Tamil Nadu surfers Kamali Moorthy and Kishore Kumar won the Women’s Open and Men’s Open titles at the finals of the seventh NMPA Indian Open of Surfing, held at Tannirbhavi beach in Mangaluru on Sunday.

Ms. Moorthy also clinched the U-18 Girls title, while Mangaluru’s Pradeep Pujar won the U-18 Boys category. Harish P. and Dhamayanthi Sriram secured the titles in the newly introduced U-14 Boys and U-14 Girls categories respectively.

Ms. Moorthy defended her Open Women’s title from the 2025 edition. In the final on Sunday, she topped the category with a score of 13.17. Sugar Shanti Banarse finished second with 11.73, while Shrishti Selvam placed third with 8.50. The final saw a close contest between Ms. Moorthy and Ms. Banarse, with Ms. Moorthy holding her nerve to produce a decisive late scoring ride and retain her crown.

Excited about winning the Women’s Open and U-18 Girls titles, Ms. Moorthy said she will work hard to earn a place in Team India for the Asian Games.

Meanwhile, Kishore Kumar topped the Men’s Open category with a score of 15.20. Ramesh Budihal finished second with 12.87, while Sivaraj Babu scored 11.90 and Srikanth D. secured 9.93. Mr. Kumar said he is focused on representing India at the Asian Games.

Pradeep Pujar said he was excited to win his first national title in front of his home crowd. The competition was tough, and all the finalists pushed each other to perform at their best, he said. The 7th edition of the Indian Open Surfing Championship was organised by the Mantra Surf Club and the Surfing Swami Foundation under the aegis of the Surfing Federation of India, with support from the State government and the Karnataka Surfing Association.