We wanted to put together a company “offsite” for some time now – except that regular company offsites don’t fit into our work culture :

• Our mentorship model of working means co-workers are trained continuously rather than in brief spurts.
• None of our work involves “networking”.
• We love our giant monitors and we wouldn’t accomplish much without them.

It seemed that a company trip was doomed to failure. So we renamed it a “Serious Team Building” session and went surfing instead! No work – only fun.

We headed down to Mulky, to an Ashram (colloquially known as the “Surfing Swamys”) where we stayed in dingy rooms, washed our own dishes and yes – picked up surfboards. It was a trip to remember: I distinctly recall the first wave I caught and it washed me up to the shore in seconds! A thrill and joy that I cannot explain in mere words.

Truly, riding a wave is a breathless experience. It gets your heart and blood pumping. The Sun, salt and sand are a virtuous blend – it makes you feel Zen and forget about the world for a while.

In the words of Jolene Blalock, “Surfing is such an amazing concept. You’re taking on Nature with a little stick and saying, ‘I’m gonna ride you!’ And a lot of times Nature says, ‘No you’re not!’ and crashes you to the bottom”.

The end result of our fun and adrenaline filled trip was this – we decided to do one extreme thing every year for as long as we work together. (Next year: Everest Base Camp?) This is what drives our philosophy and moulds our work culture: We are a firm that goes surfing together.