October in La Union

The weekend of October 7^th we rocked up to La Union again after almost a month away. Aya and I moved into the Yeah, Yeah House, also known as the former Billabong House at Waveriders. Saturday was spent sharing waves with friends. Party waves, party wipe-outs. Piskal Andrew celebrated his birthday at Surfers’ Retreat where the classic line “have you seen the beach at night” was uttered by a Dark Knight (Night?).

Sunday morning sessions gave way to a trip into town for ukay-ukay, sight seeing and a Midway lunch. Another lunch at Surfers’ Inn led to hanging out in the newly built kubo which was decked out with flowers for a special occasion. Said special occasion happened just as the sun began to set.

Good weekend. In three words: Hello, North Swell.

Photos: http://kagey.multiply.com/photos/album/131

A week later and we were back!

Drove up with Philip, Gabo and Terence (aka The Thundercat Car) and drove down with Doc Mark, Jong and Ely (aka The Other Thundercat Car).

In between was a weekend of small waves and friendly line-ups. Trying to learn how to use a 6’6 fish and a 9’0 longboard in the same weekend is not recommended. It is hella fun but also quite funny. Especially if your name is Carlo Cruz and you are watching me on try to use a longboard. We busted out my new Pentax Optio and took turns taking photos of each others’ rides.

Happy birthday again to Terence Boy! Thanks for the drinks brotha. And big ups to Mark Dimo for hooking me up with the camera. The Pentax Optio rocks baybees. Look it up.

For photos taken with the Optio go here: http://kagey.multiply.com/photos/album/134.

Two weeks later it was the La Union Surfing Break, a weekend sponsored by the DOT and Power Up in cooperation with LUSC. Surf, frisbee and wall climbing clinics went on all of Saturday and Sunday. A slight fever -- and lots of booze -- found me spending all of Saturday just hanging out on the beach with various peeplage, watching beginners get their first taste of stoke. The evening was all about Joncy's 29th birthday. (Happy birthday Joncy... thanks for the party. Happy 13th birthday to Tickle Me Olracs... kahit na wala ka nung birthday mo... ditcher).

Sunday, the Yeah Yeahs moved house. Bye bye Waveriders... hello Purple House! Within twenty minutes of moving in, we had 1. a list of things we needed to buy for the house 2. house rules and 3. our photos up on the wall.

Then there were Bacnotan sessions in the morning (hello backside! love waves that go right!) and a lazy Sunday afternoon back on the beach. We were contemplating having another go at surfing the beach break but the whitewater getting out looked wild... with an H... whild.

Sunday late merienda with Doc Mark and Viva in our "ancestral home" not ten steps away from the new house. And the evening hanging out at Surf Camp then wrapping up at Surfers' Retreat. We hightailed it home before Typhoon Paeng hit hard.

Paeng rolled through La Union at about 3am on Monday. We woke up to a gray, overcast and chilly day. Spent most of the morning sitting around at Surfers' Retreat, too cold to surf. I give major props to the people that went out to Carille and the Point that morning.

Later on in the day, I got my D-SLR and set up a station at Surf Camp. Shot the freesurfing and the clinics for a bit. Mostly, hung out and tried to keep warm. The first snapshot was taken in the evening, right after dinner.

Tuesday was the LUSC competition with groms on shortboards, the LU boys on longboards and a sick expression session of the seeded LU surfers. Then it was back to the new house for the sad business of packing up and getting ready to go home. Aya and I delayed it for as long as we could by having a long dinner at Surfers’ Retreat. By 11pm we hopped on a bus and didn’t wake up until we hit Manila at 4am.

Snapshots from that weekend:
http://kagey.multiply.com/photos/album/138 http://kagey.multiply.com/photos/album/139.

SLR photos from the comp to follow.