surfing with Surfista Travels

My mind is still a blur. So many things I want to talk about. But for now (thank goodness!) it's kinda settled on last weekend's events.

Finally got back into the water I was. And if coming up with 10 sentences about the supposed life of Ronnie 'Poks' Esquivel, the one-legged surf wonder of La Union using the clause connectors wenn, als and weil for my German assignment - cracking up those sentences while waiting in line for my ride and onboard the FX and the jeep to school two days after - and shoving up beautiful surf photos along with the sunset as my ideal bedroom view - coming up with as much respect for the beauty and that kind of life as my basic Italian could muster (yes m'dears, I cram a lot, unfortunately) - doesn't count as BEING STOKED, I don't know what is. Of course that would not be the entirety of it. I'd rather be riding waves until I could no longer stand up if only a beach was just in my backyard. No, what a weekend of surfing and being with people who love the beach and the surf did was inspire me to look up more stuff about it. And that's when I found some tributes to and a video of Poks. I've never known him nor seen him, but somehow, his zest for going on inspires you. It's just sad that he had to die so early. He's just two years older than me in fact. So all that exposure had to translate to something. Rather than make 10 sentences with different topics, I challenged myself by making all those 10 sentences tell a story about him. I managed. I hope my professor liked it, or at least appreciated the effort I put into it.

This was my fourth surfing trip and my second time in La Union. It seems there's a trend. First in Baler in January, then February in La Union, then back to Baler in May and finally November in La Union. If I could, I could've gone with the next trip to Baler. The next trip will probably have to be next year though, January I hope.

I was lucky to get a last minute slot to this La Union edition of Surfista Travels. I thought I won't be surfing this year for sure. Thank you to that person who gave up his/her slot. You made my weekend!

On email and on text, I can feel the warmth flowing from Surfista Travels owner and coordinator Elaine Abonal. I was actually amazed to find out that she only started Surfista Travels January this year. When we were in La Union in February, I saw an ad of Surfista in San Juan Resort's Surf Shop and I thought it's been existing for years. In fact, it has only been less than a month that she started operating. Amazing.

Elaine checking to see how we were doing  before our first surf lesson

After everyone's sleepiness had worn off and we've had time to warm up to each other a bit via a McDonald's breakfast and a memory game (great way to remember each of our companions!), we're ready to start our lessons. First surprise: sunscreens from VMV Hypoallergenics and rashguards from Hurley. Of course, I knew there'd be these freebies, but it's still exciting to actually receive them. Sehr kühl! Only the rashguards were just for our temporary use but hey, I finally got to wear a rashguard that had a great fit *big grin*.

Hurley rashguards and VMV's Armada

We checked out our rooms and the ladies' Family room was huge. It could house up to 12 people but there were only five of us. It was airconditioned and had two bathrooms as well. There was a TV set, but we didn't have time to check out what it had to offer. Who would, right, when you're in La Union and there are lots of interesting companions and the beach to occupy your attentions? And we had a terrace! It's really nice.

So surf's up. The waves were a bit small and CALM. That's fine by me. I'm having trouble with big waves. In fact, my first few tries on the board, I still couldn't manage to stand up. My instructor Michelle was still so very patient. And in between waves, we talked about life and surfing. She's my first female instructor. Luke finally (woke up?) came out and he was taking pictures of us. When I finally got to stand up, I almost ran into him on my board. Maybe that's why my first photo standing up in a board had that angle haha. He was also gracious enough to give me more pointers, like remembering to slide my left foot more forward, right where my arms were lying  (I'm regular-footed) and bending my knees for better balance. I didn't think I'd have this chance to talk to him, moreso him giving me pointers. It's so nice of him.

I had a number of rides then, one of them with me going all the way to the shore. There were also times when the board was turning and I couldn't control it. Hmm. The last time I did that in February, I was pretty conscious of my body doing it. This time, it was just the waves. It was still sweet being able to ride again. How I missed that feeling. Then the hour was up and before lunch, we've had an opportunity to take pictures with Luke himself.

