When we first arrived at the CamSur Wakeboarding Complex (link: http://www.cwcwake.com) after a massive ten-hour drive from Manila (there’s also a very short flight we could’ve taken, but where’s the fun in that?), I thought, What’s the big deal?
CWC makes the bold claim that it is “the best cable park in the world” (a claim once attributed to a trade magazine, but all mention of the publication seems to have been taken down), but as a complete novice to both the sport and to cable parks in general, I had no standard for which to measure CWC.
So when we entered the Camarines Sur provincial capitol complex—within which CWC is found—I was immediately taken by the small but rather well-designed hotel, along with its colony of wooden cottages and the cargo containers that were turned into budget rooms. (Not as bad as that might sound, if you’ve never seen such a thing. The “cottages” made from cargo containers are actually very comfortable, and preferred by surfers and wakeboarders round these parts.)
The cable park itself, to my novice eyes, was nondescript: here was a lagoon with a course running through it, broken up by sandbars and a variety of ramps and jumps. A large cable pulley system runs over the course, pulling wakeboarders through the water. Not much to the eyes, especially in the midday of a working week, when there are few people using the facilities.
But, as I learned later, this really was an impressive cable park. The six-point cable system is a first not just in the Philippines, but in the whole of Asia. The course itself, too, was designed for both rank beginners like me and for the professionals and competitive amateurs who would take over the park later in the day and show us all what the sport is about.
And indeed, as soon as the sun went down, it was a completely different scene altogether. The air was alive with wakeboarders doing big jumps and acrobatic moves. It’s a sport whose soul comes from skateboarding, but whose form marries elements from surfing (the daddy of wakeboarding, or so I’m told) and waterskiing. Think, actually, of skateboarding or snowboarding, but on water.
It was intimidating to see all these avid wakeboarders taking turns hooking themselves up to the cable system and cheering one another for successful tricks and landings. Those who failed nevertheless managed to keep their equilibrium and coast gracefully onto the banks of the lagoon.
The community of wakeboarders at CWC is surprisingly welcoming to beginners. There were orientation and basic training sessions given in batches every fifteen minutes or so—and in my class of about ten people, there were experienced skateboarders, giggling teenagers, and even a couple of kids out with their parents. Those who weren’t comfortable about setting out on wakeboards yet were made comfortable on kneeboards (smaller than wakeboards; riders are strapped onto them in a kneeling position), and hooked up on the slower pulleys that took us around the easier parts of the route.
What had looked both difficult and boring to me on shore was actually easier and more interesting than it looked. The steady pull of the cable meant that getting up on the water was a piece of cake, and pretty soon the wind in my face and the exhilaration of coasting on the surface of the water worked its magic.
I was too anxious about wiping out and completely embarrassing myself to think about the burn in my arms, or how to even work myself up to doing a small jump, or to enjoy the view (CWC has the additional advantage of being in sightseeing distance of Mt. Isarog). Maybe I shouldn’t have worried so much: when I finished my run, I saw an eight-year-old kid weather a jump like a pro.
Like other “extreme” sports, wakeboarding is as much a subculture and a lifestyle as it is a sport, and the skateboarding culture looks like it’s translated well to the water in CamSur. So well, in fact, that other cable parks have opened: in Nuvali, Santa Rosa there’s Republ1c, there’s also Deca in Davao (in Mindanao, a 1.25-hour flight from Manila), and Lago de Oro, in Calatagan, Batangas (about four hours away by car from Manila).
As testament to just how good a wakeboarding destination the Philippines is, there’s the new short film This Time Around, by filmmaker Patrick Wieland, released recently to document the experiences of nine wakeboarders trying out Republ1c and CWC.
It’s such an enthusiastic little movie, and it gets to show off some pretty awesome wakeboarding moves, that it can inspire newbies to run out to the nearest cable park for lessons, like, right now.
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