Scenes from the 11th Siargao Int'l Surfing Cup

The 11th Siargao International Surfing Cup, held from Sept. 26 to Oct. 2 at Cloud 9 surf break, gathered an exceptionally high quality field of over 200 local and foreign surfers.

Spectators' excitement was dampened by news that the defending champ pulled out from the competition due to injury incurred during practice, but the cheering spirit picked up again when local boy Dionisio "Dodong" Espejon made it to the semifinals. An amazing feat in such a stiff field of competitors which included surfers from USA, Australia and Japan.

The only international sporting event regularly held in the island, nay, in the entire Mindanao, this year's Siargao Cup was made possible by the support of telecom giant SMART Communications.