ohayo gozaimasu from shonan…. woke up at 6am, walked to 7/11, picked up some oden for breakfast, now it’s time to leave to the airport. it’s my first surf trip of the year. well, first surf trip outside of japan. i’m so excited that i could hardly sleep lastnight. i’m ready for some barrels, some fun, and some chicken adobo. i’ll try to stay away from eating dog. people asked me if i ever ate dog before and to tell you the truth, i don’t know. when you go to local restaurants in the philippines, you just eat what they serve. everything looks good and i love filipino food so i just eat what ever. anyway, got to get out of here. have a nice day…..
no, this is not backdoor, hawaii. this is cloud 9, philippines. it was 4 years ago when i was invited by the philippines government to surf the international contest there. i didn’t know what to expect and only took my small boards with me, which ended up being a big mistake. on the ferry ride over, a guy came and told us that the waves were going off and 17 boards were broken that day. i got nervous…. i shot this photo with my digital camera and this wave might look small, but it’s actually 8′ hawaiian size…
this was right after 9/11 so it was pretty dangerous traveling at that time. the u.s embassy posted a travel advisory for all americans to get out of the philippines immediately. but crazy guys like us were going in. these were our bodyguards. the met us at manila airport and were with us the whole trip. these guys became our friends and it was cool walking around with them. made me feel pretty safe. i would love to have these kind of bodyguards with me in hawaii. if somebody drops in, they going to get a granade up their ass. simple….
this was the hectic ferry ride over. that’s indonesian pro dede surayana next to me. at that time, nobody knew who dede was. now, the world knows who dede is…. that ferry ride sucked. long, rough, and packed….
between the finals, they had a 30min break. nobody was on it except for one bodyboarder. the waves were as perfect as it gets. your not supposed to surf out there because it was the contest area but i couldn’t handle seeing perfect unridden waves. so i grabbed my small board, and paddled out to try to get a few. it was freaking bombing 8-10′. my board was too small but i wanted to get barreled so badly so i just paddled my ass off. i remember my first wave being an air drop but i somehow made it and bottom turned into this big blue barrel. the barrel spit me out and i wanted more. i scored 3 back to back stand up barrels and i was as happy as a surfer can be. imagine, surfing in a country far from home, blue water, white sandy beaches, and some of the nicest people on earth. that was probably my best 30 min session ever. john callahan took this photo and it ended up being published in a japanese, european, italy, and this spread was in a russian outdoors magazine. score!! thanks callahan…..
**anyway, i haven’t gone back to cloud 9 since then because we went exploring other parts of the philippines by boat. i’m on my way there today and if it’s anything close to what it was 4 years ago, i’m going to score. just checked the weather maps and it’s looking freaking good. there is internet access from my beach front room in front of cloud 9 so i will be giving daily updates. billabong invited 40 surfers from around the world for this awesome contest. guys like jamie o’brien, mikala jones, along with other top hawaiians, top indonesians, and top australians. $20,000 is up for grabs and this is pumped up to be the biggest contest ever in the philippines. i’m stoked to be a part of it….MABUHAI!!!!!
