Bacolod woman on paddleboard sets record, crosses Iloilo-Negros waters

SHE DID IT Lucy Lynette Ponce Uygongco, 54, rejoices after arriving at Pasil Sandbar in Barangay Latasan, EB Magalona town in Negros Occidental on Oct. 19, making her the first person to cross the 23-kilometer water between Iloilo and Negros islands on a paddleboard. —Jay Gadong/Contributor

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — An Ilongga businesswoman has become the first person to cross the sea between the provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental on a paddleboard.

Lucy Lynette Ponce Uygongco, 54, covered a distance of 23.02 kilometers in 5 hours, 27 minutes and 6 seconds, paddling at 4.2 km per hour on Oct. 19.

Uygongco, also a social media influencer who goes by the meta profile names “LpuKids Ibike” and “Ipaddle,” left the boulevard of Banate town in northern Iloilo at 3:23 a.m. and arrived at Pasil Sandbar in Barangay Latasan, EB Magalona town in Negros Occidental, at 8:50 a.m.

“The water was most perfect and as flat as the Iloilo River,” said Uygongco, a native of Bacolod City whose family owns fast food franchises in the cities of Bacolod and Iloilo.

Having slept for only three hours prior to Saturday’s crossing out of excitement, Uygongco chose to cross on Oct. 19, four days before a typhoon was expected to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Oct. 23 to Oct. 29.

The Iloilo to Negros crossing happened after one and a half years when she reunited on Oct. 12 with her stand-up paddleboard (SUP) coach Gary Neil Benedicto.

Benedicto coached her on her Iloilo to Guimaras crossing on May 26, 2022, and on June 10, 2022, making her also the first woman to cross the two islands on a paddleboard.

In her May 2022 attempt, she clocked one hour 31 minutes, and three seconds covering 7.38 km from Iloilo City’s Villa Beach and docking at Barangay Morubuan in Jordan, Guimaras. On the second attempt, the mother of three took the same route and clocked 2 hours and 2 seconds.

Training done

For the Iloilo to Negros feat, she resumed training last Oct. 14 under Benedicto, a 43-year-old gold medalist in the 2019 Elite Raceboard Sprint 400 meters at the Philippine Deep Paddle Games on Siargao Island who also holds the title of Fastest Stand-Up Paddleboarder of the Year.

On the fourth day of training with two hours on the water, Benedicto declared her ready for the crossing, impressed by her progress since their last session.

Uygongco’s Iloilo to Negros crossing was closely tailed by Philippines Coast Guard personnel in their own official vessel and a private motorized outrigger with two photographers, a couple who owned the outrigger and Uygongco’s driver.

How it began

Uygongco said she learned to do SUP when she had nothing to do during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021.

A new hobby was born when Uygongco spotted Benedicto on a paddle board while capturing photos at the Iloilo River Esplanade for her blog.

Initially seeking permission to feature him on her blog, Uygongco later asked Benedicto if he could teach her paddle boarding. The following day marked their first lesson together.

During that time, Uygongco would practice paddle boarding early in the morning from Monday to Saturday, using an 11-foot-2-inch SUP that was 30 inches wide and 4.5 inches thick. Each day, she would paddle approximately 10 km, spending around 2 hours and 18 minutes on the water.

Before her passion for SUP, Uygongco has been taking photos of the Iloilo River and its development, as well as other locations of Iloilo City in general.

She would post these in her blog as a way of helping the city with its tourism promotions, with the city government sharing many of her posts on its Facebook page.

“The Iloilo government gave us residents access to open space and nature is within reach. Thus, I was able to develop this lifestyle—bike and paddle,” said Uygongo.

Her most popular posts are those of her paddling in the Iloilo River, one of the most popular being the one on Jan. 27 this year during the Dinagyang celebrations.

The influencer was wearing fancy Dinagyang headgear while paddling with her three dogs—Peanut, Butter, and Sandwich—beside her on the paddle board, also wearing their own Dinagyang headdresses.

“Never doubt, always believe that you can and you will and believe in that even if you are 50 years old and beyond,” Uygongco said.