WILD'earnest thrill seekers

Scuba diving in Thailand, surfing in Mangalore and cliff diving in the Philippines — these are just some of the exhilarating activities you could indulge in if you opt for a holiday that includes taking part in an adventure sport.

For youngsters who are adrenaline junkies, holidays aren’t just about chilling by the beach, there’s a whole lot of thrill in store for them as they plan vacations that are centered on adventure sports.

Entrepreneur Anand Vecham  says, “One  day in office, we thought of doing something different and  chose to scuba dive. We started our research on the certification and we did the level one certification at St Joseph’s School. This led to our first scuba dive expedition to Pondicherry to complete our open water certification and ever since, we haven’t stopped diving. We have travelled to Andaman, Thailand, Philippines and Maldives on our diving trips,” says Anand, who has also participated in off roading events in Sakleshpur, Coorg and Wayanad.

“Recently, I even went camping in the forests of Kanakapuraorganised by Campers Creek. As for scuba diving, going around the corals and ship wrecks is a memory which will never fade away,” says Anand.

Thirty-year-old Juhi Sheth did a trip centered around bungee jumping when she lived in South Africa. “I did a road trip to Africa’s highest bridge called the BloukarnsRiver Valley. You have to walk upto the middle of the bridge which is 216 metres high in order to do the bungee here. Just before I went, my dad called me and when he heard that I had chickened out, he encouraged me to get past my fear. I gathered my wits and made the jump which was a free fall of seven seconds — it was the most exhilarating experience of my life,” recollects Juhi.

Senior product manager Nimish Jain has done the ‘Chaddar trek’ in Leh in February. “It involved walking on a river which was frozen, it was a six-day trek done under extreme conditions. The temperature was minus 35 degrees! There were parts of the river which were not frozen, so we had to climb mountains in order to pass those areas,” he reminisces. Nimish has also surfed in  Mangalore.

“There’s a place called Yoga Ashram located on the bank of a river. A group of 12 of us took surf lessons and surfed there. One needs to be really strong to do surfing as it’s an extreme sport,” says Nimish , who is also a fervent diver. “I’ve dived in Thailand, Philippines and Maldives  and I intend to travel to Indonesia this coming season,” he shares.