Riding with Scissors
The swell of Philippine surfing has built up tremendously in the past couple of years, but if you’re all about dodging overcrowded lineups and hanging with locals who are as cool with you as they are ‘shredding’ them waves, you might want to come up to Baler when the surf season hits.
Nothing seems to matter when you’ve gone the distance. About 230 kilometers, in fact; driving four hours north east of Manila and another four with our SUV gripping the craggy, winding dirt road that coils like a headless anaconda around the Sierra Madre mountain range. Across a rough-hewn valley that feels like the devil’s crotch — once the site of a town that had been wiped-out by a monstrous landslide — we went further up until we reached an area rife with palm trees so elongated it seemed like they were grasping for the blue sky.
Breaking into Baler felt like a revelation. In a town with but one ATM machine and a coast trickling with small-scale hotels and shacks resonating with people belting out KTV tunes, there’s nothing much to do but blend with the balmy locals and surf your guts out. If it’s bailing on the city that’s on your mind, a trip out to the isolated province of Aurora should be in order; a place that’s steeped between mountainous regions and the waters of the Pacific, allowing you to abandon any recollection of your 9-5.
A man like Lui Tortuya has made a living out of the great escape. After bagging a degree in International Studies from UCLA, Tortuya decided to shelve plans to pursue law and made his way to the Philippines from wave-hardy California, re-connecting with his father’s hometown in Aklan. There was a lot more in store, however when he discovered a few things that were truly closer to home, like the formidable swells in surf spots such as La Union, Siargao, and Zambales. And as Manila was beginning to realize there was more to do on its beaches than wade and tan, Tortuya and a few friends established Fiveforty Surf Co. with the noble intentions of shaping custom boards and renting them out to eager city folk who were in for the renaissance surf movement that would mold the aforementioned areas into prominent surf areas in their own right.
The movement is what has led us to Baler for three days of surfing organized by Tortuya, just as a heavyweight director like Francis Ford-Coppola had come here almost three decades ago to shoot the Vin Drin chopper sequence for Vietnam War keystone film Apocalypse Now. An entire set including a bridge and several straw huts was eradicated for the scene yet what was left to the locals were a couple of boards used in the film, the naming Charlie’s Point, and the birth of surfing in Baler. About five minutes away from the point however, is what is currently the crest of surfing in the municipality — the expansive beachbreak of Sabang, where the off-season that falls between March and September unleashes a variable succession of gregarious sets. At 10 AM, the wind is picking up yet Lui urges us to keep paddling until our boards finally lurch forward, clinging to the power of the waves; the planks of epoxy sweeping towards the shore like water missiles. Sabang is a tenderfoot surfer’s dream come true — no mass of people jeering you on or haughty waves that’ll end up crushing your skull against a sharp reef. It’s a quintessential spot for manifesting that urge to let go and surrender to a wave building with intensity and to figure out how far up or down you should be on your board when it peels forward.
About five minutes from Sabang, the reef of Cemento grants more intermediate surfers with consistently robust lines during low tide. Tortuya and a local surfer named Jango Mendoza, the third best surfer in the Philippines have set out into the surf, carrying their boards through 100 meters of mangrove. The two ride the waves out one after the other; Lui sauntering across his board as it shifts and Jango carving the curling mass of water out, exhibiting impressive cutbacks and making such wave play look almost effortless. Later on, Jango says the late afternoon’s high tide could bring forth more manageable waves for beginners, yet when we return at about four in the afternoon, paddling our boards through murky waters to get to the break, the surf seems to have flatlined with coarse, sporadic jabs from the sea.
Even with the cyber proliferation of weather forecasts, you could still end up waiting a lot longer for those seas to draw up surf-worthy lines to cut across. You’re never too sure what nature’s gonna discharge upon you, making for a lifestyle that’s calibrated by the tides.
In Baler, most local surfers’ lives revolve around the sea — some working by the beach serving rum cokes in videoke shacks and singing along with visitors while some like Jango work the lifeguard tower in the day and take the time out to catch the hefty waves at Cemento, also the site of a wave riding competition known as the Aurora Cup come surf season. But then a new swell is burgeoning in the surf community and as the Coppola crew were like a bunch of missionaries who’d come to bless locals with a new lifestyle, Tortuya is heralding a second coming that aims to expedite the evolution of the latent Baler, developing the area to become a part of the surf triptych in Luzon.
Waiting for a potent wave to come in is just as rousing as waiting for a surf community like Baler to establish itself just like La Union has and Zambales is coursing towards. But then the wait is well worth it — from the first time you experience the indescribable thrill of gliding upon a slick lock of rushing water to the never-ending crusade that keeps you wandering like a nomad in search of bigger, better waves and seeing how much courage you can scrounge up to ride them. Getting to Baler can be a stretch, but once you’ve arrived, it’s a clause to act upon a lot of urges. The waiting is fine — especially if you’ve come far enough.
Embark on your own Surf Ody-sea
If you really want to back-up donning that rash guard and pair of board shorts, knowing how to catch a wave might help. Luckily, you don’t have to head out into a line-up and get washed-up in nature’s spin cycle in front of all those hot surfer girls. Apart from selling everything from board wax to board bags, Fiveforty Surf Company can teach you everything you need to know ‘bout wave-riding and take care of that surf trip you’d always wanted to go on, whether it’s to La Union, Zambales or Baler. ‘Course all you’ll have to do when you get to your destination is ride those waves out.
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Visit Fiveforty Surf Co. is located at 227 Katipunan Ave., across Kopi Roti and Countryside Barbeque. Or call (0921) 593-73123// 440-1345 for more information.
