Samai Reboul coaches India’s four-member surfing squad ahead of Asian Games; eyes LA 2028 quotas
French coach Samai Reboul is leading a four-member Indian surfing team in Mahabalipuram as they prepare for the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi‑Nagoya, where surfing competition at Pacific Long Beach begins on September 25; the Games will offer quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Reboul was appointed head coach by the Indian Surfing Federation in 2024 and has overseen national selection camps and high-performance preparation for the Asian Games after guiding India to a bronze medal at the Asian Surfing Championships. He holds a French passport but says he considers himself Indian, having lived more than half his life in Auroville, Puducherry, and Sanjay Selvamani serves as his deputy.
India will field two surfers in the men’s shortboard—Kishore Kumar and Sivaraj Babu—and two in the women’s shortboard—Kamali Moorty and Sugar Shanti Banarse—at the Asian Games, where surfing is one of six sports making its debut. The squad is training in Mahabalipuram ahead of the competition that starts on September 25 at Pacific Long Beach in Aichi‑Nagoya.
Reboul outlined his pathway into coaching in comments to SAI Media: “Getting there was the result of a natural progression that happened through a combination of passion, experience and chance. I worked as an instructor and managed Kallialay Surf School for more than 10 years. Through this experience I always wanted to develop and grow as an instructor, and I gained my ISA coaching and judging qualifications.”
He described the importance of Asian Games inclusion for surfing in India and the responsibilities on the coaching staff: “When a sport enters an event like the Asian Games, it gets a completely different level of recognition. For the athletes, it means they can represent a developing surfing nation on one of the biggest sporting stages in Asia. For young people watching in India, it also showcases surfing as a serious sporting pathway. As a coach, it is also a great responsibility. We have been working towards this for some time, and now the athletes have the opportunity to show what Indian surfing can do,” said Samai to SAI Media.
On longer-term objectives, Reboul linked the Asian Games to Olympic ambitions: “The Olympics is definitely part of the long-term vision, but to get there an important objective is to create sustainable pathways for Indian surfers to develop from a young age and eventually compete at the highest international level. The 2026 Asian Games are an important step. After that, we need to build towards the 2028 Olympics and beyond. For me, success would be having Indian surfers who are regularly competing internationally, travelling with the needed support, understanding professional competition, and being capable of qualifying for major events. If we do that properly, Olympic qualification, the ultimate goal, becomes a consequence of a strong system rather than a one-off objective,” said Samai.
Reboul and others point to domestic growth: India’s 7,000‑plus kilometres of coastline, the formation of a national governing body in 2011, the first national championship in 2013, and the expansion into a National Surf Series that includes the Indian Open of Surfing (Mangaluru), the Mahabs Point Break Challenge (Mahabalipuram), the Covelong Classic (Kovalam), the Puducherry Surf Open, the International Surfing Festival (Kerala) and the Little Andaman Pro. On development needs he said: “What we need now is time and investment. Surfing cultures take time to develop. India is building that now. We are seeing better competitions, better coaching, more young surfers coming through and more athletes getting international experience. The fact that India qualified for the 2026 Asian Games is itself an important step in that development. I would say we are clearly moving in the right direction,” said the head coach.
India’s immediate focus is the Asian Games starting September 25 at Pacific Long Beach in Aichi‑Nagoya, where the four Indian surfers will compete in the shortboard events and where successful performances can secure quota places for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
