Palawan was everything I ever wanted and more. It was the perfect combination of waves, weather, food, and crew! Arriving, I only had expectations of having the ultimate fun adventure, whether there would be surf or not.
Nagtabon Beach was an excellent escape for somebody like me who works a lot in social media. Going down to the beach, you’ll realize that there’s no cellular service—a rare thing nowadays to disconnect completely. You’ll definitely be able to spend time with the people you’re with, connect with nature and appreciate the moment you’re in.
Nagtabon Beach is 30 minutes away from Puerto Prinsesa City, possibly one of the nearest surf spots to a developed city in this country. What I was most excited about was the waves for sure! I knew that Nagtabon Beach was steadily getting attention as a surfing destination from social media and word of mouth.
True enough, there was already one resort that rented out boards. Billy Plaza, a local surfer, had a good selection of soft-tops for beginners and an array of shortboards. I was so anxious about the board selection because it had been three months since I last surfed on a longboard and not my usual 6’11” funboard.
I wondered if I’d make a fool of myself as I ended up choosing the 6’6” Luke Strudder fish from Bali. It was five inches shorter than my go-to board, and it didn’t make sense for me to use the softops because I didn’t know how to use one properly before.
I asked the advice of another local, and he said to go with the shortboard because the waves were quite big today. Perfect for me! I just had to be sure to really give it my all! Not wanting to look like a poser walking around the beach with an ultra cool board and being unable to ride it at all, what a shame that would be!
When you’re starved for surf and am desperate to have fun riding the waves, you’ll do anything to get back that ‘surf feeling.’ I put my mind to it while slowly paddling out to the lineup near the rocky edge of the beach. There were a few guys out there, around five local surfers and the waves breaking left—I was getting so excited that I had to calm myself down so I could breathe properly.
The conditions were average of three to four-foot waves with no cloud in the sky! Paradise, as it would seem like the sand, was so beautiful, it doesn’t even hurt when you get wiped out. The first wave I got had just the right size of big that was fun but not too comfortable.
It was similar a bit to Dahican’s wave where it was quite steep so you’d need to take off quickly on a certain angle, so you don’t get left behind as the wave picked up the pace. It was on my second try that I finally realized I could use the 6’6” board like I had been writing it all along!
I wished my GoPro wasn’t eaten by the ocean in Dahican last April. I could have gotten great first person POV shots with the type of waves here in Nagtabon. We surfed for a little over two hours, up until our tummies demanded food.
I lost my good hair tie and one fin from the rental board that slowed down my turns on the waves a bit, but it was fine. Life is like that, you win some, and you lose some, but this time in Nagtabon, I felt I was just winning the whole time with the kind of waves that paradise had to offer.
