Wow Philippines! * Wakeboarding at CWC (March 2011)

I really couldn't imagine myself wakeboarding.  But this is probably one of the things I would like to do once in my life, haha.  You see, I'm not the athletic type, but somehow, I love the adventure of trying out things like that.  One of the fears I have is that I'm not really a good swimmer, so my natural instinct is to worry about how to survive a fall, rather than learning how to wakeboard, haha.  Secondly, I'm not exactly as young as I would want to be.  Most of the folks trying this are much much younger, hehe.


Anyway, as I said, it's one of those things I wanted to try once.  The main wakeboarding park was a large circular lake where you basically choose to wakeboard kneeling or standing and you're supposed to go around the lake again and again until you fall off.  I could already imagine falling off, then having to swim to the side, and worse, walking back to the main area carrying your wakeboard.  There is no easy way back, except not to fall off.  Well, that's surely a challenge.  So as soon as I saw this, I kinda changed my mind and thought of going to have a massage instead, hahaha.

But lo and behold, there was now a beginner's park, which basically holds a slower line and inclusive of an instructor.  And as if calling me, despite my quick turnaround, there was a class starting at 7:30pm in the evening, just less than an hour from now.  Okay, now, I think this is a sign.  I must try it, otherwise, I'll regret it.  I already came by once before on my last trip and also chickened out.  Instead, we just went to the floating obstacle course, which I know now, having tried wakeboarding, was a bigger challenge.  Anyway, that story later.

Try #1.  Fail!  Did I leave my wakeboard behind? Hahaha

So, we went to get our gear, basically a life vest and a helmet.  We then headed out to the other end of the park, which was more like 15 minutes away, and quite dark.  There we find a small rectangular pool of water and a wakeboarding line.  Ok, I wasn't too keen now.  It was dark and I didn't like the color of the water, hahaha.  Anyway, I began to remind myself that I will regret this if I didn't at least try.  So, the instructor began his lecture, which was really quite short.  The technique seemed quite easy, on the contrary to what we expected.  By the way, the class only involved wakeboarding standing up, no kneeling.  Anyhow, we later realized that it was probably much easier standing up.  So, he instructed us to sit down on the ledge, feet on the wakeboard, slightly elevated on the front, hold on to the line and do not pull, just follow the line.  Now, when the line pulls, just bend and let the line pull you.  Easy right? Well, doing it wasn't that easy.  I did it like 5 times, and everytime, I did not even pass 25% of the distance.  Our instructor kept on saying if we listen literally to what he says, we will learn.  There is no student that didn't learn, as per his recall.  Well, I may well be the first, haha.

Finally!  Success!

Then suddenly, on my sixth try, I finally got it.  And there, I knew my mistake.  I pulled.  This time, I just relaxed and gently stretched my arms straight.  This way, I didn't have the opportunity to pull, which is a normal instinct when you're being pulled by the line.  Success!  It felt great, and there was the adrenaline rush.  We were able to try a couple more times, some of which were successful and some not.  I think I probably did 4 runs fully, which was not bad, given that I had a difficult time at first.

Fear always gets the better of me, and if I trust myself more and just simplify things, then I can actually overcome that fear.  I think part of what drives me to do this is that I want to prove to myself that I can overcome my fear.  And little by little, I get to do it.  Well, I'm glad I did it!  It was great fun!  Would I do it again?  For this, I probably would, haha.


After a hard day's work, we headed to the cafe to try the popular Laing Pizza.  It was yummy!

This time, we stayed at the container rooms, basically rooms made of old shipping containers.  It's brilliant!  Basic but comfy.  There's even airconditioning and TV.  CWC is a great idea, one of the creations of an ambitious young government leader.  Wish we have a lot more of these people.  This way, we get to boost tourism, which in turn benefit the communities directly.