Riding the waves in San Juan

SAN JUAN, La Union—Every day, Jomar Badilla, 11, and Mark Gio Espartero, 10, scour the stretch of resorts along the cove of Barangay Urbiztondo in San Juan, La Union, selling “caimito” (star apple), green mangoes and other fruits they picked from nearby trees.

Once they have sold all their fruits, or when their favorite customer, professional surfer Luke Landrigan, buys whatever is left from their day’s merchandise and asks them to go surfing, they don’t hesitate.

They grab surf boards from Landrigan’s resort and surf school, run to the beach with long boards atop their heads and spend the rest of the afternoon riding the waves.

John Ortiz, 15, like his friends Badilla and Espartero, learned surfing when he was 10 years old by borrowing boards from surf shop owners. Ortiz is one of the youngest skim boarders and instructors in the resort.

Like Landrigan, whom they call “Daddy Luke,” and other locals who turned pro surfers at Billabong Surf School in San Juan Surf Resort, these youngsters also dream of becoming professional surfers someday. Among their local heroes is the one-legged “Prince of Tides,” Ronnie Esquivel.

Tourist draw

San Juan has, no doubt, become La Union’s top tourist destination. Its waves are ideal for beginners and amateur surfers. From a fishing village, the town has become a surfing mecca in northern Luzon since it caught the attention of foreign surfers in the 1980s.

“The beach is where a lot of newbies learn to surf and where they hone their skills,” says Martin Valera, Department of Tourism regional director. The kilometer-long stretch of beach boasts of clean shores. Surfers take care of the place.

Landrigan says foreigners discovered the surf site, and locals adapted to the surfing culture. “Filipinos didn’t know how to surf before,” he says.

His father, Brian, 76, is one of the pioneer surfers. With him as mentor, Landrigan started competing when he was 13. His biggest accomplishment is winning the silver medal in the long board division of the first Asian Beach Games held in Bali, Indonesia, in 2008. He is also the first Filipino to become part of the Billabong Southeast Asia Surf Team.

Landrigan studied architecture for two years before he pursued what he jokingly calls his “BS in Surfing” degree, dedicating his life to the waves and letting the ocean plan his days. He put up his surf school in 2003, called “Surf Camp” by patrons.

In December last year, his school held a free clinic for 19 children from the Special Education Center in San Fernando City. “It’s our way of giving back for everything that surfing has done for us,” Landrigan says.

Another pioneer, Akinaga “Aki” Kazuo, 64, discovered San Juan when he read an article about its waves in an American surfing magazine in 1980. At that time, he was working at a surf board factory in Japan.

In 1981, his company had a surf tour of the Philippines, from Metro Manila to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. He settled in San Juan 18 years ago and married a resident of Caba town. The couple has two children.

He points out, however, that Esquivel’s father had seen the first surfer in the area in 1976, an American soldier from the Wallace Air Station in nearby San Fernando City.

Kazuo founded the La Union Surfing Association in 1996 and organized the first local surfing contest in September that year.

The idea of making locals earn money by teaching surfing occurred to Kazuo in 1999. “I thought locals have no income, no business, so we started to teach them so they can teach also,” he says.

Clemente Villanueva, Jose Ebueza, and Arnel Hermosora have been credited for being the first locals who learned how to surf and to teach surfing.

Vincent Esquivel, 30, an instructor, says he and his friends didn’t have surf boards then so they would just shape wooden boards, some even tearing down sections of the wooden walls of their houses for materials.

“Eventually, the locals were given surf boards by foreigners. Some boards were left by them, while others were donated by groups abroad,” says Rey de Ala, 28, another instructor.

There are 80 instructors in the village belonging to the La Union Surf Club. The club agreed on a fixed price of P200 for board rental and another P200 for an hourlong lesson.