The Four Square Challenge 2001, an adventure raft race, was held in Rishikesh from March 21st to March 24th.Initiated and Conceptualised by Four Square Sports Gear and Managed by IMG, The World's Premier Sports Marketing Organisation, the event unleashed a thrillingwater adventure at the Ganges, Hrishikesh.

The event saw eight international teams and four teams from India participate in the competition. Of the four Indian teams, two teams were from the Punjab Police, one from the Indo Tibetan Border Police and one was the Four Square Team. The six adventure enthusiasts who formed the Four Square Team were selected after a nationwide search and trained by International coaches.

Two of these lucky six are Puneites. Rahul Surkund took great pride in getting Deepa Thatte and Sujeet Sabnis to talk about the splashing good time they had.

Over to them.

Some Background Information:

Deepa: Since my mother was in the services, I have lived all over India and like most kids from the Services background, have
attended several schools. I passed out from the Air Force Bal Bharti School, New Delhi. I graduated with a degree in Hotel Management from the College of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Mumbai. My first job was with Hotel Blue Diamond. I worked with them for two years before moving to Dubai. I worked here for three years and it was time to shift again.
This time I chose to enter a new field. I joined myiris.com, a personal finance portal. I am the Marketing Manager of the portal. I just got married recently, my husband works in Dubai, so, as you guessed it, time for yet another shift.

Sujeet: I am a Commerce Graduate from SP College Pune. After my graduation, I worked with a finance company. After that for a number of years I had my own Auto Finance business. In 1996, I gave up the finance business and started work as an Outdoors Expert, conducting corporate outdoor management development workshops. We conduct activities like Rock Climbing, Rappelling, Navigation exercises, etc. We also conduct outdoor adventure camps for school children in the age group 8-14 years.

I am a member of the RCPC sailing club where I go sailing and do a lot of rowing. For three years I represented the RCPC club in the sailing Nationals.

On joining the rat oops rafts race:

Deepa: Four Square had these Kiosks all over the country starting from January for a month. I filled the form to try my luck. Four Square got in touch with me on the 18th February to be precise. I was short listed as one of the women candidates. The sponsors, IMG, called me for an interview. I was interviewed on three basic criteria - Physical fitness, mental toughness and stamina.

I was selected and asked to fly to Delhi on the 21st of February.  I got permission from my boss and joined the team. In Delhi, Sujeet and I met the other four members of the team and also the International trainers - Alan Burt - the rafting coach and Isaac Wilson - adventure racing trainer. The two were going to manage our three weeks of training.

Sujeet: I had applied for the Four Square Challenge at a Kiosk that was set up at Sagar Arcade on MG Road. I was short listed and finally selected for the Four Square Challenge. It was a fabulous opportunity for me as the year before I had spent three years on the Banks of the River Ganges as a, you will be surprised, river guide.

On the training sessions:

Deepa: The one word to describe the three weeks of training is 'gruelling.' We trained 6-7 hours a day during those three weeks. We would be rafting through the rapids for 10-12 kilometers and after that we would swim in the same rapids. The water temperature used to be nice and cold. Once we finished swimming we would jog for 5-7 kilometers. We would then break for lunch, rest for an hour.

In the afternoons we would again hit the water, this time we would be rafting for 15 kilometers. We would also do a number
of comfort exercises. for e.g., If the boat turned over in a rapid how one would react etc. The evenings were spent on the technical specifications of the game. We went through the entire course and we would spend the evenings discussing what strategy we would use at every rapid. The day would end for us at 4:30 when we would have tea and then wait for dinner before we could simply drop off to sleep.

Sujeet: The first few days of the training were tough. The running sessions, especially, tired me, as I am not an Athlete.
After the initial week, it was ok and the nutritional food and other supplements we consumed, helped build stamina. Our training concentrated a great deal on the technical part of the race.

On the Competition:

Deepa (On behalf of both of them) The competition was a four-day affair. The race kicked-off at Shivpuri on March 20th, 2001 with a prologue. The South African team (Eventual winners) was missing at the prologue, which was won by the Americans, making them the first team to start off each event.

The first event, Raftathon on March 21st, 2001, started off at Laser Village, some 25 kms away from Devprayag, requiring the team members to navigate their ways on land for about five kms, before locating their rafts and then paddling across a distance of 24 kms through a series of Grade II & Grade III rapids. The Team from South Africa, who began last, emerged as leaders, as they completed the gruelling course in One hour 56 minutes 32 seconds to bag the maximum 25 points. 

The second days event, Flying Slalom, required two team members to zip across the two ends of Ganges and then join other two members, to then raft through series of 13 gates, made over various Grade III rapids. To make the task even more demanding, four gates were located in an upstream manner, requiring teams to paddle against rapid currents of water to pass through these. Several teams even failed to cross these gates and almost all teams ended up with penalties, leading to additional seconds in their total time.

Aquadash, the second event, required team members to abseil from a bridge located at a height of 30 mts, jump into the water and swim towards their rafts, before paddling to the finish line. Out here, it was the team from Africa which took the lead again, closely followed by Team USA, which was left behind by around 25 seconds. 

While all other events were staggered timed events, with a five-minute break between the start of each team, Rafter Cross, the last event was a mass start event. Held at Shivpuri, the team members were required to first swim across the shore, catch their rafts and then swim through various rapids and pass through gates. They were also required to climb up a boulder and then swing to their raft through a rope. Australia won this event.

Africa emerged as overall champions of the Four Square Challenge 2001.

On fellow Competitors:

Both: The foreign teams were professional adventure racers, vastly experienced and more fit than members of the Indian teams.
The experience, however, was exhilarating. It was great to meet the international teams & compete with them. They were sporting & always kept cheering us during and after the race. The course was tough and it needed a lot of stamina, endurance & skill to run the course. It was also great fun.

On family's reaction:

Deepa: They backed me totally. Both, my Mother and Husband were keen that I participate.

Sujeet: My wife, who is a website developer, was glad that I was getting this opportunity to participate in the race.

Text: Rahul Surkund
Photographs: Hari Krishna