San Vic Surf plans to crown the first Palawan Champion in surfing competition as it once again hosts the event at the Long Beach in San Vicente on January 18–22, 2023.
Tonino Habana, president of UniTEA Promotions and organizer of San Vic Surf, stated that they saw the growing potential of surfing in the province, which inspired them to create a Palawan champion.
After the competitions at Duli Beach in Barangay Bucana, El Nido, Long Beach in Barangay San Vicente, and the most recent one at Nagtabon Beach in Barangay Bacungan, Puerto Princesa City, the winner will be chosen.
“We would like to crown the Palawan champion (after the event) in San Vicente. All those who joined the competition in Nagtabon, and then those who will join in Duli and in Long Beach, we will have a points system wherein Palaweños who placed, we will compute and aggregate their points to be able to come up with, and crown a champion,” Habana said.
He further explained that the champions will have a chance to compete in national and international competitions.
“So ang pangarap namin dito ay magkaroon ng international surfer from Palawan. (We are dreaming here of having an international surfer from Palawan.) And I think we have one here, Milky (Ramos), who emerged as champion in the recently held competition in Nagtabon. Hopefully, we will crown her the Palawan champion,” he said.
The surfing competition was first held in San Vicente in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
The competition is open to all surfers in the country and will have four categories: longboard and shortboard for males and females.
Meanwhile, San Vicente Municipal Tourism Office head Lucy Panagsagan said the local government has already conducted initial preparations for the event, which is once again expected to draw tourists to the town.
She said Mayor Amy Alvarez has assigned individuals to take care of preparations for the event.
“We already have a series of meetings in preparation for this activity and we have also made arrangements. The LGU will provide logistics support, while the management of the event will be coming more from the private sector,” she said.
