The event poster
Getting There
There are many ways to get to Eastern Samar. One can ride a bus from Manila that goes all the way to the town of Borongan, although that's a 24-hour trip. We rode a Cebu Pacific plane from Manila to Tacloban City (about 1 hour), then by road from Tacloban City to Borongan, Eastern Samar (about 4 hours). Tacloban City is on the island of Leyte. To get to the island of Samar, we crossed the picturesque San Juanico bridge, famous for being the longest bridge in Southeast Asia.
The welcome arch of the province of Eastern Samar, gateway to the province's
virgin forests and pristine bodies of water. The 1999 Elf Adventure
Race was held in the island of Samar.
The Borongan Town Fiesta
Everyone should experience a Philippine town fiesta and I think that the Borongan Town Fiesta is one of the Philippines' best. During fiestas, the locals cook a lot of food as they expect their friends to come over tagging along more friends, to savor the sumptuous foods that they have prepared. Many homes have a special pig that they fatten year round to roast during the fiesta. All daily routines are broken during a town fiesta. There are parades and beauty pageants and group competitions showcasing the town's talents. In the evening, it's dancing and partying in the streets. So if you ever plan to visit a town, try to make it during their town fiesta and experience Filipino hospitality at its best.
The
waves of Sulingan already has a name," according to Abdel Eleco,
a local surfer from Borongan. "It's called 'ABC' ". The guest
surfers deduced that it got the name from the consistent sets of waves
that come in sequence, a 'corduroy swell' was how the expert surfers
described the wave pattern. Later on, a non-surfer from Guiuan said
they've always known the area to be called 'ABCD' because of the ABCD
Construction Supply Store that had a sign on the road near the beach.
There goes the romance of the name.
Surfers check out the surf. Notice how crystal blue the waters are? Could this be the Philippine Dream?
A little action on the water.
We left paradise at around 5pm. On the way back we saw many wild monkeys just sitting by the roadside. We all had big grins on our faces when we arrived in Borongan at about 7pm. To give the other surfers who had just arrived a chance to practice in Guiuan's waves, the contest proper for firmly scheduled on Sep 10. The following day was going to be a free surf day for everybody. Our Borongan hosts arranged for vehicles to bring all the surfes to Guiuan for practice day.
It was in 1997 when Abdel Eleco and Brian Lassiter first attended a surfing competition, and that was the Action Asia Aurora Surfing Cup. Since then, they had always dreamt of hosting a surfing competition in their province, and sharing their waves with the rest of the Philippines surfers. As early as May of this year, the Eastern Samar Surfing Association (of which Brian and Abdel are members), suggested to the Borongan municipal council to host a surfing competition in their town.
Majority of the members thought that doing the event during the town's fiesta would be a good idea since hosting the contest guests and participants would be easier. In the Philippines, during fiestas, everybody is in a party mood and its open house for food and accommodations. However, some members thought that October would be the best month to showcase Borongan's waves. Economics prevailed over wave reliability and the competition was scheduled during the town fiesta.
Brian and Abdel asked the help of Baler-Aurora surfer Olin Duaso who has had many experiences in being contest director for Philippine surfing competitions. Olin gave the Borongan surfers a list of items necessary to conduct the competition and invitations were sent out to surfers from different provinces. There were 20 competitors from 5 different provinces that competed in the Eastern Samar Inaugural Surfing Crown. Represented were surfers from the provinces of La Union, Camarines Norte, Aurora, Eastern Samar, and Manila.
In Search of Waves
Contest proper was scheduled to start on Sep 8, but that day was spent on searching for waves to hold the competition in. At 11 am, Abdel and the contest committee headed by Olin, went on a wave search. We drove south, stopping at the town of Llorente, an hour away from Borongan, hoping for waves, but it was flat. We continued our drive reaching Guiuan, the southernmost town of the island of Samar, 118 km from Borongan.
Guiuan is a
fishing town situated on a long, low, narrow corraline peninsula jutting
out of Samar Island.
We did not stop in Guiuan but continued southwards passing the barangay of Ngolos and finally reaching our destination, the beaches of Sulingan.
A Swell Find!
Stopping at a beach in Sulingan, we hurriedly got off our vehicle and were greeted by a magnificent sight! A long stretch of beach, fringed by tall coconut trees, white sands, clear waters and 3 foot waves. (Well coming, from zero height, 3 feet was a welcome sight.) The body fatigue from 2 hrs and 45 minutes of road travel was quickly forgotten.
Sulingan
is a barangay in the town of Guiuan, pronounced as "Gee-wan"
(with the 'g' as in 'great'), in the province of Eastern Samar. This beach
is on the Pacific Ocean.
From
our base in the town of Borongan, it is 2 hours travel on good asphalt
roads, then 45 minutes of pretty bad road, plus one needs a keen eye for
avoiding the pigs and chickens that cross the inner roads. But it's all
worth it when you see the waves. Above photo was taken during low tide,
but as you can see, the wave is very much surfable. And this is Sulingan's
off season for surfing.
The sand of this beach in Sulingan is very white and coralline. There are absolutely no houses nor buildings at the site. Just coconut trees on a low hill overlooking the beach.
The contest committee stationed themselves a little bit to the north of this beach which is about 2km long. On both ends of the beach, the land protudes a bit, and it seems that the waves here are more to the liking of the advanced surfers. The beginners stayed more on the center part of the beach.