We've had time to get to know each other, and enjoy the beach some, before our second afternoon session. First, we've got a theory lesson. Oh yeah, it's only with Surfista Travels that you can have these. Now I have a bit of an idea on what to call those waves and those breaks. Plus some surfing etiquette (I know Carla, sorry na sa drop in *smiles*) and more safety tips it wouldn't hurt to remember. And lotsa stickers! Thank you sponsors :)

stickers for Surfistas!

Unfortunately, Michelle was still teaching another student so I got Ronnie instead. First off, we jogged with Elaine leading us. 'Twas good, needed it to get the blood flowing. Then Luke himself led us in stretching. Then he told us to paddle out to where he was. This is it. Time to strain those arm muscles. The last time I paddled so hard was in May where all we did was paddle (no joke, little to no waves that time). Then when we  were all gathered, he told us to sit, then turn our boards around back to the shore (which I also did a lot of in May, haha) but it seems I still haven't gotten the hang of it. Then he told us to race to the shore or our instructors, whichever came first. Unfortunately for Miawesome and I, we were having trouble getting our boards forward so Luke kindly gave us a push to get us on our way. Now with regular instructors, you don't normally get these kinds of insights if you were a beginner. Surfista Travels is unique like this. You get a taste of the different aspects of surfing.

Ronnie was very helpful with my stance and my standing up (still can't pop up as Luke suggested) and still managed to ride a number of waves. Also found out what Hang Ten entails. Turns out there's even a Hang Five move. Wonder when I'll be able to do them too. Our hour ended soon enough, but not before I twisted something in my butt whereby I had to stretch and/or let it rest a bit, and then we had a chance to witness a magnificent sunset. I've never had many experiences seeing the sun go down, and this I think, is the biggest I've seen so far. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a picture of it. It's really, really lovely. That's why sunsets in La Union are so special.

Elaine then shared to us what the folks at La Union used to do every Fridays. Everyone would be at the beach picking up trash. To give back for letting us experience surfing in San Juan, we did a cleanup as well. I know there are a lot of smokers but I was very surprised to find that most of the things I was picking up were cigarette butts, not plastics. Everyone oughta be more responsible, that includes the smokers. Put 'em away where they ought to be, that's in the trash bins. Loving the beach doesn't equate to leaving your trash lying around. Everyone should know better.

butts on the beach: these we picked up from just a square meter of sand o.O
photo from Surfista  Travels

We tried out a place across the road for dinner. Urbiztondo Grill was the name if my memory serves me correctly. It's a pretty big place and they've got a wide selection of items, although don't expect everything to be available. I was looking forward to inihaw na talong at maalat na itlog for dinner but sadly, the eggs were not available so I just went with laing. It was a pretty big serving of laing though so it would be good for sharing. We also had buko water, straight from the coconut itself. Then we gathered around for some games and kwentuhan afterward. We had a killer game introduced to us by cool Ghoul, unlike the killer game I knew where the killer had to blink at the person he wanted to kill. This time, there was a moderator and everytime someone was killed off, everyone would vote who they thought the killer was. It's a race to nail the killer or else everyone among the civilians dies. It was surprising to find out who the killers actually were, or who would single myself out as the killer. And I kind of had a hurrah moment when my hunch that Ghoul was the killer was correct. It was surprising to find out that Bam6 had this naughty (Vice Ganda-like) streak in him once he's a bit inebriated. Asha also had her physics notes with her for an upcoming exam, so I was equal ways disappointed and satisfied that I no longer remember/still remember some of the concepts. Ha, physics was so four years ago.

