Llewellyn Whittaker in the Philippines: Waiting for Whipa
Monday 8 October, 2007
I jumped at the opportunity to go on a photo shoot to the Philippines with photographers Alan van Gysen and John Callahan. Having been on a trip with them before I knew it was going to be a good combination. Who went on the trip? Three up and coming South African groms with all the new school tricks in the book and two John Purton team riders in the form of the power houses Llewellyn Whittaker and Reubin Pearce. Two photographers one on the land and one in the water a five star resort, three meals a day, sky television and air-conditioning. The scene is set.
Patience: is what you need in the Philippines as there is not much swell if there is no tropical depression or typhoon. Two days after we arrived a typhoon called Whipa is formed. Always interested in learning about new things Llewellyn was on the net three times a day watching its development. Unfortunately it started a bit too far north and was tracking in the wrong direction too fast. We only scored a few small clean perfect days of swell. It was enough to keep the stoke up.
In the meantime we were able to do a lot of sight seeing and get much of the life style kind of work out of the way so when the surf finally did arrive we were on it. The nice thing about this trip was that we had a lot of free time between swells to visit many beautiful places witch you don't often get to do when you go on photo shoots or surf contest. There is a lot of history in the Philippines with the Second World War and four countries including Britain, Japan, America and the Spanish trying to colonise the Philippines which made it very interesting
Typhoon Whipa was devastating when it hit land it went super sub tropical and went back over the Pacific which would be our life saver. The forecast for the last three days of our trip was looking promising small, clean with a really solid period. We had already scouted out the entire area and had a plan for everyday of the swell. First day we surfed the increasing swell out front of the resort, a super fun left and right peak. Day two we surfed a sick left hander out front and headed to the wave called Jurassic park which is what we came for, its located on another Island an hours boat ride away. A massive sick barrelling right hander, unfortunately it was not happening, a lesson learnt, such is life. We dash back to get a local surf with the superior shooting light.
The three groms were the sacrifice, they left on the last day of the swell which left me and Reubin behind. It was rainy and overcast not ideal to get shots so the spirits were a bit low after the good buys we hit the road a two hour drive north to a sick left hander that we had scouted out earlier. By the time we got there the wind had gone offshore the swell was forecasted to rise and the sun came out. To our surprise we found a sick right hander on the opposite side of the head land, major potential with 2-4 foot below sea level spitting barrels. As we were both goofy footers the left hander on the other side was calling. We surfed this all day with a short lunch break. Low tide was a spitting barrel with a slopy wall in the 4-6ft region; high tide was spitting barrels with long walls very much like Macaronis in the Mentawais but with only two guys out. The cherry on the cake, we surfed till our arms felt like they wanted to fall off.
The Philippines was by far one of the best trips I have ever done the Calicoan surf camp was five stars with great service and beautiful premises. The people are a lot friendlier than many of the places I have visited and for a third world country is relatively clean. The roads are better than any indo or Sri Lankan road trip I have been on. A destination I would gladly visit again in my life time. If your up for a huge journey to a new place and very remote this is the place to go.
You must remember however to enjoy the journey the destination is not always the best part.
Llewellyn Whittaker
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