I never wanted to try Surfing in Siargao until I picked up a surf board in General Luna. Almost all of my travel friends and acquaintances have tried surfing at least once, but I never really bother to try. Since I was in the Surfing Capital of the Philippines last November, I decided to give it a shot.
After our half-day tour of Magpupungko Rock Pools in Pilar, my friends and I decided to go surfing in the afternoon. We went to Cloud 9 to sign up for a 1 hour surfing lesson. Honestly, I was skeptical because I saw the huge waves rocking at the reefs of Cloud 9. I was also worried because getting hit by the water might be bad for my neck. Just a quick background about myself. I have been suffering from neck pain since 2013.
I thought, “Screw it! I’m going to do it anyway!” LOL! With my main fear behind me, I was there lying down on my surf board, mock paddling in the sand and learning how to spring from a prone position to a standing position. My surf instructor said to just paddle, stand up and try not to fall in. It was a short lesson on the shore.
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| our quick surf lesson |
While my friends and I struggled for our lives, all I could think of was my first wave. My surf instructor yelled at me to paddle and to position my body properly on my surf board. When my first wave arrived, I did my best to maintain my balance. In just a second, I was up on my board. It was the best feeling ever! After a few seconds, I fell off and warm salty water entered my nose. My head emerged above the water with the biggest grin possible. I did it!
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| photo taken after my first wave 🙂 |
My first wave could have given me a cool photo to share in social media, but because we don’t have a GoPro surfboard mount, here I am telling my story in this blog post. Haha! But seriously, the adrenaline rush I got from my first successful wobbly stand all the way to shore was awesome!
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| Big waves coming to Siargao in the afternoon |
Learning the basics of surfing if easy but the execution is a lot tougher to master. You might feel a little dumb after your first wave and when you tumble into the water many times, but you will get the hang of it eventually. I managed a few successful attempts after the first 30 minutes of our lesson. I did not finish the entire 1 hour though because paddling is really a tiring business! Plus, my neck’s killing me! I had to stop before I get myself paralyzed.
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| my friend Jerome feeling accomplished haha! |
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| we really enjoyed this surfing experience! |
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| even if you don’t plan to surf, a visit to Cloud 9 is a definite must! |
By the end of it all, our goals to stand up on our surf boards were reached. Vince stood up on the board. Jerome had a true surfer vibe coming off him and killed the lesson. He was so thrilled he wanted to join the professional surfers in Cloud 9! I, on the other hand, learned how to surf but realized it was not for me. Not because it was not addicting but because of my neck. I would have loved to spend more time surfing. T_T
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| Till next time Cloud 9! |
Anyway, if you are headed to Siargao and want to experience some really thrilling stuff, why not give surfing a shot? There are lots of surfing instructors that you’ll run into in Cloud 9. Some of them might be a little pushy, but please be nice to them 🙂 Teaching surfing in Siargao might be their primary source of income so let’s not be snobby, okay? If you don’t want to get their service, say no in a polite manner.
Got any questions? Let’s chat down below! Feel free to share on Facebook by using the super-easy share buttons! 🙂 Have an awesome week, everyone!
