Paddle Team
Team
Kumaran Mahalingam (Founder, Paddle for Future Program) is Geologist, stand-up paddler and a conservation educator. He holds three Limca book of Records for different feats in stand up paddling. He is also a certified wilderness first responder from National Outdoor Leadership School, USA.
Awards & Achievements
He has been paddling across the length and breadth of the country on water bodies, for couple f years now. As he paddles, he also generates awareness on conserving water bodies and eco-system around us, through this sport. His unwavering passion has brought many laurels both in form of records and fame. He has three independent Limca Book of Records, to his credit.
- Longest stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) for seven kilometers in 90 minutes into the sea of Bay-of-Bengal – 25th Feb 2015.
- Longest stand-up paddleboarding feat on river Godavari by covering 31 km from Pattiseema to Iskcon temple in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh in 3 hours during the monsoon season – on July 3, 2016.
- Stand-up paddleboarding on most water bodies by an individual for performing 58 SUP trips on 19 different water bodies – 17 in India and one each in Sri Lanka and Malaysia – covering a total distance of 484 km as of June 30, 2016. He accomplished it as part of a mission to understand the ecosystem of different water bodies and to promote paddleboarding.
Some of the other notable achievements are
- First in the world to stand-up paddle a distance of 2,700 kilometers along the descent of the River Ganges in 101 days between October 2016 and January 2017. First-ever recording of river Gangetic dolphins (Platanista gangetica) by standup paddleboarding. A total of 900 dolphins were spotted during his expedition. The aim of the adventure was to also use this sport to campaign for cleaner and safer rivers and also raising awareness against single-use plastic (SUP) i.e #SUPagainstSUP, encouraging more people to step outside their comfort zone and attempt an ‘adventure in their backyard’.
- Highest stand up paddle boarding (SUP) 16618 ft across Tso Ltak Lake, Ladakh, India 2016.
- First ever to paddleboard in River Shyok, Nubra valley, Sep 2016.
Apart from paddleboarding expedition, Kumaran, who talks and conducts workshops on paddling & geology for school students, asserts on the importance of being connected to nature. As Nature educator, Kumaran reached more than 3500 schoolkids through his outdoor learning programs. Learn more about it on:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumaran_Mahalingam_(Geologist)
Jananie (Co-Founder, Paddle for Future Program)
A physical therapist by profession, having a post graduation in memory development and psychoneurotics. She is now upto her research on kids fitness and women’s health. She loves to stay around with adventurous people and stay passionate about it as well. Loves nature and loves to play with water and that turned out to be her explorable venture with SUP, WOGA (Water yoga), Aqua rehab and still exploring. After all life is all about exploring.
Vignesh
A fitness enthusiast and a physical therapist by profession when introduced with SUP gave it a new dimension. Exercises on SUP, balance training, and strength training were few of his friends having completed PG. in yoga Varma and herbal science and they are already volunteering our programs. He explored the effects of SUP and yoga together to bring about a next gen yoga. He is passionate about sports and conservation. And yes he is still exploring.
Santhosh
A fitness and wellness manager with a love for nature, when introduced with SUP he made it with great interest and started pursuing as a sport. He was a fitness coach for various games. A good swimmer with CPR certification, District level cricket player, well known short film artist.
Arunraj
An entrepreneur with an unconditional love towards nature and also with a passion towards photography. Being a Non-Swimmer his interests towards the environment and a bond with it brought him towards Paddle for future. When he was introduced to an amazing water sport “stand up paddling’’ he took charge over each and every shot to be captured and delivers it at its best. A strong team member with love towards ecosystem. He never disappoints with his lens and promises us to render a beautiful memory.
Venkatesan
A strong team member with a passion for cooking. A person from a civil profession took over his passion towards conserving water bodies and lake clean up. His contribution as a backup for our team members shows his love for his own passion. Nature lover, Traveller, and individual who is concerned of the lake conservation.
Bala
Our big brother in our team. A cooperative and a strong teammate. He is a quick learner and has a good knowledge on water bodies. The lake clean up and the methodologies we follow are taken care by him.
Karthickeyan
A mechanical engineering graduate with a passion for nature and it’s conservation. The versatile Design expert of the Paddle for the Future team is a software engineer with a passion for photography.
Somna
Words of mouth may fade away to dust but when encrypted they could be passed on to generations. A graduate of Journalism, seek bliss and salvation through uniting with nature. Water to somna is a way of rejuvenating her soul thereby slipping into joy. Bonded miraculously with the team Somna takes charge of being the content writer of Paddle for future.