I awoke the next morning to hurting arms and thighs. And true enough to what everyone was saying the day before, indeed the wind has picked up and waves abound. In fact, a number of surfers were already lined up at the Point, where Elaine says the waves are very nice and which she sadly couldn't ride due to an ear infection (thus, I am reiterated with the fact that it's not so healthy to clean one's ears so often). There were also a lot of people on the beach, and probably a lot more students that we had to go in by batches because there weren't enough instructors to go around. Since a longboard (longer than the soft tops I used the previous day) was available, I decided to go with it, given the turbulence of the waves. I haven't had much success with this type of board (thus, my resolution to lose weight. Alas, pre-LU, I haven't had any chance to do so and so...) I'm not sure if it's just my weight or just getting the balance right - muscle memory and all that's needed to get me to stand up on it - but I realized later that I may have had better chance riding the waves had I chosen to go with the shorter soft top. Anyhow with Exson determined to make me ride, I persevered. Indeed, I had a hard time. Others around me were able to ride. Me needs a lot more practice. I finally managed one but it was a bit short-lived. Still, it was decent given the waves we were working with. Battered a lot we were. Ribs will definitely hurt the next day. It's part of the surfing experience after all. Then the hour was up. Oh! I couldn't bear not taking advantage of the situation. After all, I'm not sure when I'll be able to go back to the water. So I asked if we still had time. And I went in for another hour of surf lessons. The waves were bigger than ever. I've had many close shaves with the board, one of which was me feeling my leash graze my neck. I'm glad it didn't wrap itself around my neck and tumble me hard with the board. Probably lost my senses there as Exson told me I fell in front of the board. Not safe. First time that happened as well. And I was reciting mantras. That I'll ride a wave. And I was SURPRISED that I indeed rode the one that came immediately after I started reciting it. I was so amazed at the universe conspiring to let me achieve what I wanted to do. I waited for the whitewater to recede, hauled myself up, put my feet on the board and voila! I was riding. I was just amazed at the power of words. Unfortunately and surprisingly, the water hollowed out someways and I lost my balance. And that was my last ride for that day. Succeeding mantras hadn't worked. Eventually, my body succumbed to tiredness and I couldn't even haul myself up. At least I know I can actually ride a true board. I'm grateful that my instructor was patient and encouraging.

We had lunch and I was able to talk to the others and get to know them more. Found out about Nomad Manager Jen who is spearheading a site for Filipino cultural creatives promoting mindful living at Muni.ph. Then there's Xavier who's a freelance photographer and who collects film cameras. Completing the ten are Lea, Asha's older sister and also a returning Surfista, Roma who's an Elaine and Luke superfan (she got the merch before even joining any trip ^_^) and Mia and Lawin (both first timers). Hans was also there who after living in Surigao only got to experience surfing recently with Surfista Travels.

We received our certificates and after a few more pictures with Luke, Marj and Roger (*wink wink*), we finally got on our way back to Manila. But not before stopping by another McDo site in San Fernando for the traditional Surfista sundae.

That was a weekend full of great fun and stoke. Cheers to more STOKE in the new year!

sunsets and nostalgia

Finally had the time to just sit by the Sunken Garden and do nothing yesterday - after coming in late to my Italian class and just generally disappointing myself all over again with the way I've been handling it, and then followed by a particularly entertaining "Was bin ich von Beruf?" (What am I as a Job?) game in our German class (Herr Lehrer was in his element as Quizmeister, even providing the needed sound effects woot!) where my teammates BJ, Jam and I came out tied for 2nd, this after being comfortably nestled on top for a while during the earlier part of the game.

I didn't want to stay at the shop where I used to work at and where I'm still welcome, since it's another air-conditioned environment with computers - which is where I am for forty-something hours a week, all the while dedicating some more hours to the laptop when I'm at home. So when I'm at the PC shop, I can't help but be drawn to the net-connected PC so I decided to just stay by the Sunken to do some review of notes and/or the finals I just received. I did start out by noticing the hurried way I answered my and then later on went over my answers to the exam. It was evident in the lack of needed verbs and misspelling a certain pronoun because I've confused it with another noun. And then I read through a list of Italian verbs that require certain prepositions. This still didn't help me with my predicament though. All the while, I was listening to Jam since it's Friday Slide (my favorite radio program) and learned that a woman has successfully ended her life in the LRT Line 1 EDSA Station. She is the 24th attemptee I believe and, I was surprised to find out, the 10th who successfully did. I was immediately reminded by the remade Wall Street where Shia LeBouf's mentor does exactly that - reading the papers in a cafe on a seemingly ordinary day and then setting off for the subway, meandering through the throng of people and stepping into the train's path as soon as he got there - when everything he worked for suddenly failed. This happened at 5:50 AM the other day. All I'm left is wonder at would drive someone to end her life in such a manner. Last snippet I heard from the radio is that she hasn't been identified yet.


