This mermaid had the opportunity to venture up north for a surf trip in the north’s surfing capital of the country. Tagging along the last leg of the Philippine Surfing Championship Tour (PSCT), La Union (LU/Elyu) was the last stop of the tour for the year.
The surfing capital of the North, La Union is a pretty big place. It’s actually a province in the Ilocos Region, located at the west coast of the island of Luzon (West Philippine Sea), bordered by Ilocos Sur to the north, Benguet to the east, and Pangasinan to the south.
The heart of surf town is in San Juan, a little over 4 kilometer stretch of national highway lined with resorts, cafes and restos with the beach, West Philippine Sea, to one side and the Cordillera mountain range to the other.
San Juan feels like almost like a city because of the numerous commercial establishments but also feels unattached to the time of being in the city where the hustle and bustle can be seen and felt everywhere. In San Juan, time seems to stand still as you wait for the fabled Elyu Sunset as you watch it from the shore or as you wait for it in the water while surfing.
The ease of commuting from Manila to La Union and from La Union to either Laoag, Vigan or Baguio can easily be seen from the numerous speeding buses that pass through the highway every few minutes. For a traveler like me who’s coming all the way from Davao, I’d want to get the best of my trip up north.
From San Juan, it takes an hour by private car or almost two hours by bus to get to Baguio City, which for me, is a good detour from the heat and growing crowds in LU (it gets pretty crowded by the weekend, especially if there are events lined up). Manila to San Juan or Sebay as the bus drivers and conductors call the surfing area, takes approximately six hours from the Partas terminal in Cubao.
There are hourly buses that leave the Partas terminal in Cubao, make sure to get on before the trips after 12 midnight since the buses after that usually take a longer travel time. There are also other bus lines that go to La Union like Dominion but I haven’t tried that yet. Partas was the most common one and had the nearest terminal.
Keep in mind, despite Manila being the capital of this country, one won’t find a centralized bus terminal where all southbound or northbound buses can be found in one place. Quite a hassle right? Especially if you’re trying to catch single trip buses to far-flung areas but this is how it is.
Anyway, the bus ride to La Union was convenient since we left the terminal at a little past 12 midnight and hopped off the bus at 5:30am just along the highway in Sebay or San Juan. We did a few meters walk and voila! We were in the Circle Hostel, very convenient, especially if you’re bringing surfboards. Unlike my Surigao to Siargao trip, there was no need to hail a tricycle from the terminal to the pier, tie my surfboard to its roof and pray for the next 10 minutes that nothing happens to me or my board.
There were a two major surf competitions lined up for the first two weeks of December in La Union. The first was the PSCT which ran from December 5-9 and the REnextop Asian Surfing Tour from December 14-17. Both competitions will be held at La Union’s famed righthand pointbreak called the Monaliza Point which is just in front of the Little Surfmaid Resort and Monaliza Surf Resort.
The last leg of the PSCT was welcomed with exciting huge waves from the average 4 foot to 8 foot waves during the closing of the competition. John Mark Tokong from Siargao wins the 2017 Reef Pro La Union and PSCT officially closes off its first season with the grand champions announced.
Watching the top surfers from all over country compete in one place while enjoying great company and food was truly a treat in itself. La Union had more than just awesome waves and awesome people, it had amazing food! Stay tuned next week for my quick list of where to eat in La Union and watch out for the bonus feature on one of living legends of the surf culture in La Union who’s originally from Davao. Don’t miss it!
