Zambales Surfing Trip

Joyce
Sep 12, 2016
3 min read

Updated: Oct 21, 2022

A new year begins, a new set of expectations and goals are made.

One of the most exciting thing for me this year is the fact that I am now out of school and have so much free time that I can go anywhere I want to go. So here is my first attempt at spending my free time.

January was about to end and thank goodness we were able to get out of the house and do something eventful!

My sister's friend and co-worker, Ms. Jen, invited us to stay at their house in the province of San Marcelino, Zambales. We left at our meeting place at around nine in the morning and arrived at their house just in time for lunch. Ms. Jen's father and grandfather greeted us with a warm and delicious meal. After having lunch we rested a bit and then started to prepare to head on to the beach for our surfing session. We went to the Crystal Beach at San Narciso, Zambales to check-in. Even though we did not stay at their resort, we were accommodated by their professional surfing instructors. The instructors were very friendly and are very informative when they were teaching us to surf. Not to mention they all are in very good shape, you can tell right away how much training they get and how serious they are with what they do. Okay now on to our surfing experience.

Honestly, I did not know what to expect. The only thing running through my head is that this is so exciting and very much terrifying at the same time. I have no problem staying and playing in the water for hours and hours, but staying on the deeper part of the ocean is a different story.

To no surprise, the first time I actually rode the surf board, the waves ate me and was quickly washed ashore. After dropping down from the board, the waves were strong enough to turn me over and over in circles. I literally felt like was I was inside a washing machine. I was panicking during that washing machine experience under the water and thought to myself that I would bump my head onto some big rock and die. But then when I got to control my feet again and managed to balance myself and stand up, I watched how far away I am from my starting point and felt really amazing. I said to myself "Let's go do that again!" After that introduction moment to surfing, nothing can stop me from going back into the water. I felt so alive and just full of adrenaline. I can't think of any other word to describe the experience but AMAZING. All I know is that I want to do it again.

If you are afraid to be in the water or in the ocean, I recommend for you to try surfing. Go rent a surf board and hire a professional instructor and I assure you, after trying it out for the first time, you wouldn't want the experience to be over.

Looking back at the experience, I now I appreciate that saying; "The only way to overcome your fear is to face it." At first I was really having doubts and felt terrified because it was my first time to use my "amazing swimming abilities" in the ocean. To try to float and not drown in a pool is no problem, but this time it's in the ocean with waves that can eat you alive.

Then again, no one can surprise us more than ourselves. We just have to believe we can do it, keep moving forward, and face our fears head-on.

I realized that sometimes what we feel is not actually fear of something, but it's just us limiting ourselves, it's just us simply doubting our own abilities. It does not really help if we keep on doubting ourselves. Trust me on this one, we all are destined to be somewhere great and we won't be able to reach that destination if we won't take a single step forward. So the next time we are placed in a situation that makes us uncertain of ourselves, re-evaluate. Is is really a fear or simply doubt that's hindering us?

I've included in this post the video of our trip. I tried to capture as much as I could of this experience but it was so hard for me to hold a camera while having so much fun in the water. I will try to do a better job at this one the next time though, for now all I can share with you are clips of the places we visited on our way to Zambales and clips while we head home to Manila.