January is almost over and for some of us, the new year has winded down into more of the usual. Perhaps there may be some like me whose new year might have just begun. With this being said, it was only recently that I was able to gather my thoughts and photos to look at 2018 from a macro-perspective.
The Palawan Series
Only when I looked at it as a whole year did I notice that Palawan was where I frequented my surf days. I went to Palawan for three different visits, two of which were in places I would never have thought there were waves.
Balabac Group of Islands, Palawan
This had to be the longest and hard-to-reach destination from the whole bunch in 2018. An hour-long flight from Davao to Puerto Princesa, a five-hour van ride and another five-hour boat ride to reach the center of Balabac and finally, an hour-long boat ride to reach our island base somewhere off the town center of Balabac.
This trip taught me resilience, to never judge the ocean and to respect its unpredictability. It also showed me that the southernmost part of Palawan is filled with the friendliest locals who can cook up amazing meals from whatever resource they have available.
On a sad note, this trip opened my eyes to the reality of the world and our seas today—the plastic nightmare is real, and I will never forget the mounds and heaps of trash I saw on every island we visited in Balabac. If this was the case for this almost unreachable paradise, how much more for the rest of the 7,107 islands of the Philippines and the world even?
Palawan’s Secret Surfing Spots
This came as a total surprise for me. I am one to explore and see for myself before sharing to the world. It was love at first ride. Whether it was the perfect swell, the challenging board setup or the fact that my second visit had me surfing unexplored territories, I will never forget what the waves this side of the country taught me.
The lessons? Accepting risks of a different kind, learning to accept that the once unreachable havens will soon be discovered and the pursuit of stoke will never go away. This last visit in 2018 made me come to terms with the reality that there will never be a perfect wave because like all of us imperfect beings, we find the beauty in imperfection.
Plus, I was finally given the blessing by the local Palaweños themselves to share the secret of Nagtabon Beach to the world! As a goofy-footer who has a grown to love right-facing waves, the left breaks of Nagtabon was a welcome playground to learning the joys of riding facing a breaking wave.
The opportunity to take off on a wave and immediately touch the wall of the wave as you go along the line, the light feel of the waves’ wall ever so slightly on my fingertips as I slowly move my body to mimic the wave’s energy—up and down—it was an ecstatic and addictive feeling!
Then there was San Vicente where I will always leave a space for in my heart because of its left waves, friendly turtles, challenging current (at times) and fine sand unlike any other I’ve stepped on (I haven’t been to Boracay so I can’t compare this to that).
Stay tuned next week as I talk about the second part of my bests for 2018—my PSCT journey and my near-death experience in Baler plus my very first international trip!
