Surfing with the Weekend Warriors

I was feeling every bit of the rainy weather when out of the blue I got a text message from my friend Al. “Hey do u have plan [sic] today? We’re doing surf lesson in Pasig for Weekend Warriors. U wanna join us?”

Never mind that I had a VTR scheduled that afternoon (it was for support cast anyway). Never mind that I still had a 400-word article to finish for Action & Fitness Magazine (done in one hour, yo!). Never mind that it was rainy (I’d get wet anyway). I jumped on the chance to try out surfing at Club Manila East, which I’d already heard about from my friends.

  “Weekend Warriors” is an upcoming web show on Flippish.com with Ton Gatmaitan, Chris Tan, Jinno Rufino, and Al Galang. They’re a group of buddies in search of the ultimate adrenaline rush and great things to do on a weekend getaway. Naturally, they need guest Girlfriends of the Week to round out the cast. Jinno was knocked out by illness, and I was the only girl they could get to show up that day. Chris said, “If you hadn’t shown up, we’d have canceled the shoot. It would have been too much of a sausage-fest.” Yeah, but the problem with having a girl on an extreme sports show is she just might show you up.

The other girl was Lorraine Lapus, one of the coaches from the Philippine Surfing Academy, which runs the lessons at CME. She explained the parts of a board, basic safety procedures, and how to get up on the board. I’d already been through some instruction as part of the surfing lesson I had during a LAC trip to Zambales, but it was still great getting a refresher. After all, my first and last surf session was back then in 2007.

The boys were all avid wakeboarders so they already knew which was their back foot, but it came as a surprise to me that Al was surfing for the first time. “There was a lot of surfing back where I grew up,” he admitted (he grew up in LA), but he’d never had interest in anything else aside from balls. The bouncy kind. The sporty kind. Aw heck, sorry Al…

We took our boards into the pool and waited for the wave machine, which started sending out 3- to 5-foot swells. As soon as my turn came up, my muscles went and did their thing. What do you know? Surfing is just like riding a bicycle. You never forget how.

Let’s get it up, boys!

Soon enough, the boys were riding their own waves, with Chris getting the longest rides to shore. Ton had some trouble with his board, but got the money shot. And Al? I bet he regretted not starting younger.

After about two hours of this (mostly in the middle of a torrential downpour that had water drops bouncing from the waves into our eyes), we were wet, dog-tired, but happy. And I missed my VTR. But I wouldn’t have spent my afternoon any other way.

Hang loose!

An AbZORBing Adventure

Half the year, Boracay’s a fun summer getaway with calm waters and warm sun perfect for swimming and sunbathing. But what do you do the other half of the year when it turns into a literal wet blanket, with huge waves and frequent rainshowers?

My friends and I were lucky or unlucky to be in Boracay right at the turn of the season from dry to wet. We landed under a clear sky, but incoming rains washed out our second day’s plans at the beach. So, we turned to other pursuits… like riding a Zorb.

Er, wait a minute… what’s a Zorb? It’s a very large transparent plastic sphere with a hollow core. People get into that core and then roll downhill. I’d seen a small feature on TV about this extreme sport when it started in New Zealand, so I was definitely excited about trying it for myself.

Zorbing had just started on the island the previous week, so even the tricycle drivers didn’t know exactly how to get there. Our trike had to go past Alta Vista de Boracay resort, then take a turn to the left and climb a steep hill. Since the trikes don’t have very powerful engines, each trike was limited to carrying 4 people (excluding the driver) and the drivers charged each of us P50 per way (P100/person for the round trip).

We had two ride options: the harness ride where two people are strapped into the core opposite each other, and the water ride where one to three people can climb inside the Zorb, have it partially filled with water, and then have the hole plugged so they could roll downhill on a cushion of water. We all opted for the harness ride (P350/person).

Ideally both riders should weigh the same give or take five kilos, but the Zorb is safe to ride for people with up to a 20kg weight difference. None of the riders should weigh above 80kg though.

So my friend and I were strapped in, and once we started rolling down that hill, I couldn’t stop screaming! Part of it was I got freaked by a leg strap coming off, although I should have known I was completely safe because the chest straps and centrifugal force would hold me against the inside of that Zorb.

It was a thrilling ride and gave us something to be busy about that rainy afternoon. The gloomy weather actually helped, as we realized during the summer it might get stifling hot inside those Zorbs.

Next time I might try the water ride, but only if I were wearing the right gear, like a rash guard and a one-piece swimsuit. We were told a Korean tourist had gotten disrobed the other day during her Zorb ride — yikes! 

The Accident-Prone Tourist: Blow-Up Doll

Vacations are only postcard-perfect on, well, postcards. While most times they can be snag-free, one must always allow that shit happens. When it does, all one can do really is laugh at it and hang on for the ride.

I am allergic to food that appears on most gourmet menus: shrimp, crab, and lobster. Quite unfortunate because I used to love eating that kind of food. Now I just try to avoid ingesting such because I swell up like an inflatable doll and have breathing problems, but watch out for hidden secret ingredients!

When we were in Macau, we had a delicious noodle soup at Wong Chi Kei, a famous shop in San Ma Lo. The menu said it was just chicken noodle, but this actually meant they ladled a basic soup stock over whatever noodles and meat you’d selected. We should have known that soup had shrimp. Thirty minutes later I was scratching my neck and ears and clearing my throat. My dad had to find a Watson’s and buy a corticosteroid to halt the histamine attack.

