Text + photos: Tim Hain

Living for years in Southern California, I had worked with Filipinos, ate with Filipinos, partied with Filipinos, and drove through Filipino neighborhoods everyday to go to work. I had listened to their stories of family and friends back in their homeland and had even talked with them about going there with them to check it out. But as none of my traveling surfer friends could tell me anything about the waves there first hand, and the only place I ever heard about was Cloud 9, it was too easy just to board the plane in Los Angeles, and head straight for Bali, flying right over that chain of 7,107 islands called the Philippines.

I thought that after moving to Bali, and now being much closer to the Philippines, it would be just too easy to hop on a plane and see what the place had to offer. But again the years went by until finally last December I decided to do something different to break up the trip back to the States for Christmas and spend a week in the Philippines on the way. That week went by quite fast, and it just barely opened my eyes to what this country has to offer, not just as a surf destination but also to experience its uniqueness and diversity.

Manila, whose metro area is home to 14 million people, is located on the big land mass known as Luzon, and is the biggest island in the Philippines. Like many large Asian cities, it has its extremes in terms of obvious wealth and poverty, glitz and trash, and everything in between, and for the traveling surfer it’s mostly a transit stop. Stay a night in Makati just for the experience, and then get on a plane or a bus and venture out into the real Philippines.
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