Where surfing is a dialect
Located on the northeastern portion of Mindanao, the island of Siargao is part of the province of Surigao del Norte. It can be reached by plane, ferry, and bus, from the provincial capital, Surigao City, or from neighboring Butuan City and Cebu City. Blessed with white-sand beaches, mangrove swamps, waterfalls and numerous islets, it is the vacationer's ideal getaway.
Its biggest claim to world fame, however, is its surf sports, reputed to be comparable to the best in Hawaii, where surfing itself is said to have originated.
After an American and an Australian “discovered” Siargao’s surf sports in 1980, word quickly spread, and soon tourists even from as far away as Europe came in growing numbers. Some Australian surfers, charmed by the island’s beauty, have even made Siargao their second home.
A decade later, convinced by the visitors of the island’s rich potential, then Gov. Francisco Matugas and Mayor Jaime Rusilion of General Luna town, agreed to work with the expats in organizing a surfing event.
Today, Siargao is known worldwide as the site of an international surfing competition, which the Department of Tourism has adopted as an important tourism activity. This year’s 6th Siargao International Surfing Cup was held Sept. 24-30 at the Cloud Nine surf break, acknowledged as the “star” of Siargao’s surf spots and the most famous worldwide.
“Cloud Nine is for hard-core barrel riders,” said Roy Norris, one of the competition organizers. Norris is also director of the TV surfing program “Wave Riders” and producer of a TV documentary titled, “The Philippines: The next surfing frontier.”
“Surfers say Cloud Nine is different because the waves are steep, high, and curved just at the tip, unlike those in Australia and Hawaii,” said Eldie David, head of the Butuan City telecenter of Smart Communications, Inc., one of the competition sponsors.
To facilitate coordination by organizers, Smart set up temporary mobile cells site in General Luna. It will stay there until the permanent cell site becomes operational in November, assured Ralph Ciencia of Smart Customer Care in Surigao and Ding Fernandez of Smart-NSD in Butuan City.
Other activities during the surfing cup included Pinoy games such as palo sebo and sepak takraw, kite-flying and kite-making festival – played on the beach fronting the Cloud Nine Resort. There was also a surfing clinic and disco dancing with a live band playing on a “stage on stilts” on the beach at Cabuntog Lodge.
Capping the last day of competition was a fashion show featuring beach and surf outfits designed by Benjie Manuel of Cagayan de Oro and former beauty queen Isabel Lopez-Yokohama who, together with her husband, runs a surfing school.
This year’s surfing competition drew 82 participants, mostly from the national level featuring our local surf stars Rudolfo Alcala, 1999 grand prize winner; Fernando Alipayo, 1998 Best Filipino Surfer; Sonny Alciso, the youngest at 13; and Ronnie Esquivel, the one-legged wonder who made front page news a couple of years back.
Out of the 82 participants, 34 were international competitors mostly from Australia.
Among the Filipinos, only Alipayo made it to the finals. The cup was won by Australia’s Drew Courtney.
Considering the Filipinos’ determination — even without the state-of-the-art equipment of their foreign counterparts — it shouldn’t be long before they become as world-famous as the surf spots on Siargao.
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