I told myself I’d be prepared next time with medicines — but the next time still threw me for a loop. On my trip to Laoag with Living Asia, I had studiously avoided all foods prepared with the aforementioned seafood. Then I decided to give ant eggs a whirl, and whaddya know, I’m allergic to them as well! I loaded up on the corticosteroid, but in the end had to hie off to a hospital to get a shot of Benadryl.

Would you still travel with me if you know I was this accident-prone? =)

Sun-Tanning and Soul-Searching in Boracay

Last month when my sister and I booked our stay in Boracay, I thought it would be just another of our outings there, with the same routine — tanning and swimming at the beach, watching the sunset from the Tides’ roofdeck, and dinner and dancing somewhere on the beachfront.

Marielle and me on the beach

But it’s the Lenten season, and it just wouldn’t be right without a little soul-searching. Apparently that’s what God meant for us to do because only a week before we left for Boracay both of us found ourselves in situations that needed prayers, thought, and time away from our usual pursuits in the city. In my case, I had to assess my job situation and career path, and I’d just broken off from a relationship that was going nowhere. Definitely soul-searching stuff.

a little light reading… not!

Monday was our first day. I was on the boat from Caticlan and I asked God to speak to me and romance me during the whole trip. After we’d spent a few hours on the beach trying to get tanned, we decided to head back to our hotel. It was then that we bumped into Joaqui Tupas and his fiancee Jana, who had just finished having coffee at Cafe del Sol. They invited us to sit down for a while, and we had a blessed, insightful, and encouraging conversation with them about relationships and careers — just what I needed. They prayed for me and my sister, and our serendipitous meeting left me feeling sure about the decisions I had made the week prior to our trip. Best of all, I began to understand that God was in control not just of my trip to Boracay, but also of my life.

I woke up for an early-morning beach run on Tuesday, drinking in the island’s beauty and just feeling very loved by God. I ended up running a distance approximately twice the length of White Beach and still had three hours of tan time on the beach to spare.

We spent the afternoon with some friends, hiking past the last resort on White Beach and going around the bend to some secluded spots on the island. It was such a peaceful afternoon, capped off by the best sunset I’d ever seen in Boracay. It was just us at the tip of the island, the sea, and the sun going down the edge of the world. 

the view from Nami

Boracay West Cove

I was up early again on Wednesday morning and decided to have breakfast by myself at Real Coffee. I ended up breaking bread with Nadine, the owner, and just shooting the breeze with her about herself and Boracay. It was such a beautiful thing and is one of my favorite points of the whole trip. It helped me to realize that I should ask questions and engage people in conversation more often — not just in pursuit of a story, but also because people have great stories to tell.

And then in the afternoon I ran into my ex and his friends. You know what? I expected that after just one week of being apart, I would fall apart upon seeing him. Instead, I felt calm, cool, collected, and beautiful.

and I’m feeling good…

I became even more determined that the end of us was really the end. Talk about closure; God gave it to me and I didn’t even have to do anything. Of course there was still a part of me that was curious about seeing more of him later that night while out dancing, especially after he texted asking where I’d be. After constantly being around each other for two months, we definitely had developed a habit. But it takes only a week to break a habit and it didn’t take me much willpower to say no.

I came home from Boracay yesterday with a golden tan, and a smile on my face and peace in my heart. It was a great way to kick off Holy Week, just relaxing and seeking God’s will in my life. I’m excited about what else He will reveal to me the rest of this week.

Reminiscing: The Windmills of Bangui

Last year during my trip to Laoag, we stumbled upon the windmill farm in Bangui as we were on our way to the Cape Bojeador lighthouse.

We drove up to a man standing by on the highway, and asked him how to get to those windmills in the distance. He told us to take a little dirt road and take several turns so we would emerge on the coastline. After a few dead ends driving through the dense thicket of bushes and trees the dirt road took us past, we broke through the foliage onto a desolate spit of beach sand. To either side of us, towering monoliths of steel with blades perched atop each of them stood like silent guardians.

the windmills of Bangui

Standing in the midst of these, I felt really small. It was as if I’d gotten warped into an alien world where the inhabitants were giants, and we were Lilliputians. And the fact that we were on a beach with gigantic propeller blades spinning overhead gave me a very strong Lost vibe. Any minute I expected maybe a plane to crash, or some disheveled survivors emerging to greet us.

The wind came strongly in from the sea, but it staggered me that it was blowing strong enough to cause tons of steel to move. The windmill blades were squealing and groaning, straining against the wind to catch every last gust of power. A small knot formed in my stomach as the thought entered my head, “Could these things possibly fall off? And could we avoid being crushed?”

fascinated and scared

Watching the windmills was both mesmerizing and terrifying. My intellect knew that these were harmless, simply harnessing wind power to light half the province of Ilocos Norte. But the animal part of me was awestruck — probably akin to the experience of isolated tribes encountering the modern city.

The windmill farm of Bangui is so picturesque that it’s been featured on local album covers, magazines, and the occasional ad campaign by a clothing company. It’s surreal, this juxtaposition of manmade and natural. There’s really nothing quite like this place anywhere else in the Philippines, and I’m glad we took the side trip to see it.