LEGAZPI CITY – With three kilometers of white-sand beach almost free of sharp coral grits, Gubat Bay in Sorsogon offers water sports thrills that go beyond the joys of swimming in a blue ocean.

The bay, 620 kilometers south of Manila and 63 km from Legazpi City’s airport in Albay, faces the San Juanico Strait on the southeastern edge of the Bicol Peninsula. It has been attracting fun-loving people since early this year when they introduced skim boarding and water surfing.

“It receives a lot of waves from the Pacific [Ocean] and even though this is the wrong season for waves, still you can ride on them,” Michael Kelleher, a Filipino-Irish swimmer and surfer, enthuses.

Kelleher, 23, who was in Gubat town for a two-week vacation this month, frequents the middle portion of the bay where the waves roll down unhampered to the shores. He lives and works as an engineer in Cork City in southern Ireland and was a champion in a national swimming competition when he was 18. He represented his country in the European swimming competition.

‘Not challenging’

Although he has surfed in Ireland, France, Morocco and Jamaica, Kelleher finds the Gubat Bay a safe place for surfing because the shores are “not challenging” (read: not dangerous because the area is not coral reef), which, he says, is “good for surf school.”

“You can teach people how to surf here and invite tourists to see it for themselves,” he says.

BJ Villaroya, 22, an agribusiness farm operator and one of the pioneers of surfing and skim boarding in the bay, reveals that the good waves come in the stormy months of October through December.

Villaroya cautions that the place is quite dangerous to the uninformed because it is where the sea currents converge, creating strong undercurrents. But, he says, one can learn how to handle the situation by observing the color of the water.

“The undercurrents are located where the water turns brownish with the swirling sand underneath. One must not counter the undercurrent once caught in it. You must go with it until you reach an area where it ends and then swim away from it,” he advises.

Local fancy

Villaroya says a certain Berenger from Sorsogon City had surfed in the Gubat Bay in the ‘70s but it is only now that the sport is catching the fancy of the locals. He says he learned to surf only late last year but has been skim boarding for quite a while now.

Skim boarding has definitely conquered the attention of the young ones in Gubat. For one, the skim boards could be manufactured locally using available materials. The surf boards have more intricate and sophisticated design and specifications.

Noli Mercader, 27, reveals that skim boarding was introduced only in March, but it has already influenced the youth’s lifestyle and culture. Several loosely organized groups now regularly “jam” to show off their skills and tricks while riding on the boards on shallow, receding waves along the coast.

“It’s a 10-15 seconds’ thrill riding and balancing the board up to 30 feet. I think it’s sort-of addictive because it gives you some high accomplishing the feat of staying upright while sliding down on the board for as long as you can,” Mercader says.

He says curiosity drew them to try the sport after watching Villaroya perform in January at the Dangkalan Beach on the left portion of the bay. The young expert willingly taught them the basics.

New source of income

Mercader did not only learn the new sport but also found a new source of income from making skim boards. He browses the Internet to learn more about board design, shape and other specifications.

He earns some P300 for a skim board and can make four boards in a week.

“We also earn from skim board rentals at P20 an hour. We also offer skim boarding tutorials wherein the learner is required to rent two boards, one for the instructor and the other one for the latter,” Mercader says.

To Mercader, surfing and skim boarding in the Gubat Bay can certainly make a difference and open opportunities for local tourism.