Surf's up in Siargao!

The Siargao National Surfing Competition started on Sept. 14, with about 80 local surfers displaying their skills on the barrel tubes of fabled Cloud Nine. Scheduled till Thursday, Sept. 18, the local cup was followed soon after by the Billabong Cloud 9 Invitational or International Surfing Cup, from Sept. 20 to 26, with 36 of the world’s best tube riders plus 12 locals competing.

The surfers are expected to go through four-man heats, and those knocked off will still have a chance at the repechage stage, much like what we recently learned of our Olympic bets’ chances in taekwondo. 

Gerry Degan, event coordinator, explains that in recent years, some media arrive on the last day or two of the scheduled competition, expecting to catch the finale. But the organizers and judges have agreed to take the best three or four surfing days as the basis for scoring, so that if those days occur consecutively, the competition could end earlier, by Sept. 23 or 24.

The best surfing days are when the waves are at constant peak, while the weather cooperates to produce sunny if windy days and, consequently, the best video and still images of the competition.

It was this quality array of images displayed on the Internet that got surfers from all over the world interested in Siargao’s excellent breaks over a decade ago, Gerry recalls. He himself had seen just one still picture of the waves in the area that eventually gained the name of Cloud Nine. But he immediately recognized a barrel ride. And so he came over, fell in love with the island, the locals and the surfing conditions.

When he went back to Sydney and an Aussie partner who also visited Siargao said he had found a beachside property they could lease, Gerry and his wife Susan decided to go for it. They’ve stayed since, and now operate Sagana Resort, a spic-and-span spread of tall concrete cottages with full-blown amenities, including Wi-Fi, satellite TV, all meals at an elegant dining gazebo, and a swimming pool and sunning area on the well-manicured lawn.

All around are white-sand stretches of beach, and most importantly, a view of Cloud Nine’s barrel tubes. An extended wooden walkway leads out from the beach into the sea, to a two-story viewing deck used by judges, observers and photographers during surfing competitions.

Daily, one will find young local surfers hanging out on this deck, fixing up their boards while waiting for positive conditions. As Gerry says, Filipinos are obviously born for the sports activity that has only been introduced here rather recently. 

“Unlike, say, in Japan, where surfing has been practiced over the last 40 years,” Gerry says, “here it’s only been a little more than a decade. But Filipinos have taken to the surf exceedingly well.”

What Gerry says surfers should guard against, however, is that overwhelming will to win at competition levels. It’s all about the love of surfing, he says. What’s essential is not so much any triumph in surfing contests, but simply falling in love with the ocean.

For the international cup, the world-renowned Wilma Malinda will serve as the head judge, to be helped out by three-man panels, with Gerry also expected to pitch in as a judge on the lookout for such scoring elements as the length of the ride, barrel siding, and tubing. He says the competitors will be evaluated mainly on their barrel-riding ability.

After the competition, there is still so much more to relish in Siargao. “This island is not just for surfing,” Gerry avers. “There are also the delights of fishing, diving, kayaking, or environmental treks, bird-watching, etc. We also have tarsiers here, and all kinds of birds. We have crocodiles, large ones. We have the second largest mangrove area in the country in the town of Del Carmen.”

The story still goes around that when he was a senator, Monching Mitra once had a live, 32-foot-long croc transported from Siargao Island to Puerto Princesa, Palawan.

Outlying islets, all with gleaming white sand, include Daku and the smaller Guyam, meaning “big ant.” What’s called Naked Island is really a large white sandbar that has little shrubbery, but is perfect for a swim, snorkeling, and as a sunset-watching venue before crossing back to the main island in about 20 minutes.

What’s now called Snake Island lies just across another top-rated resort called Pansukian, the islet’s former name. Operated by a Frenchman, Monsieur Rambeau, Pansukian Resort boasts of a wood-fire stove for its much-appreciated pizza, and is arguably the ritziest on the island.

A favorite among foreign visitors, Calinog Resort offers handsome large cottages with capacious bedrooms and marvelously designed bathrooms, all fronting a grass lawn across which lies the coconut-fringed beach. It’s operated by a couple of young Frenchmen who bade farewell to Paris when they also fell in love with the paradise billed as the “Surfing Capital of the Philippines.”

Our party stayed at Surigao del Norte Governor Ace Barbers’ private resort, Bayud, also in General Luna. Four elegant cottages were already habitable, while several others were being prepared in time for the surfing cup.

These include a special family suite right off the beach, with an anteroom and two large bedrooms featuring elegant design features that include steep-angled, reed-strip ceilings. The immaculately white Zen bathrooms incorporate rocks, shells, and the found trunks, branches and roots of the legendary Philippine ironwood, locally called magkuno.

Twin swimming pools face a large, open-sided pavilion with dining tables and a humongous, first-class kitchen, while a speedboat idles near one of two lazing cabanas at each end of the fine beach strip.

Gen. Luna Mayor Ping Espejon, until recently a balikbayan, also brought us to Cabuntog where there are modest lodging facilities and a fine restaurant facing an extended white-sand beach accentuated by a large sandbar that disappears in high tide. Another fine dining place is the Dajon Restaurant Grill & Bar in Dapa, Siargao’s main port town.

Until several weeks ago, reaching Siargao meant as much as traveling seven hours from a Manila airport, with incoming flights confined to Butuan, which is a two-hour road trip to Surigao City, the jump-off point to Siargao. Thankfully, PAL Express has reclaimed an old route and now flies directly to Surigao. The 15-minute jeepney ride to the pier may have a visitor catch either a two-hour or four-hour ferry ride to Dapa. Then it’s a half-hour ride to the town of General Luna, where the famous Cloud 9 and other notable surf spots may be found.

Surfing is best during the habagat or monsoon season from August to November, when strong waves that originate from the Philippine Deep are in constant, powerful motion. These lead to the wave-offs at Siargao’s Tuason Point, other surfing areas such as Jacking Horse, Rock Island, Stimpies, and of course the now-fabled Cloud 9, which was featured in Surf magazine as one of the 10 best waves in the world. Other surfing experts have called it one of the world’s five toughest breaks, comparable to those in Hawaii and Australia.

Indeed, Siargao Island has a valid claim to being Asia’s hottest surfing destination and one of the world’s last great frontiers for surf exploration. For non-surfers, there are also a lot of natural attractions to reckon with, especially when it comes to paradisiacal features.