Surfing and skimming in Davao’s Mati City

On an overcast September morning in Mati City – the coastal capital of Davao Oriental province, which overlooks the vast Philippine sea – Julieta Aporbo is holding a foam board loosely in her right arm while quietly observing the tumbling waves on the seven-kilometer-wide Dahican Beach. It’s nine in the morning and she has just jogged barefoot for an hour on the shore’s soft, white sand, fueled by a heavy breakfast of steamed rice and freshly caught squid cooked in soy sauce and vinegar.

Wearing just a plain gray shirt and black athletic shorts, the 19-year-old stands out in a crowd of mostly children with her sturdy build, sun-bleached hair that reaches down to her chest and skin golden-brown from spending many hours outdoors. Spotting an oncoming wave, Langlang – a diminutive of palangga, Visayan for beloved, which is what everyone here calls her – starts running toward the water, throwing down her board near the Mayo Bay shoreline before mounting it and placing her left foot in front.

As a young girl nearby readies her camera phone to capture the moment, Langlang rides the wave, flips her board 360 degrees and glides off the crest. After a split-second, her feet regain contact with the board before it lands flat on the salty water. In less than a minute, she finds herself back on the beach, ready for the next breaking wave.

Langlang is a professional skimboarder and a member of Amihan sa Dahican Surf and Skim Team, named after the trade winds that dominate the area from October to April and create big waves that are ideal for the sport. “Seeing my brother and my male classmates skimboarding made me want to learn it too,” she says. “At first, when I was just starting, I would fall a lot and hurt myself. I would cry every time, but I kept trying. These days, I can’t even sleep without having gone in the water for the day.”

When Langlang is not training, she skateboards or plays beach volleyball with friends, chats with the tourists on the beach or takes an afternoon nap. When preparing for exams or quizzes, Langlang wakes up at 3am and sits by the shore to review. “When I’m studying, I only hear the sound of the waves so everything I read seeps into my mind. It’s so wonderful.” She feels very lucky to be able to live by the sea with all the wonders it beholds.

When I’m studying, I only hear the sound of the waves so everything I read seeps into my mind. It’s so wonderful

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FOUNDED BY GEORGE “JUN” PLAZA in 2004, Amihan sa Dahican Surf and Skim Team now has nearly 40 members, ranging from six to 22-years-old. “During amihan season, children playing on the beach would hang out at my old house because my wife and I had food to share with them, so I organized them into a team and found a spot to store our boards,” says Jun.

As a teenager, he would engage in dynamite and cyanide fishing to catch dugongs and sea turtles for food – a trick he learned from his father – but stopped after he found odd jobs and enrolled in a course on auto mechanics. In his heart, he knew all he wanted to be was a fisherman, so he eventually quit his job as an ambulance driver in Mati City in early 2000 and moved back to his village.

Most of the team members stay at Amihan sa Dahican, a camping resort where backpackers can pay a minimal fee to pitch tents for the night. The only structures here are a two-floor main hut – Langlang sleeps inside a tiny room on the ground floor, while some male members of the team sleep outside – and two tiny open-air cottages with no divisions, which the rest of the boys use. Jun lives in a compound across the beach, where he built two more cottages for the rest of the team’s female members, some of whom are orphans.

When Jun first met Langlang, she was only six and would tag along with her only brother, Sonny Boy, one of the team’s first members and a local champion skimboarder. While their parents sold seafood at the local market, she watched her sibling perfect his side-slips and wraps in the ocean. “I told her that if you want to have a future, you can stay here. But if you don’t, I’ll send you home,” Jun says.

In 2012, Langlang turned 14 and joined Team Amihan’s annual invitational skimboarding competition, squaring off against male members and consistently placing second. In 2014, she was allowed to compete in the men’s individual category at skimboarding events in Zambales and General Santos City, where she similarly nabbed second place.

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OTHER THAN A DAILY TRAINING that includes swimming, paddling, kayaking and carrying stones while underwater, Jun also teaches Team Amihan’s members the basics of biodiversity conservation and engages them in pro-environmental activities.

Filled with beautiful landscapes, the area is a popular destination for bio-tourism. Apart from Dahican Beach, there is also Pujada Bay – home to 15,700 marine species and a favorite of scuba divers for its sea cows, bottlenose dolphins, hammerhead sharks, manta rays and turtles.

