All Saints Day

Ah, night shift has just ended and I've been catching up on sleep these past few days. Waking up refreshed after 8hrs of sleep, I grabbed a few sandwiches and coffee for breakfast, packed my bags and headed to the station to meet up with Chucky. We were commuting to Bacnotan today.

We were just in time for the 0830 trip, though the travel time would be a bit longer since we were passing by Marcos Highway (the usual route would be through Naguillan road, which was closed for All Saints Day). 2.5hrs and a few cycles of my phones mp3's (note to self: upgrade memory card, or get an ipod) and were were in Bacnotan. Next, we had to catch a jeep to Darigayos to get to Aldrix's place. By 1130, we were at Aldrix's praying for waves at the Backyard, but alas, it was a swimming pool today. The waves in the outer reef were huge though, we were a good 250m from them and you could see the swells. Ojie joined us so we decided to skip lunch and checkout the pier.

At the Outer Reef

We got off the jeep and walked to the pier. As we approached the pier we could count around 8 vans parked in the area. Shoot, the line up is going to be crowded. A few more steps and we were overlooking the beach, yup crowded alright, 8-10 long boards plus a couple of short boards. We started making our way down the sandy path and bumped into Jong (LU local now shaping boards for fiveforty). After the greeting, he told us not to worry about the crowd, they were all concentrated on the whitewater. Ah, newbies.

Longboards galore

This wasn't the pier I was used to, week after week we'd play here with less than 10 people in the water. Now I could count 15 in the water and 20 on the beach! Where'd everybody come from? Oh yeah, it was a long weekend, and everybody decided to learn to surf I guess. So after watching the breaks and rips, we paddled out to the line up.

At the Pier

Tube!

There were only a handful of people out in the line up. Everybody was just enjoying, watching, waiting, and catching waves. We took a couple of breaks to rest (specially after getting stuck in the impact zone and getting pounded by a few heavy waves).

Aerial!

The groups on the beach eventually left, and by 4pm we were the only ones left. We had to leave early to be able to catch the bus back to Baguio. Also, by this time, our tummies were reminding us that we skipped lunch.

Jong in action

Jong still

After a long wait for a ride back to Aldrix's, we rush to get the boards rinsed, to hit the showers, and grab a quick meal. By 8pm we were on our way back to Baguio. That was a good way to start the month...