Extreme Eves

A documentary by a rock climber is bringing together 14 badass women athletes from the world of extreme sports.

- Sneha Bhura

YOU COULD BE into cave-diving or sky-surfing, waterfall kayaking or big mountain skiing… craving that hedonistic, adrenaline rush. But, what if engaging with extreme sports becomes a matter of survival? And, a single-minded pursuit for defying naysayers and non-believers? To make a point about sisterhood, solidarity and empowerment?

Delhi-based Kopal Goyal might be a regulation rock climber, but she is also slipping down frozen waterfalls, riding into the churning waves, rolling over mountains and thermalling in the skies with a camera in hand—a Canon EOS 7D. Goyal is making a 40-minute documentary on 14 Indian women athletes in extreme and alternative sports. And the elfin-like 25-year-old, a self-taught filmmaker, is learning and shooting 10 outdoor extreme sports. Titled Wild Women, its extended trailer was launched at the IMF Mountain Film Festival in Delhi in February and won the People’s Choice Award.

Sitting in a cafe-bookstore in central Delhi, Goyal is giggling. Her small face, framed in a black pixie-cut, is delicately punctured with a tiny dimple just beneath her left eye. “Oh, that’s when the surfboard upturned and hit me right in the face,” Goyal chirpily says. “It was hard to paddle and balance the camera at the same time with those waves lashing. I don’t even know how to swim.”

Goyal defends her injury like a keepsake from exploits in faraway lands. In this case, it happened at Mulki, a small village offthe coast of Mangaluru. Goyal was there to shoot a young competitive surfer, Aneesha Nayak, in action. On the last day of the shoot, Goyal lost the GoPro camera that she had borrowed from the local surfing club, and went bonkers looking for it on the sea-floor. “That camera costs at least 030,000. This is a crowd-funded project. Darkness descended over my eyes that day,” she says.