Riding the Waves

I had the privilege of going to San Juan, La Union with the other bloggers as part of the one year anniversary celebration project of Jonel Uy's Let's Go Sago travel blogsite. It was exactly the escape I was hoping for and more. I gained new friends, bonded with old friends and learned a new sport!

We stayed over at the Billabong Surf School, presided over by Mr. Luke Landrigan. The moment we got there, the grueling 7+hour bus ride was all worth it. The sand wasn't as white as I expected, in fact it was far from that but the grains were fine enough and they didn't hurt my feet. The water was a cool clear blue green and I was surprised it wasn't rocky at all, there were just a lot of seaweeds floating though but I guess that's a given.

We got to swim around and explore the beach strip during the morning because our turn for the surfing lessons didn't come until 2pm that afternoon. By the time it was our turn, we were all excited, anxious and jittery at the same time. I fell down quite a few times but I'm proud to say that I got up on that board more times than I fell down. Whoopie! They said I’m a natural surfer and that's pretty flattering. Surfing was exhilarating and liberating. I gotta tell you one thing, surfing is such a RUSH and an instant high! It will definitely not be my last surfing experience. I'm willing to improve my skills in this sport. I got some nasty bruises on my knees and a nasty sunburn on my chest and shoulders but I didn't mind. I got to surf!

We celebrated the night by bonfire and a little awarding ceremony by the host. I think everyone who went there got something. Our sponsors were really generous. There were some poi dancing also that night, although I didn't get to try it because I was afraid that my glasses will get hit by the pois. By midnight, some of us trudged back to our room (I shared the room with Ria). My body was very sore when I plopped down on my bed that night and I had a lot of trouble getting up early in the morning for a swim.

By 9am the next day, I finally put on my bathing suit and grabbed some breakfast. We fooled around with Ria's underwater camera and had loads of fun with it. I looked really goofy in those underwater shots, hahaha. To tell you the truth, I wasn't looking forward to the bus ride home because of my motion sickness but thankfully, we had too much fun watching Ironman and singing along to the Karaoke and the hours flew by in an instant. I won the Ms. Surfer Girl award by the way.

Looking back at the pictures, I can't help but smile. I will forever treasure the memories of that brief weekend. Here's to looking forward to the next surfing event!