It is also home to Mount Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, a Unesco World Heritage site that harbors globally threatened and endemic flora and fauna species, eight of which aren’t found anywhere else in the world – including critically endangered trees, plants and the iconic Philippine Eagle and Philippine Cockatoo.

Every morning at five o’clock, Team Amihan members conduct a coastal clean-up, collecting garbage left by the previous night’s guests, often enough to fill at least a dozen sacks.

For more than 13 years, Team Amihan has been volunteering to take care of Dahican Beach and protect sea turtles and dugongs, which are now endangered. There are currently laws in place to minimize damage to the environment – jet skis are banned, and there is a speed limit for fishing vessels. Team Amihan’s members has undergone training by local tourism and environmental agencies and also act as guides for tourists who come here to snorkel, dive and sail.

They also patrol the sea three times a week to make sure that local fishermen catching fish near the marine protected areas don’t use hooks and nets, as these could entrap sea turtles and dugongs. Fishermen who accidentally catch these endangered animals can surrender them to Team Amihan in return for food, school supplies and even scholarships.

The kids have also found a better life because we have managed to preserve the marine wildlife that attracts many visitors to Mati City

“We break our money box to pay for the turtle’s worth in the market. It’s people’s reality to resort to something illegal just to put food on the table. But we believe that, by talking to them, they will understand,” Jun says. “The kids have also found a better life because we have managed to preserve the marine wildlife that attracts many visitors to Mati City.”

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AMIHAN SA DAHICAN’S WORK has been so impactful, it has gone beyond improving the lives of individuals and communities and has catapulted Mati City into a watersports destination. Apart from witnessing the thriving marine life in Mati City, more and more people are also coming here for the breaking waves.

Since Amihan Sa Dahican started organizing twice-yearly skimboarding competitions in 2009 – held in April and October – the number of tourist arrivals has been steadily increasing. At least 32,000 people attended the event in April, and between January and July, the local tourism group counted 157,000 visitors. Last year, the total number of visitors to Mati City was only 147,000.

Amihan Sa Dahican’s competitions have become so popular that that they now receive funding from the local government and corporate sponsors, and the local tourism office has built on them by organizing the month-long Summer Fun Sa Dahican festival. Held every April, it counts the skimboarding meet, as well as frisbee and beach volleyball competitions, as its main events, with the requisite DJ-led party on Saturday nights. More visitors are expected in early 2018, when the city plans to host its first international skimboarding contest.

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THE SUN FINALLY COMES OUT the next morning in Dahican, the bluish ocean sparkling beneath it. Before hitting the waves for the day, Langlang stretches out in her room. Her space is enough to fit a wooden bed and a sewing machine that Winston, Jun’s brother, uses to sew hammocks for sale with Amihan’s label. The walls are made of woven bamboo strips and decorated with pictures of her skimboarding, as well as home furniture pages she’s torn from old magazines.

I’m so proud to be able to guide and teach them my tricks. I’m excited now that we have more females in the team

“I’m very thankful to Kuya Jun and for learning skimboarding because I’m able to continue my studies. If I stayed at home, I’d probably just got married without graduating like my three elder sisters,” says Langlang, the youngest of five siblings, as she starts walking to Jun’s compound, where the other girls stay. On weekdays, she prepares breakfast for them. Now at 19, she’s their ate, or sister, in the group, as most of them are 12 and 13 years old. “I’m so proud to be able to guide and teach them my tricks. I’m excited now that we have more females in the team,” Langlang adds.

After the rice cooks, Langlang starts filling up the girls’ lunch boxes with rice and inun-unan, fish cooked in soy sauce and vinegar. Wearing T-shirts and jeans with their hair still dripping wet, three girls stand around the table and eat with their hands in a hurry. Another girl comes in and begs the other to borrow her slippers. Outside the gate, Jun parks his red pickup truck, waiting to send the girls to school on time.

After doing the dishes, Langlang walks back to the camp and grabs her skimboard. She has the waves all to herself now, as her classes are in the afternoon. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to become a professional skimboarder. As soon as I get my passport, I want to join international competitions,” Langlang says. “I want to see wonderful sites abroad like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But I have to finish my studies first and find a job as a skim and surf instructor abroad Then I can fulfill my dream to travel.”