The Sunken Garden was actually a bit to my right. I was sitting in one of the benches in front of PHAN  (Palma Hall Annex) so my view was actually that of the huge tree obstructing one's view of the Bulwagan ng Dangal, which was in front of (or depending on one's perspective, to the side of) the Main Library. And I just let myself look at that tree - some of its leaves on its left side, and some a bit more in front, illuminated by the fading sun. You know all the leaves are the same color, but with the vantage point and light direction you're given, it's like some of it is more alive, and some are duller. Joyce (who arrived a bit later on) was right in pointing out that it looked like a forest. I agreed, I've been thinking the same thing, like it was a tree in the forest in the Lord of the Rings. That's how majestic the whole scene came to me then. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I knew the gadget I use for a camera wouldn't capture the interplay of light and colors, so I just let myself gaze at it, somehow committing it to memory.

I just sat there all through the rest of the afternoon, until the sun finally faded and all I'm seeing is the dark green of the trees. And somehow, a sense of my younger years in the university was coming over me.


There was a time when I was still somehow fresh out of UP (as late as last year in fact) that the image that comes to my mind when I think back to my college days is of wide open verdant spaces. In all my years in and out of buildings, classrooms and laboratories, the impressions that seem to have stuck to me are the times I was out of my classes. And of these, the, let's say, memorable ones were those I spent under the hot sun, rainy skies and the newly-cut, though many times unkempt, grasses of the Sunken Garden, with people I somehow considered as family, doing the thing we all love, staying together until after everything's done with and coming together to do that three or four times a week. Yes, we did and we were all somehow addicted, coming and yearning for it all throughout those times when we had exams and what-nots which hindered us from going.

Yesterday, as the day wound down and people were jogging around the Oval (like what I had planned on doing), the impressions were a bit different. For one, it was only then that I was able to witness once again the turning of day into night. These days, I'm inside the four walls of the production floor when the sun finally gives way to the moon. The fact that I was in UP while I was witnessing this brought me back to my first undergrad days (yes m'dears, I'm on my so-called second undergrad/college days at the moment). At first, it seemed like the times back in my first year when I'd go to my then, only, org's tambayan after classes and we'd just sit and talk, and later on, we'd go somewhere to drink or watch gigs - cramming all of these in time for curfew (which I had for five years!). I guess it was about that as well, since when I get home, there's nothing to do since I wasn't overly friendly with my landlady's family, only had my space in the room, didn't have a computer at that time, and it was either I read, talk to my roommates or sleep. My college days were in fact, the only time that I've stayed out of my sleeping space long after the sun has set for in our house back home, I didn't grow up doing that. Even when I was in highschool, I was usually making my way home immediately when there were no org or practices or meetings that needed to be done when classes ended. And my stepping into UP gave me that one big dose of freedom. One helluva huge dose indeed. Then I realized later on that this whole feeling was also probably connected to the days spent in that space called the Sunken Garden, once my most favorite spot in the whole of UP. I've recounted what we used to do then; it may be connected to what I was feeling.

But before I could fully bring back the impressions from the past, I had to move. With that, the fleeting sense that it's about to reveal itself was gone. I could've held on to the feeling a bit more, and subsequently basked in its full memory, if I stayed still a bit longer, but somehow, everything is not in sync. So I'm writing this to commemorate that afternoon when I somehow went back to the nostalgic feeling of my youth.

+++

Joyce told me yesterday as well about Sir MonRa and RA Rivera's Tales from the Friend Zone project. Friend zone is a term I've been reading almost everywhere just recently. Is it because of this project and a few others like it? Anyhow, the second video was what I could relate to the most.

Takeaways which ring true:

- why one becomes expectant, i.e. bakit umaasa (girl's POV): girl may not be used to having kind, sweet and/or handsome boys who befriend her so that the first one who comes along and is just that, she starts to think there's something. So yes, as girls have observed, when he doesn't say anything, it's nothing. Don't overthink.

- lower one's expectations because as MonRa explains, that "0.0001 na pag-asa na yan, or otherwise known as malisya, ay nagiging germ at lumalaki nang lumalaki dahil sa imahinasyon natin at sa pagnanasa na maging tunay na pag-ibig yan..." WELL SAID.


So...

Happy -ber months! Potted Potter is on in a little while. Tschuß!