Wakeboarding is a fast growing sport in the Philippines. Its popularity can be attributed to the excellent mix of thrill, excitement, and adventure that this sport brings. It successfully combines the best of water skiing, surfing, and snowboarding, so if you have tried any of these three sports, it would be easy enough to add wakeboarding to the list.
If you think wakeboarding is very similar to surfing, then you are definitely right. In fact, the sport was earlier referred to as skurfing or ski-boarding before it officially became known as wakeboarding. In the Philippines, wakeboarding has started to gain more and more followers from adventure seekers, especially when a well-known celebrity made it known that he was into the sport. Popular wakeboarding spots in the Philippines include Laguna, Batangas and Camarines Sur.
Wakeboarding is a sport where a motorboat (at great speeds) is pulling a person who is standing on a surfboard. Wakeboarding is made even more exciting because the wakeboarder does stunts as he is being pulled by the speeding motorboat. The sport has evolved from its humble beginnings to one very exciting sport with its own association (established in 1989) and a rightful place in the X Games.
Wakeboarding in the Philippines
You can pretty much wakeboard whenever you want since most of the facilities use the cable system. Currently, there are a number of major locations where to wakeboard in the Philippines.
Wakeboarding Facilities
Lago de Oro – located in Calatagan, Batangas, Lago de Oro Cable Ski Park is the Philippines’ first cable wakeboard park. It is also a resort with a number of restaurants where one can relax and eat after a day’s wakeboarding activities and other water sports.
CamSur Watersports Complex – a world-renowned wakeboarding (this is the site of the 2009 WWA Ultimate Wakeboard Championships) and wakeskating facility located in Camarines Sur. Accommodations as well as other amenities are available in the complex, as well as nearby areas. You can also try your hand in knee boarding, wake skating, and water-skiing.
DECA Wakeboard Park – a brand-new wakeboard park located in Davao, which is one of the Philippines’ premiere cities. Once opened, it will be largest wakeboarding park in South East Asia, and a way to introduce wakeboarding to new audiences in the southern Philippines, as well as another location to visit by wakeboarding enthusiasts all over the world.
Clark Wakeboard Park – a prime wakeboarding location in Angeles City, Pampanga. Its proximity to Metro Manila will makes it one of the most popular wakeboarding locations by city dwellers looking for quick wakeboarding jaunts over the weekend. This wakeboard park will round out the list of first-class locations for watersports enthusiasts in the Philippines, and may make the country a top water sports destination in the future.
For those near Laguna, Nuvali offers a world-class wakeboarding center that is ideal both for those starting out with the sport and even those who would like to spend more serious time with it. Republ1c Wakepark, Nuvali’s premiere offering for wakeboarding enthusiasts, is just around 52 kilometers from Metro Manila, making it a quick and convenient weekend destination for those living in Metro Manila.
There are different ways you can engage in this sport. Republ1c Wakepark is a cable park which means wakeboarding in Nuvali involves cables and not boats. You only need to grab onto a handle, hit the water, and the cable pulls you through the water and the obstacles.
Yes, Republ1c Wakepark offers not just a serene man-made body of water for you to wakeboard on; it has a generous offering of obstacles to make the experience more challenging and exciting. Some of the obstacles that you can expect to see are a flat bar, a skatebox, a roof top, an arrow step down, a rollercoaster, and a funbox, among others.
If you are a beginner, do not be daunted by these obstacles because you can progress into trying out each of them as you go along. For the more adventurous and advanced riders, feel free to have your fun with all the obstacles.
