The Luzon Team- 8th Siargao National Surfing Competition

The Luzon Team for Siargao- La Union and Baler

Baler's "okoy" - Combining the old school tricks with new school flashes.

Here, his picture was used for the invites of the first leg of the PSF. photo by: Kathy Chua

Argie " Bad boy" Hugo, charged siargao with grace and confidence.

Edmund " Dyango" Mendoza is as always the tireless surfer. while
Smith " wiwi" Dela Torre had his trial run in Siargao. A new comer in the open division and has now seen greater heights in surfing.

The Baler Team:
Rommel " okoy" Rojo
Argie " badboy" Hugo

Edmund "Dyango" Mendoza
Smith " wiwi" Dela Torre

( Hey i just realized all competitors have aka's?)

All seven from the Luzon team except for Jango and Badboy ( who are both among the top 9 competitors from last season. It's usually top twelve but luke landrigan(LU), Carlito Nogalo(SIA) and Anthony Valdes(LU) weren't around to defend their titles), fought hard to beat 60 other competitors; They succeeded! Okoy proved his great come back having been gone for two years, by becoming the champ for the qualifying round topping all 60 other competitors! alongside okoy were Poks, kawkaw and bashong from La union... and since they made it to the qualifying rounds they were advanced to the top 12 ranking waiting with the two others from Luzon, Jango and Badboy. Now moro, Kali and wiwi having lost in the qualifying round had to fight their way back in the dogheat category still for the qualifying rounds. Kali succeeded and made it back to join the heats although moro, unfortunately didnt make it as far ( it's alright mahal kong kapatid...You did well considering that he had his ankle injured prior to the competition) and so did wiwi from baler who did his best competing for the first time in siargao, although he lost, the newcomer can now finally say he was able to charge siargao already.

So finally out of the 9 competitors from luzon only 6 remained.Jango and Badboy didnt have to compete for the qualifying rounds anymore since they were really just waiting for those who were to win the qualifying round. That makes okoy from Baler the only one who made it up to the quarter finals from scratch same thing with bashong kawkaw, poks and kali from la union.

The quarter finals started, rejoined by the top nine surfers, only okoy, bashong and kawkaw made it in the first few rounds. Badboy and Jango both lost ( after having to wait for so long, they lost their first heat!)..... good thing there was another dogheat round for the quarter finals.... eventually Jango was the only one who made it back and badboy on the other hand got 4th place which didnt bring him back to the quarter finals. Maybe because he had a flu? or maybe it was really bound to happen...

Eventually...the last quarter finals had, HEAT 1: had okoy, al-al and martin HEAT 2 was jango, bashong and kawkaw( for some reason they all got in the same heat, all three from luzon) and the last, HEAT3 were poks with usot and yokyok of siargao.

The waves in siargao were getting huge. al-al and martin from siargao together with baler's okoy gave the judges a hard time deciding who's gonna be the two lucky surfers to get the spots for the semi finals. They fought hard. Charging each wave fearless.... barrel after barrel it was a never ending battle until finally all three were getting almost the same scores....the same rides. then.... al-al gets in the barrel, and so does, martin.... Then Baler's okoy charged a huge wave... the biggest wave in their heat...he was in it.... and then....and thennnnn...... the huge wave chugged him in.nge. that was his end for that heat. martin and al-al both from siargao made it to the semi finals.

HEAT 2 composed of the three luzon surfers, jango, bashong and kawkaw did just the same.... all three showed off their skills in a supreme manner. barrel rides, cutbacks, floaters.... It was almost never ending as well... adrenalin was high....until....uh-oh.....our kawkaw drops in on bashong!.Dang! talking about adrenalin- it could blind you sometimes( the chismis is that bashful bashong did it on purpose hehehehe way you go bashong! nice game plan! competition eh! di ba?) so obviously, jango and bashong need not to prove anything anymore.... kawkaw's out and they're both in. awwww poor kawkaw....

HEAT 3 with La Union's poks, who competed against usot and yokyok of siargao, landed third as well not enough to bring him to the semi-finals.

The lucky jango who made it from dogheat and our "wais" bashong made it to the semi finals.Only two of them left from the Luzon team. They fought hard, unfortunately though, they only made it up to just the first heat in the semi finals and both landed last. It's alright my dear friends..... You did your best and you showed everyone that you could actually charge siargao and not be "kulelat" even if you literally get to surf siargao only during competitions. Mind you all these boys arrived in siargao just a day before the competition.It was a beautiful display of real fighting spirit. Imagine you beat 60 siargao surfers who surf there everyday. For me Champion pa rin kayo !!!!