All set for Bohol Wakefest in Pandanon Island

CEBUANOS and Boholanos will finally get a chance to try wakeboarding and wakeskating as the Singapore-based The Board Shop in cooperation with the municipality of Getafe, Bohol present the month-long Bohol Wakefest 2012 on Pandanon Island from May 25 to June 25.

The event will be a preview of Getafe’s project of setting up its own cable wake park similar to the Camsur Watersports Complex to boost tourism.

Michael Tan, the general manager of The Board Shop, said during yesterday’s press conference at the Chika-an Restaurant in Lahug that cable wakeboarding is cheaper than boat wakeboarding.

Cable wakeboarding is wakeboarding while being pulled by an overhead cable ski system while boat wakeboarding is wakeboarding while being pulled by a boat.

Hazmir Ramli, regional sales manager of The Board Shop, said cable wakeboarding is also environment-friendly because it is powered by electricity and not by fuel.

Tan said there are three wake parks in the Philippines and none of them are in the Visayas area.

The one that will be set up in Getafe will be the first in the Visayas and is guaranteed to draw in the tourist for the town as well as promote the sport in Bohol, said Getafe tourism officer Hector Tugoy.

For the activity in Pandanon, The Board Shop will set up the best-selling German-engineered two-tower cable park system—the Sesitec System 2.0, which will give locals and tourists alike a chance to see and even try for themselves the sport of wakeboarding and wakeskating.

Rates for the Bohol Wakefest is P600 for half a day and P900 for the whole day. Both include a wakeboarding or wakeskating clinic to be handled by Jenette Beltran, the No.1 female wakeskater not only in the Philippines but in Asia who is also the marketing and PR executive of The Board Shop.

Organizers said that they are still mulling on packages that will include boat transfers either from Getafe or Lapu-Lapu to Pandanon Island.

The wakefest will be highlighted by a Wake Jam on June 9 wherein wakeboarders and wakeskaters from Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Japan, United States and Europe will be invited to show their wares.  /CORRESPONDENT MARS G. ALISON