La Union Surfing - Of Pleasure and Pain: Didi's Christening

Me and Didi --- from the word "dilaw" (yellow)

La Union Surfing Part IV

 Surf’s definitely up folks! Again, as my last tribute to October being the surfing month, and before we go all Holloweeny, I wanna share with you the 4th and last segment  of my surfing adventures this year, which started only last summer. Watch how better I got at this sport. I mean now, I can already ride waves, both big and small! It’s pretty hard, I tell you — paddling and catching waves on my own. Most importantly, I’m no longer afraid of huge waves! They’re actually a lot more fun than the calm waters of various seas I’ve snorkelled in my lifetime. Anyway, here’s what we did last weekend at our favorite surfing spot in San Juan, La Union. Oh, did I mention  that I brushed elbows with the gorgeous Luke Ladrigal and the very talented Poks (the one-legged surfer), both top wave riders in our country?! Woohoo!!!! Enjoy!

~~~oOo~~~

Isn’t Luke the most gorgeous surfer ever?!!!

This last leg of our surfing adventure (for this year at least) was the scariest of all! No, not because of the huge waves or ghosts and spirits that made themselves felt that fateful night, but because of the traffic buildup way past Sta. Rita along the North Expressway so early that Saturday morning, 21st of October, 2006.

Jericho (our loyal surf instructor), Odhe, Jem and Peachie upon arrival at San Juan Surf Resort

 

Peter and I met up with our two surfing buddies (Jem and Peachie) at around 2:30 a.m. at the parking lot behind 7-11 near Q. Ave. MRT station. By 3am, we were already on our way to pick up Odhe at Meycauayan. Traffic was a breeze and we felt we’d arrive in San Juan at around 8am, in time for breakfast. Suddenly, as we were about to approach the long bridge after Sta. Rita, we were greeted by a long line of unmoving traffic. At first, we didn’t mind it. We used this time to chat and catch up with each other. Since Jem, Peachie and Odhe weren’t friends, this traffic time-out was spent getting to know each other and having loads of laughter and fun in the process.

Getting ready to surf…

La Union Surfing and Skimboarding (Part III)

 Surf’s up folks! Again, as a tribute to October being the surfing month, I will be sharing with you more of my surfing adventures which started only last summer. Watch how better I got at this sport. I mean now, I could already stand up the freakin’ surfboard even if there are no strong waves! It’s pretty hard, I tell you. I can already paddle and I’m slowly learning to catch a wave on my own. And most importantly, I’m no longer afraid of huge waves! They’re actually a lot more fun than the calm waters of various seas I’ve snorkelled in my lifetime. Anyway, here’s the third segment of my surfing adventures… Enjoy!

~~~oOo~~~

Iza’s brother, Van, Iza, Peter, Me,  Cecille, Mark  (Ninette and  Dodgie  were somewhere else at this point)

It’s been a month since we last surfed and being pretty addicted to it, I couldn’t wait to go back to the waves again. So I asked all my friends if they are interested in going with us. Fortunately, seven of them said yes. That’s more than enough. Yipee! La Union, here we come!

Welcome to San Juan Surf Resort (238 Bgy. Urbiztondo San Juan 2514)

However, when we finally arrived at San Juan Surf Resort, we noticed that the waves weren’t that huge. We were bombed. Travelling about 6 hours from Manila to La Union is no joke especially when it means having little sleep and scrimping etxra money just so we can have more than enough for gas, food and surfing lessons. Good thing we brought our new skimboard and this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

 
Peter and Jericho tries skimboarding for the first time.

I have my own style in skimboarding which the others couldn’t quite get (the way I couldn’t do it standing up).

 

At around 4 in the afternoon, our luck started to change.  Waves were starting  to form and we immediately took advantage of it.   Even if we had only 1 surfboard, we didn’t lose any time. One by one,  for 10 minutes each, we  tried our best to catch a wave. And that’s just what we did! Yahoo!!! The waves may not be the kind we hoped for but they will do.

Peter and I caught a small wave