On Karachi’s coast, a group of surfers chases waves and their dreams

Surfing enthusiasts group "Surfers of Buleiji" has grown to around 50 in a country where cricket and hockey are the main sports.

Attiq Ur Rehman is determined to follow his dream to become Pakistan’s first professional surfer despite his father’s concern for his future, a lack of equipment and the messy waves near Karachi.

“I dont care about the money right now. I just want to compete,” the 21-year-old says, shrugging off his father’s plea to take up fishing so he can get married and support his family.

“It’s my surfer attitude.”

Rehman’s family are part of a poor coastal community in southern Pakistan that usually make a living from fishing or as lifeguards watching over more affluent residents of Karachi when they come for a day at the beach.

Surfers check their boards as they prepare to surf at Tushan Beach in Karachi on Aug 28, 2024. — Reuters

His father makes the equivalent of $100 a month to feed a family of 10 through fishing.

“I told him a thousand times (to stop surfing) but he still doesn’t listen,” said Rehman’s father, Muhammad Rafiq.

Rehman was a lifeguard but gave it up to concentrate on his surfing, which he started aged nine, and founded a new community that calls itself “Surfers of Bulleji”.

The group has grown to around 50 and has gone viral on social media in a country where cricket and hockey are the main sports.

Surfers warm up and stretch as they prepare to surf at Turtle Beach in Karachi, on Sept 4, 2024. — Reuters

The group consists of surfing enthusiasts from surrounding coastal villages, some aged as young as eight.

On a sunny day, their passion for surfing is on display with the right window for waves to surf along a near-empty beach close to the metropolis of 20 million.

One of cohort, Mujahid Baloch, a 24-year-old fisherman, first saw surfing on social media and instantly took a shine to it.

“Slowly, through watching, we learned. No one taught us,” he said.

Mujahid rides a wave at the end of surfing season, at the Turtle Beach in Karachi, on Sept 4, 2024. — Reuters

Though Sri Lanka and the Maldives to the south are on global surfers’ hit lists, Pakistan’s arid 1,000km (620 miles) of coastline is usually poorly suited for surfing, relying on local winds to generate waves that are often small and messy, or rare cyclone swells.

“When all of Karachi was being given an advisory to stay away from the sea, and a cyclone was approaching, me and the boys were getting ready to go to the beach,” said Rehman. “The waves were ideal for us.”

While an occasional visiting surfer might join them for a paddle and some other villages along the coast have small surfing groups, competition with global peers is a challenge.

The International Surfing Association has 116 member countries, including places such as Ukraine and land-locked Switzerland, but Pakistan is not on the list.

Still, members of “Surfers of Bulleji” idolise American professional surfer Kelly Slater, whose videos they often watch awe-struck, and wish to emulate his skill.

A surfer rides a wave, as another looks on, at Turtle Beach in Karachi, on Sept 4, 2024. — Reuters

But access to surfing equipment is limited in Pakistan, with the group sharing about 25 surfboards and pitching in for repairs when they are needed.

They sometimes find discarded boards in large containers of junk brought to Pakistan from around the world. They buy these junked boards for as little as $35 and repair them using basic materials like glue and resin.

“If it breaks, we repair it. Because we don’t have surfboards here,” Baloch said. Pointing to a piece of foam, he said it was found at sea and shaped into a make-shift board. “If we find more such foam, we can make our own boards here,” he said.

“Our community is getting bigger and stronger, so the shopkeepers know we will come and keep such finds safe for us,” Rehman says.

Header image: Attiqur Rehman, 21, walks with his teammates along the beach as they prepare to surf at Turtle Beach in Karachi, on Sept 4, 2024. — Reuters