MONALIZA POINT, SAN JUAN, LA UNION – Peering at the surf forecast, one could see that there were two bursts of swell bookending the contest period and what could be a flat couple of days in between. Wasting no time, Contest Director Luke Landrigan called the competition early, running three Men’s Masters heats on December 7, a day before the contest proper.
While previous legs of the Pilipinas Surfing Nationals relegated the Masters heats toward the end of the event, La Union let the 40 and up category set the contest tone. There were no silly antics at Monaliza Point as locals Arnel “Bashong” Hermosura and Tanjun Fietas put on a display of powerful textbook surfing. Abdel Elecho, who won the Masters Title in Pagudpud, surfed sprightly from the peak to the beach. Landrigan himself copped a 5.25, the highest of the day, with steezy maneuvers like a railgrab cutback that brought you back to days of core.
John Mark Tokong returns
Coming back to the Nationals after winning the 27th Siargao International Surfing Cup, a WSL QS 3000 event, John Mark Tokong raised the bar for scores in Day 1 of the La Union Pro. Marama was the first Filipino to qualify for the WSL Challenger series and his season included an impressive first-place win at the Whitebuffalo Hyuga Pro at Okuragahama Beach in Japan last March.
“I’m happy to be back on the national tour [after competing internationally]. Even if it’s the last leg, I get to surf with my friends,” shared Marama in a post-heat interview.
Marama also represented the Philippines in surf events at the Vissla Central Coast Pro and the Burton Automotive Pro in New South Wales, Australia, the Tamil Nadu International Surf Open in India, the Nias Pro in Indonesia, and more recently, the Taiwan Open of Surfing and the Siheung Korea Open QS 3000.
Marama, who breezed through three rounds of the La Union Pro with consistent 7.0 and above single-wave scores, is currently #14 in the WSL Qualifiers 2023/24 season.
The Round of 16 of the Men’s Open Shortboard was a gathering of heavy heats, cutting loose a lot of strong contenders and making room for one of the most cutthroat Quarterfinals we’ve seen all year.
It’s going to be a battle of the backhand as crowd favorites, Jay-r Esquivel and Philmar Alipayo, go head-to-head in Heat 1 while Robert Magaluna and Jomarie Ebueza duke it out in Heat 2.
Meanwhile, John Mark Tokong and Neil Sanchez will exchange frontside attacks in Heat 3 as young guns Lemar Delamide and June Esquivel test each other in Heat 4.
New names in longboarding
Jeiru Zen Aribuabo continued his mission following his recent victory as the Junior Boys Longboard Champion in Surf City Borongan. Despite surfing against competitors more than twice his size in the Men’s Open Longboard, the 10-year-old Pong-Pong showed no signs of feeling pressured.
Siargao barrel kings, Philmar Alipayo and Ivan Nogalo, showed up with stylish noserides of their own as they gave Team La Union a taste of something different. Alipayo, who had recently been seen surfing a 12-foot Dandoy Tongco glider in Cloud 9, has more than his new hair color to shock and delight the audience.
La Union Surf Club members advancing to the Round of 32 are not about to give points away easily to the seeded surfers in the tour. Exercising noseride precision and local knowledge, the likes of Jhenard Fernandez, John Carlo Bersamina, and Jason Gatmen just might topple off the usual suspects.
Longboarding runs in the family as we see plenty of Esquivels, Ebuezas, Dumaguins, Lopez’s, and Martinez’s in the race to the Quarterfinals.
Living the Philippine Team Dream
The La Union Pro is the definitive leg where a final ranking will be set after considering all of the points in a best-of-five legs scenario. The top two surfers per division hold the priority for being picked to represent the country in the upcoming International Surfing Association (ISA) World Surfing Games events for 2024.
The 2025 South East Asian (SEA) Games will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. It has yet to be known whether surfing will be included in the 2025 SEA Games like it was in the 2019 event held in San Juan, La Union.
Meanwhile, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) has yet to announce a replacement host for the 2023 World Beach Games after Indonesia backed out just a month before the schedule.
It is a long road to the Olympics and our country’s aspiring surf athletes begin the journey by going on the national tour. While it is possible to lobby for private sponsorships to gain contest experience outside of the Philippines, gaining support from the national government remains to be the best path forward.
The La Union Pro has been on hold for two consecutive days as the West Philippine Sea takes a breather. A new swell is arriving on the last day of the contest window. Until then, surfers have gone spearfishing, motorbiking in La Union’s vast trails, and even exploring the mountain city of Baguio an hour away.
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About UPSA
The UPSA is the sole recognized National Sports Association (NSA) for developing and promoting surfing in the Philippines. This recognition was granted by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) through Republic Act 6847. As the national governing body for surfing in the Philippines recognized by the International Olympic Committee, UPSA continues to support and foster the growth of exceptional surf athletes like Jay-r Esquivel, Jr.
About Pilipinas Surfing
Pilipinas Surfing is the country’s premiere professional surfing championship tournaments with multiple competitions held at different regions around the Philippines. These events are sanctioned under your Local Government Unit (LGU) as part of the only national competitions in a unifying and collective series of national legs around the country.
