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Six-year old Blade
Lopez prepares to hit the waters
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The stained glass
image of Naga’s patron saint Nuestra Seņora de
Peņafrancia
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stoked gliding round the
lake at 20–65 kilometers per hour.
For the uninitiated, wakeboarding is a combination of water skiing,
snowboarding and surfing techniques. But instead of using
skis, the rider hops on a single board, with stationary
bindings for each foot, as overhead cables suspended 8–12
meters above water pulls the rider in a counter-clockwise
motion.
There are some things, however, best experienced than
described. I would love to say that I got down on my
boardshorts and performed jumps and backrolls on the ramps.
It was, after all, a disappointment to say that I left
CamSur without a scar to say that I hit it off with this
fast-growing sport. But since it was competition season,
nobody could assist a novice in what would be her first-ever
rented board. Even my companions reminded me of the
quadruple embarrassment I would bear amidst the pro-riders
crowd if I drift lifelessly to the sandy shores just a
millisecond after sliding past the launching pad.
So I was left on the sidelines, to sit underneath the nipa
huts and gaze with envy as the participants did their raleys
and flips. Mincing words of an adventure under wraps, I
wonder how difficult the sport could possibly be. A six-year
old boy was waiting in line for his turn as a lady twice my
size and with a bandaged left leg gracefully skimmed through
the waters. Then I realized it takes more than just having a
thin frame and an adventurous appetite. Seeing a number of
the pro-riders fall, swim ashore and get back in line for
another try, |
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maybe it was a good idea
to suspend my wakeboarding initiation until I have mustered
up enough determination to do the same.
Apart from its world-class six-point cable ski system, the CWC is a
complete public facility with an eco-village, a deer farm,
accommodation options in trailers or cabanas, and even a
man-made cave. It opened last May 2006 and is spearheaded by
wakeboarder enthusiast Camariner Sur Governor LRay
Villafuerte.
Beyond Beaches and Corals
Camarines Sur is famous for its serene beaches, limestone cliffs and
immense diversity of greens and wildlife. So says the
tourist brochures. And while I would have loved to go to the
Caramoan Peninsula, Lake Buhi, Atulayan Island, Aguirangan
Island, Kulapnit Cave, Omang Cave, and countless waterfalls
and hotsprings, time constraints led me to the nearer yet
oft-beaten side of CamSur: its churches.
While I am not a devout Catholic, as are most of the
Filipinos, I enjoyed strolling around the different churches
of the towns of Naga, Magarao, Bombon and Calabanga.
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Maybe I was born with a
quest—a quest to travel over lands and seas, to trudge
over places defined in the atlases, to personally witness
what lies beneath the images portrayed in tourist maps, to
defy whatever age-old gloomy notion those places hold…
Months ago, I had gone to Mindanao, that forbidden region the
world labels as terrorist-laden and strife-ridden. I came
back with glazed eyes, not from boredom, but in sheer bliss
of the spectacular sights that beheld me. Beneath the
desolate depiction it has been unfairly tagged is a locked
up secret garden of paradise proportions—cascading falls,
lush tropics and peaceful communities—waiting for a
sojourning soul to trespass.
This time around, my wandering feet brought me down to the province
of Camarines Sur in the Bicol region. And true enough, it
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gave me a glimpse of the
excitement that belies the portrait of a dingy floody area
southeast of central Philippines. I honestly had my own
predispositions, having read of the region’s storm-ridden
towns figured in the news every so often. But the
anticipation of a sleepy sojourn quickly turned to a lively
roll as my early morning Air Philippines flight landed in
the Pili Airport. Welcomed on the tarmac by a group of
gyrating dancers in sequined costumes, it was a forewarning
of the surprises that burst abounty in CamSur.
Riding on Water
It was wakeboarding season then. And the six-hectare CamSur
Watersports Complex, better known as CWC, at the heart of
the provincial capitol was the venue for the Second
Philippine Cable Wakeboard Nationals. Over a hundred riders
from Australia, America and other countries gathered for two
days of getting |
