prevailed. Ishita is now globally recognized through her modeling for Roxy (surfer attire), the acclaimed surfer documentary Beyond The Surface as well as for her Shaka Surfing School and Namahola Surfing camp both in Karnataka. In association with Rashtriya Life Saving Society the Shaka Surfing School hosts a little Nippers Program, which teachers government school children to be lifeguards.

III. Shital Mahajan - Skydiver

When you get nicknames like ‘Queen of the Sky’ and ‘Indian Superwoman’ you know you’re pretty much the definition of badass. We guess that’s what happens when you win five world records and fourteen National Awards. She’s the only person in the world to skydive both the North and the South Pole, that too with no prior training in sub-zero temperature of 37 degrees celsius.

She is also the only Indian woman to wingsuit fly. Wingsuit flying is as about as intense as it gets with adventure sports as it has claimed the lives of many talented and brave athletes. That’s why people have to skydive 200 times before they attempt wingsuit flying. This Padma Shri awardee is the founder of Phoenix Skydiving Academy, a skydiving training centre based in Pune.It’s rather fitting the ‘Queen of the Sky’ was married in a hot air balloon.

IIII. Poorna Malavath- Mountain Climber

The youngest female climber of Mount Everest is a young girl of 17 (she ascended Mt. Everest at 14) who started climbing due to an initiative taken by the secretary of her school system is a man named Dr. R.S. Praveen Kumar, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and Harvard graduate who returned to India in order to reform the school system. Poorna’s residential school was placed under control of Arunachal Pradesh’s social welfare department, where she got the training she needed to climb the mountain.

Her record setting climb resulted in a wave of happiness all over India, although there was a resounding amount of support from the Dalit community and lower income groups. Poorna showed the nation, and the world for that matter, it doesn’t matter if you’re a farm child without the amenities nearly all Everest climbers have. All she needed was spirit and determination as strong as the legs that carried her up the world’s highest peak.

V. Atita Verghese- Skateboarder

This fun loving skater with a heart of gold lives to cling onto the grip tape of her board by the balls of her feet and turn dirty concrete into a canvas for her smooth riding. A late bloomer to the skating world at 19, Atita wasted no time getting good. The now 24-year-old pro-skater has raised sweet hell with her beat up board. She’s featured in the music video for the Wild Beasts’ track Alpha Female, where she glides throughout Bengaluru with her patented grungy, yet suave, stoicism.

She’s also put together an all-girls skateboarding tour across India in 2015 to 2016 with 12 female skateboarders from around the globe, on which there is a short documentary. However, what tops the limelight is Atita’s collaboration with Bengaluru’s HolyStoked Collective to build a skate park in the city, where they taught underprivileged children how to skate as well as provided English, Math and photography lessons. The project did so well Atita snagged a grant from a German NGO to construct 15 skate parks, 10 in India and 5 abroad.

VI. Archana Sardana- Skydiver and Base Jumper

Archana’s adventure sport lifestyle went zero to one hundred in the most peculiar and rapid adoption of extreme sports. She is India’s first and only woman BASE jumper, a highly accomplished skydiver, mountaineer and is a scuba diving instructor ( she’s the only Indian who is a trained Instructor with the Disabled Divers International).After she got married her husband encouraged her to try out mountaineering. She soon took quite a liking to it, and still does, but decided to try out sky diving, which has turned into a love affair of a lifetime. She trained rigorously in the USA at Perris Valley before heading to Salt Lake City where she learned how to BASE jump. This typically involves jumping from a high precipice, freefalling and opening of your shute close to the ground. Many consider BASE jumping the most dangerous sport in the world, and for good reason.

This record setter has completed over 335 skydives, the most memorable being her free fall skydive from a height of 13,500 feet. And out of all her worldwide BASE jumps she summoned the strength to do a 400-feet high jump in Utah. Moreover, Archana descended 30 metres deep off the Andaman Neil Island, breaking a new record as she proudly held the national flag underwater. By the way, this renowned scuba instructor didn’t know how to swim most of her life. We think it’s safe to say Archana is one quick learner.

VII. Priyanka Jena- Kayaker

A founding member of The Holiday Studio, Priyanka runs an exploration-based travel company, designed to discover ‘untouched or unexplored destinations’ as well as promote kayaking, surfing, kite surfing, scuba diving, trekking and skiing.

Priyanka’s favourite adventure sport is kayaking, often paddling around islands and along beaches searching for a little bit of paradise. Even though she refers to her kayaking as a sport she’s had no formal training in, that didn’t stop her from taking a state-level championship in Tamil Nadu against veteran kayakers. Keep on paddling boss!

VIII. Ayesha Lobo- Sailing

The Captain of India’s all-women sailing team is one busy person who both globetrots so she can compete internationally and runs LSails Mumbai’s sailing school for adults and children. As Ayesha has competed so much it’s hard to list all her achievements, but just so you know how good she is the young sailor now in her mid-twenties was announced as the top five sailing champions in Asia and Africa in the all women’s rankings from 2010-2012. Not to mention she was declared India’s number one sailor in 2011.

And the cherry on top is that Ayesha is a certified scuba diver for Search and Recovery, Underwater Navigation, Deep-Diving, Shipwreck Diving and Emergency First Responder.

IX. Malaika Vaz- Wind Surfing and Regatta

Malaika is a little bit of Goan sunshine, always ready to find time in her busy schedule to save the environment while she pursues the many attainable dreams on her horizon. One of India’s top windsurfing champions, this coastal ocean lover is always working towards more. Malaika is the youngest expeditioner to the Arctic and Antarctic globally, India’s youngest certified pilot, experienced horse rider and PADI Dive Master. Nevertheless, this earth loving adventurer may have made her biggest impact by channelising her love for the outdoors into wildlife filmmaking. She recently directed the internationally acclaimed ‘Waghoba’, a documentary on human tiger conflict and coexistence that has been screened in the United States, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand and more.

Keep on inspiring us ladies!