With over less than two weeks to the second leg of the Philippine Surfing Championship Tour (PSCT) in Lanuza, Surigao del Sur, let’s quickly go back and relive the memorable highlights from the first leg of the PSCT, the 19th Siargao National Surfing Cup.
Last week, we relived the highlights from the first four days of the competition. Now, let’s rewind and enjoy the awesome highlights from the last two days.
Day Five
The intensity was felt at the Cloud 9 tower during every heat yesterday as spectators cheered for their favorite surfers throughout Rounds 4 and 5 of the 19th Siargao National Surfing Cup. At the end of Day 5, 8 surfers remained for the man-on-man quarterfinals and afterwards, a champion will be declared by the day’s end.
Quarterfinalists are as follows:
Heat 1: John Mark Tokong vs Martin Taniegra
Heat 2: Piso Alcala vs PJ Alipayo
Heat 3: JayR Esquivel vs Edwardo Alciso
Heat 4: Carlito Nogalo vs Philmar Alipayo
When the buzzer signaled the start of Heat 3 of Round 4, Piso Alcala instantly took control, executing flawless barrel rides, powerful snaps and cutbacks against fellow Siargaonons Warren Figuron and Glenn Figuron. Alcala ended up posting a combined heat score of 17.50 (out of a possible 20 points), the best combined heat score total of Round 4 and the highest of the contest so far.
Alcala has been preparing himself for this year’s National Surfing Cup by doing cardio workouts and stretching every morning and afternoon. Another local favorite, overall nice guy and last year’s National Champion John Mark Tokong wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in his heat against John Louie Farinas from Zambales in Round 5. Tokong posted a score of 11.50, his overall best average so far, to secure his spot in the Quarterfinals, by taking to the air on numerous occasions while Farinas struggled to find any big scores.
In a battle of East Coast versus the West Coast, regular footer Neil Sanchez from Baler (Aurora) versus goofy footer Jay-R Esquivel from San Juan (La Union) put up remarkable performances during their Round 5, Heat 5 match-up.
Esquivel took advantage of the Cloud 9 left-hander by scoring a deep tube ride and then some well executed turns. Sanchez battled back with barrels and aerials on his forehand, impressing the judges with his performance. However, during the final minute of their heat, Esquivel used his priority status to hold off Sanchez who just needed a small score to progress. Esquivel ended the heat with a 10.90 total to Sanchez’s 8.80 total, securing himself a spot in the Quarterfinals.
Finals Day
Philmar Alipayo, despite nursing a previous back injury emerged as the champion in this year’s 19th Siargao National Surfing Cup. This writer got the opportunity to talk to Philmar before his heat started and he said frankly, that he wasn’t too excited because of his back injury. “My performance could be dampened by the injury.” he added. Injuries aside and wishing him the best, we watched him walk down the legendary boardwalk to the lineup for a free surf session.
The final day of the competition started off in the morning with the Quarterfinals, where Philmar started off his campaign for the top spot on the podium in Quarterfinal 4, having a face off with local surf legend Carlito Nogalo. The horn had barely quieted after sounding the start of the heat when Philmar nabbed the first set wave and locked himself into a long, deep barrel then exited cleanly and added a roundhouse cutback and a few more turns to earn a whopping 9.0 score from the judging panel.
He then prowled the lineup catching waves under Carlito’s priority and soon had Carlito needing a combination of scores to overtake him, which Carlito never did, so when the horn signaled the end of the heat, Philmar won with a score of 16.00 points (out of a possible 20) against Carlito’s 8.00 point score total.
“The waves were small so when a set comes, you really need to get it. I was really lucky I got that wave. I was already eyeing that one even while Luke was still announcing the sponsors so right when the heat started, I was able to get it. It’s a big advantage when you catch a good wave like that at the start of the heat.), said Philmar.
It was a battle between north and south as La Union pride Jay-R Esquivel and local favorite Eduardo Alciso put on an amazing heat, exchanging aerial after aerial, tube ride after tube ride and power snaps in between, exchanging the lead multiple times.
At the 5 minute mark with Eduardo in the lead and Jay-R holding priority, Jay-R spotted a clean wave coming towards him so he took off, gained speed and then launched a 180 pop shuvit, switching his foot stance in the middle and landing cleanly. The judges rewarded Jay-R with an excellent 8.00 wave score (out of a possible 10 points) which was just enough for him to regain his lead and win the heat.
After a four-hour break, the first semifinal heat started with Piso Alcala against John Mark Tokong, followed by Jay-R Esquivel versus Philmar Alipayo. Spectators were starting to line up along the boardwalk and fill the Cloud 9 tower to witness the best Filipino surfers battle it out for the finals.
When the horn sounded the start of the first semifinal, Piso Alcala posted a massive 8.25 score after getting deeply pitted in a clean barrel, and then John Mark Tokong took the second wave, throwing snaps and roundhouse cutbacks. After regaining his priority, Piso played the waiting game against John Mark, who badly needed a 7.35 score to take the lead. But the rising tide and lack of waves worked against him, so when time ran out, Piso won the heat by posting a total heat score of 14.00 against John Marks 12.60.
Piso Alcala and John Mark Tokong have both been winners in past national and international Siargao surfing competitions. Back in 2014, Alcala won the National surfing contest, while Tokong was still in the Junior division. In 2015, Alcala and Tokong went head-to-head during the WSL WQS Siargao International Surfing Cup and Tokong came home the winner.
The second semifinal heat saw a pitched battle of goofy footers, with Jay-R Esquivel from La Union up against Siargao’s top surfer Philmar Alipayo. Esquivel, who was also in the semifinals last year, had a good start during the heat, scoring a 5.75 in his first wave, while Philmar Alipayo, having the home court advantage, was waiting for a wave to answer back.
The intensity of the heat came when Philmar scored a 6.75, utilizing his backside power on the righthander to jump into the lead. Esquivel replied back with combinations of turns on his next wave, regaining his lead with less than 10 minutes left. Philmar then exploded into action with a series of hard-hitting snaps then following it up with a huge frontside 360 air. In the dying minutes of the heat, Esquivel took off and tried one of his patented 180 pop shuvits but failed to land it. Philmar won with a total score of 13.25 against Jay-R’s 12.60.
The finals went down under gloomy and drizzling afternoon skies with Piso Alcala and Philmar Alipayo, the last two surfers remaining out of 186 competitors registered for the first Philippine Surfing Championship Tour leg, gunning for the top spot on the podium, a milestone for the two best surfers in the country.
Philmar started out aggressively initiating a paddle battle against Piso to jump into the lead. Piso tried to answer back but failed to complete his maneuvers, so Philmar went back to work with several high flying aerials on the left hander of Cloud 9 to leave Piso struggling to catch up.
Philmar was on fire, later raising the tempo even further by landing a massive 180 pop shuvit going left, earning him with an almost perfect score of 9.35 (out of a possible 10 points), the highest single wave score of the competition, sealing his victory with a final combined heat score of 17.85 against the 13.25 held by Piso.
“I never thought that I would be able to complete the last trick but I just trusted that I would. Thank you to all my supporters, my friends and PSCT. See you next in Lanuza.” said Philmar.
Patterned after the World Surf League, the PSCT is the country’s first-ever and only professional surfing tournament where surfers from all over the Philippines will gather and tour around different surf spots to earn points and battle for a spot in the national ranking.
More than competition, PSCT hopes to unite surfers from Luzon to Mindanao and promote a sense of “ohana” in the Filipino surfing community. Only through working together can we make the dream of making world champions a reality.
