MANILA, Philippines - More Filipinos will be surfing this summer. Surfing is the fastest growing personal sport in the country and surfing sites are competing with the favorite local travel destinations. Worldwide, there are 20 million active surfers in 50 countries in six continents. Surfing is currently a $10-billion industry.
The two top surfing schools in the country — San Juan Surf School in La Union and the Philippine Surfing Academy’s schools in Taytay, Rizal and Real, Quezon — churn out new surfers by the thousands every year. Respectively owned by top surfers Luke Landrigan and Paolo Soler, these two schools convert thousands of students into beginner surfers each year. At least another dozen schools produce new surfers by the hundreds.
Beginners regularly join droves of skilled surfers in such surf spots (besides San Juan and Real) as Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte; Baler, Quezon; San Narciso and other towns in Zambales; Daet, Camarines Norte; Borrongan and Calicoan, Eastern Samar; and Siargao and Lanuza, Surigao del Sur and del Norte. Of course, there are several other surfing sites being constantly discovered and developed.
Indeed, the Philippines is fast becoming one of the premier surfing destinations in Asia. Siargao’s famed Cloud 9 wave, for example, has become one of the most sought-after surf spots by foreign surfers who come in significant numbers and join international competitions held in that island. Surfing is also drawing foreign tourists even from such iconic sites as Bali, Indonesia, the surfing capital of Asia.
Surfing is the sport of riding boards and gliding toward the shore stylishly on a breaking wave. The surfer begins at the point where the waves begin to form, then, facing shore, paddles toward the beach with an oncoming wave. When the wave catches the board, the surfer stands up and glides along the wave’s crest. In the case of a large wave, the surfer can ride inside the “tube” or “barrel” formed by the wave’s overhead curl.
Surfing is easy to learn and once one knows how to surf, it becomes a long-term habit, a fun and healthy sport that creates physical, emotional, and spiritual states that are difficult to find in other sports except the extreme ones. It also offers efficient and effective modes of cardiovascular exercise and is the easiest way to attain physical strength and endurance, according to Paolo Soler.
Soler’s Philippine Surfing Academy (PSA) is an internationally accredited surfing school and is the only one that gives surfing lessons in a surf pool where waves are mechanically generated in patterns to make learning safer and easier. PSA holds basic lessons in the surf pools of the Club Manila East water park in Taytay, Rizal, where in a few hours, most students can already stand up on a surfboard and ride the gentle surf pool waves.
The Department of Tourism has recognized surfing as a highly potential tourism product. Last November, it supported the holding of the Philippine National Surfing Convention 2010, which turned out to be the largest gathering of surfing instructors and surfers so far. Soler was the main proponent of the event but says he could not have done it without the active and selfless support of some of the leading local surfers like Luke Landrigan, Lui Tortuya, and Corey Wills, as well as dozens of surfer volunteers who put together an event that, according to DOT Assistant Secretary Domingo Ramon Enerio III, will help in DOT’s determined decision to push surfing as a new market niche for the country.
Soler adds, “Surfing is fun — exhilarating, adrenaline-pumping fun — that no other sport offers so effortlessly. While it is a personal sport, it has a social dimension whereby new friends and communal activities give surfers space to enhance and expand their social life.”
In addition, it is a relatively inexpensive sport, according to Soler. At only P1,500, a student can avail himself of PSA’s two-hour wave pool lessons, including free use of surfboards, return transportation from Ortigas-EDSA junction, a packed lunch and, after the lessons, free use of the extensive water park facilities of the club for the rest of the day.
After the basic lessons, Soler’s PSA offers actual ocean surfing in Real, Quezon, which is barely two hours from Manila and is the nearest surf spot to the metropolis. For only P2,500, a surfer can join one of the regular day trips or “surfaris” to Real and surf in the ocean, a sumptuous lunch, free return transportation, and use of the campsite picnic huts.
Surfing lessons are also available in Real for those wishing to obtain basic surfing lessons or have advanced surf training. Detailed information on the Taytay and Real programs is available by texting 0917-582-7878, 0917-580-7844, calling 631-2805 or e-mailing philippinesurfingacademy@gmail.com.