Surfista Travels Philippines had our first group and surf trip to San Juan, La Union last February 11 & 12. We had a little more than 10 participants, the ThirtySix-O film crew sponsored by GoPro Philippines, and a lot of excited smiles. We left Manila at 5 am and arrived at the San Juan Surf Resort just in time for lunch. The weather and wave conditions were perfect for beginners on Saturday when we had lessons with San Juan Surf Resort. Each person had a surf instructor and everyone was stoked as soon as they stood on their FIRST WAVE! And we must say, everyone was able to stand on their first try! :)

All set on a beautiful day! Surfboards, surf instructors, surf lessons

Each student had their own surf instructor

Already SURFING on the first day!!

Home base: San Juan Surf Resort

After taking a break in the afternoon and while waiting for sunset, we had a beach clean up. We want to emphasize the importance of keeping our beaches and oceans clean. After all, it IS our playground right?  The beach of San Juan is pretty clean and we thought we wouldn’t have to pick anything up, but we realized that there were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of cigarette butts on the sand. Some local surfer girls helped us pick them up and put all the trash we collected in biodegradable plastic bags.

After picking up trash at the beach, we were blessed with THIS BEAUTIFUL VIEW!

At night we had dinner, chilled, hung out at the beach and played models/actors/actresses while the film crew were filming. These Surfistas are artistas!

Hanging out at the beach

The next day, everyone was up and ready for their next surf lessons. The waves were bigger and more intense this time but the instructors from the surf school were very good in making sure that we had fun and stayed safe. Everyone really wanted to improve their surfing. Thankfully we had a lot of supply of Lightwater and Vitaminboost to keep us hydrated!

Lightwater & Vitaminboost kept us hydrated!

The crew of ThirtySix-O hard at work but still having fun!

With all the filming involved, the first group of Surfistas felt like super artistas!

The weekend went by really fast – time flies when you’re having fun they say – and at the end of the trip, everyone wore their Surfista Travels T-shirts sponsored by Agos Pilipinas. The quality of the shirt was very comfortable and the design was classy, colorful and fun – both boys and girls loved it! Then we had our group photo taken, got our certificates and said our well wishes and goodbyes to each other before our trip back to Manila. We didn’t want to leave and wished the experience was longer.

One of the best things about surf trips is making NEW FRIENDS. Laura (on the left) flew all the way to the Philippines from Thailand to join us on this trip!

Surfista Girls

Surfista Boys with Surfista Travels founder & coordinator Elaine Abonal

This is just a short jist of our pioneer group’s experience on our surf trip but to sum it all up, we were blessed with sunshine, waves, the gift of surfing and new friends, a lot of smiles and new memories. THAT is how we can say the trip was a SUCCESS. :)

Want to see more photos? Check out the Surfista Travels Facebook page!

Want to read what our participants had to say? Check out our Testimonials page!

The first EVER group of Surfista Travelers! So proud!!!

Want to join the next trip? MARCH 24 & 25, 2012 to LA UNION. Save the dates to make sure you have a spot! Details at the Tours & Packages page.

We would like to THANK our participants, our friends & families, Luke Landrigan & his instructors from the San Juan Surf School, the awesome film crew of ThirtySix-O media, the ocean for giving us the gift of sea, waves & sunshine & our sponsors GoPro Philippines, Lightwater, VitaminBoost, Agos Pilipinas, 7107 Island Travel Magazine, Yabang Pinoy, Philippine First Aid and My Life on Board.

Photos by Andrea Roxas, Mica Ferrer, Mike Nagrampa, Diego Virata