Beyond the huge waves of Siargao Island

My attempt to witness an international surfing competition in Siargao Island was spoiled last year because I had to attend to the preparation of our 130^th town anniversary celebration. I just said to myself I had to lengthen the urge for at least one more year and hoped that a very good friend Meggy would still invite me to the same event this year. And she did just that. While my colleagues were head and shoulders busy for the same anniversary preparation, there could be no stopping me to witness the event, otherwise, I have to chase it again next year. 

 

 

Meggy had to also stretch her energy being the overall team leader, aside from being the driver everyone would love to be with in a long trip. Two other friends from Davao media joined the trip in Maya and Tats. We took a 5-hour extensive land trip from Davao City in an early morning of September 27 and another 2 and a half hours boat trip from Surigao City to Dapa Port, Siargao Island.

Siargao island has been very popular because of its huge waves but I have some impressions of the place more than just the big waves. Tourism is very much alive in Siargao, particularly in the Municipality of General Luna (GL) where Barangay Cloud 9 is situated, a haven for surfers from foreign and local scenes and where the annual international surfing competition is held. When we talked to GL Mayor Jaime Rusillon, Siargao had a dramatic transformation when he started his tenure as the town’s chief executive. According to him, it was practically a shift from nothing to something and tourism became the number one contributor to GL’s growing economy. When they started the international surfing contest, tourist arrivals also grew largely. In 2014 alone, a total of 60,000 foreign tourists visited GL while local arrivals was accounted to 300,000. 

 

Investments relative to tourism also recently flourished in GL. The growing number of resorts, restaurants and accommodation facilities were erected over the last five years which also generated employment for local residents and revenues for the local government. While they are inviting more and more investors to settle to GL, the good mayor said they have an existing tax holiday program for tourism-related establishments that encourages the private sector more to invest in this town. 

On our second day in Siargao, we visited Cloud 9 in search for John Mark Tokong, this year’s Siargao International Surfing Champion. Christened “Marama” by his local folks because of his prudent attitude towards the waves that made him a surfing icon, John Mark outlasted other competitors onward to winning the championship diadem and pocketed the 8,000 US dollars cash prize. Despite his popularity, I saw John Mark being genuinely humble and a down-to-earth fellow. Born and raised by a simple family in GL, John Mark aspires to rule more international surfing competition in the country and even in the international scene.

To maximize our remaining time in Cloud 9 after a brief but memorable chat with John Mark, Meggy and Maya decided to take a short surfing lesson while Tats and I spent the rest of the afternoon shooting the beautiful seascape of Cloud 9. We also met with national surfing figure Luke Landringan while having dinner at Kermit restaurant. 

 

I enjoyed our trip to Siargao very much because aside from being a truly wonderful destination, I also gathered several yardsticks of tourism program that somehow can be applied in my hometown. What amused me much is the fact that the local leadership of General Luna town is using tourism as their priority program to catalyze economic development.