I’m a Surfer!

How many times do a person need to play a sport before he or she considers that game as his/he sport?  Does it have to be a daily playing of the sport? Once a week? Once a month?  Do a player needs to receive a prize or a medal for winning the game before he or she considers that sport his/her sport?  Or do you have to enlist yourself to legit and recognized sport organization so that you can call that sport your sport?

Or do you simply need to know the mechanics of the sport, be a knowledgeable on who are the legends and superstars of that sport and you just have to simply have to be an avid fan of such a sport before you can consider that sport your sport?

If the basis for having a sport is the last question, without any shoes or any gear, then my sport would be tennis.  But for other basis or criteria of having a sport, then I can easily say that I don’t have one.

Maybe playing a sport is not in my genes and bloodstream.  In the past, every time a soul would ask me what’s my sport, without butting an eyelash and feeling sedimentary, I would simply say “none” then start justifying that sports are only for people who needs to exhibit hatred, vent out ones boastfulness and dispense their sadistic pleasures.

But this is until recently when for the third consecutive year of visiting the bucolic municipality of Baler, I guess I can consider myself of finally having a sport.  That would be SURFING!  No not windsurfing or kite surfing or internet surfing.  Its beach surfing!  Yeah!  This is my third time on three consecutive years to surf the soft-sanded Sabang Beach of Baler.  Would this count?

a short re-briefing…

as usual someone needs to carry my surf board for me. hahaha!

i heart baler

surf is up! hahaha!

I have yet to know technical terms of the sport like tubing, windswell, crumbly and pearling, but I’m definitely stoked every time I got to surf.  It may only be my third time but I already feel like I’m a Kahuna!  Kahuna by the way according to surfers are the wizards and magicians of surfing!  Hahaha!

Now ask me.  What’s my sport?

You, what’s your sport?

‘Yun nga lang… nakaka-hingal!

First Time Surfer

Not in my wildest dreams that I would be one with the waves.  The thrilling waves of Sabang Beach in Baler, Aurora Province is the site where I first learned and experience gliding on water.

While learning the basics on how to position my body and the technique on how to stand on top of the surfboard, I pity my tutor because he will have to squander tons of patience, immeasurable strength and lots of miserable time before I can finally learn to stand and ride a thrilling wave.

trip to baler is incomplete if without surfing…

move over Mick Fanning… the future surfer of the year is here…

At my present age, in which my body is two steps behind my brain, I know that being a beginner sucks! And I have always accepted the fact that the whole Pacific Ocean would first have to dry up before I’d be able to learn how to surf.

And while acting out the necessary moves being taught to me by my tutor, I was also thinking that since it would be impossible for me to attain balance and be able to stand on a moving surf, I might as well enjoy the thrill and the feeling of my body crashing and splashing down the ocean!

But lo and behold, after just few attempts and immeasurable metric tons of salty water that I drank everytime I fell off the moving surf, I was already standing atop a gliding surfboard! I was like floating on air!

ryan, my tutor was also my “taga-buhat”

I can say that the experience was indeed pure fun!  It’s the ultimate feeling of joy out from accomplishing something that you never dreamed of in the first place.

I was so ecstatic, I even hugged my instructor when he approached me telling me “Good job!”  It’s that happy feeling of accomplishment that gives me a reason to visit back this thrilling side of the Pacific Ocean.

Parang gusto ko na tuloy bumili ng tatlong piraso ng Surp Bord!