Echo mans up on sports, showbiz & vanity

MANILA, Philippines - In a recent survey by global research firm Synovate, the Filipino male ranks first as the vainest in Asia, with 84 percent rating their looks as “very important” to them. Nine out of 10 Filipino men want to look good for their own consumption, while five out of 10 want to look good for others (well, mostly for the ladies, of course), and a good 22 percent of them have personal grooming kits with the most advanced facial washes, scrubs, and moisturizers tucked away in their handy clutch bags.

As if a well-designed oxymoron, the choices of sport growing popular among Filipino males have taken a more rugged and rigorous route; the leg-cramping marathon, the back-breaking triathlon, and the adrenaline-fueled surfing, the Filipino male athlete does not run out of high-risk and even higher-octane options. With this, nothing already separates the dandy from the dude, for while we are getting baked under the punishing sun, sweating our balls off to catch the big wave or keeping our dusty brow focused on the finished line, we are still concerned with our SPF coverage or how our hair just falls rightly so. No one wants a little wrinkle or bald spot to show on Instagram.

The smart people at Vaseline Men had this in their crosshairs and understood the manthropology of going from hardcore to handsome (and back). Their brand ambassador, Jericho Rosales is today’s poster boy of getting the best of both worlds, under the burning sun or the blinding spotlight, surfing the waves or surging TV ratings, he makes sure he looks faultless for both.

“Well, before the athlete, there’s always the actor. That’s the hard part,” Jericho Rosales—better known as Echo—admits when prodded about priorities. “When I’m in sporting events, I sometimes ask myself, ‘Can I be a full-time athlete?’, or whenever I surf, ‘Can I be a full-time surfer?’. During these times, I forget that I’m an artist, I forget that I’m a singer, or a producer. I tend to forget those when I’m engaged in a sport, the energy and the adrenaline is something that I can’t let go of,” he further adds.

So, in the Jericho Rosales Venn diagram, we see the showbiz side on the extreme right, and surfing on the extreme left, what does he find in the intersecting center? “Well, recently, our production team hosted a surfing event held in San Juan La Union called ‘Single and Unattached’, which was a single-fin and no-leash surfing competition and a pre-Valentine concert. We had fun doing it, just getting our surfer friends together, as well as our friends from the industry. It was a success, I’d like to think so,” Echo shares with a 10-year-old’s enthusiasm.

With so much on his plate, and the punishing lights of show business, how does he make sure it doesn’t show through eyebags and zits? “I make it a point to rest. It’s one of the most important parts in my contracts. This is one thing that producers hate. As much as possible, they don’t want to let you go early, but this is one thing we fight for,” Echo says with quite the revolutionary zeal, trading the bane of TV execs for some much needed beauty rest. “I also make it a point to have discipline. I try to wake up early so I can sleep early. And I stay away from the bad stuff. I mean, once in a while we go to parties, to socialize and stuff, it’s perfectly fine. But taking care of my body is the main thing because I want to grow old a healthy man.”

And of course, a healthy man, whether old and well-maintained, or, well, fresh and fan-worthy, is sure to have his supplements and regimens, trade secrets for the well-traded mug. “I take glucosamine for my bones and joints and fish oil for my heart, and multi-vitamins for energy. Plus of course, lots of water and sunblock, very important! The sun is so different now, and it’s not the amount of SPF in the product, but the frequency of your application. Apply every one to two hours when you’re in the beach and directly under the sun. And I drink Vaseline Men (laughs). My skin drinks it every night, every morning, before or after surfing. Vaseline Men is really one of the best endorsements I have because I’m a surfer and I’m on cam, so I usually have to hydrate my skin,” Echo says.

Such good rituals, of course, may have their benefits, and judging from Mr. Pogi’s timeline, it could ultimately lead to dating the country’s most beautiful women. And while this is nothing he’d want to discuss any more so, he puts on a different grin when being pried about his new love, the gorgeous Fil-Australian, Kim Jones. “At first, when I met her, her accent was so thick, and I was like—‘What?!’ I was suffering! I would fake a little laugh when I couldn’t understand her and just tried my best to so I could win her. I told myself, ‘Jackpot nako dito’ (I already hit the jackpot), she’s nice, she’s beautiful,” Echo shares of his awkward first few dates.

With a balanced sporting and showbiz life, a well mapped health and vanity regimen, and the new fire burning in his heart, it seems that Jericho Rosales is ready for all challenges in any given time. But there is one challenge that he’d rather not face this year, and ironically, it is a challenge that Vaseline Men presents to him, the Philippine XTERRA Championship Weekend. What with a 1.5-kilometer open-water swim, 35-kilometer bike, and a 10-kilometer run set in the coral-sharp, mud-heavy, and wild crashing sea backdrop of Liloan, Cebu, this is what separates the men from the boys. “The Xterra is really tough. It requires a lot of time, a lot of training. Some train for months, some even train for years, while for some, like myself, it’s just impossible. My schedule doesn’t permit it,” explains Echo, not quite chicken but not his shining moment, either. I could just see Kim Jones managing a frown.

But he is quick to digress that while he is ditching the championships, he will make it a point to be in the Xterra Philippines “Putik Pare” Mud Relay. The best time and place to get down and dirty, the “Putik Pare” Mud Relay is the fun brother of the arduous and dead-serious Xterra Philippines—it offers a relay of biking and running in a path of wet, slippery, and decaying matter-rich mud! Something our childhood years were made of but with more developed muscle.

So while some men choose their battles, others choose their facial regimens, the wisest of them knows how to choose both. For in this ruthless day and age of rigorous competition, fickle-minded award giving bodies, and instantly gratifying or disappointing Facebook feedbacks, it pays to look upon it with fresh, supple, spotless skin. Because, in the barefooted steps of Jericho Rosales, you may not win in everything, but you sure as hell can look good doing it!

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The Vaseline Xterra Philippines Off-Road Triathlon Series kicks off in Liloan, Cebu on today and tomorrow, with the Xterra Philippines Championship Weekend. Starts with two triathlon events today, the Xterra Lite, which involves a 500-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike, and a 10-kilometer run and the Xterra Philippines Championship trail, which features a 1.5-kilometer swim, 35-kilometer bike, and a 10-kilometer run, the Xterra Philippines Championship Weekend culminates to a trail run, featuring three demanding courses: 21-kilometer, 10-kilometer, and five-kilometer and an awarding ceremony where 40 slots in the Xterra World Championship 2013 in Maui, Hawaii, as well as the total pro prize money of US$ 15,000, will be up for grabs on March 3.