The Philippines Gets a Second World Tour: Longboards at La Union

Most of the attention on Philippine surfing this year has gone, understandably, to our own reef. Cloud 9 is about to host the first Championship Tour event in the country's history, and that is the biggest thing that has ever happened to surfing here. But it is not the only thing. Roughly ten weeks after the last heat runs at Cloud 9, the World Surf League's elite longboard tour arrives at the other end of the archipelago.

What was announced

When the WSL confirmed Cloud 9 for the Championship Tour, it announced a second event in the same breath: a World Longboard Tour stop at La Union in January 2027. The details have since firmed up. The La Union International Longboard Pro runs from 20 to 24 January at Urbiztondo Beach in San Juan, and it is the third of four stops on the 2026/27 Longboard Tour.

The full tour looks like this:

• Huntington Beach, California — 25 to 29 July 2026, alongside the US Open of Surfing.
• Bells Beach, Victoria — 25 to 29 November 2026.
• La Union, Philippines — 20 to 24 January 2027.
• El Sunzal, El Salvador — 13 to 21 March 2027, where the world titles are decided.

The Longboard Tour has been reshaped this year into a compact four-event season with a title race that runs across the calendar rather than a single championship day. La Union sits in the decisive back half of it, in the slot where a result can make or break a season.

Why La Union

If you have never been, La Union is a province on the west coast of Luzon, about five hours north of Manila by road. San Juan is its surf town, and it has been the centre of Philippine longboarding for a generation. The wave at Urbiztondo is a beach break that suits learners most of the year. The wave the tour is really coming for is Monaliza Point a short walk up the coast: a long, walling right-hander that runs on the northeast monsoon from roughly November to March, which is why the event is in January.

It is the opposite season to ours. When Siargao's east coast is going quiet in the amihan, La Union is at its best, and vice versa. That is the useful thing about this country for a travelling surfer: there is almost always somewhere working.

La Union is also home to Rogelio Esquievel Jr., a San Juan local who has been one of the standout performers on the Longboard Tour over the last few seasons. A home-town surfer in a world-tour heat in front of a Filipino crowd is going to be a moment.

What it means for Siargao

Our island is not a longboard destination in the way La Union is. Cloud 9 is a shortboard wave and the reefs around General Luna are mostly steep and quick. But a large share of the people who walk into our shop learn on a log, and a lot of them keep riding one. On a small, clean morning at Jacking Horse or the beach breaks south of town, a nine-foot single fin is the best thing in the water.

What La Union means for us is simple: the sport's governing body now runs two events a year in this country, at opposite ends of the calendar and on opposite coasts. That is the sort of thing that keeps airlines adding routes and keeps foreign surfers thinking of the Philippines as a season rather than a single trip. It also means a surfer who comes for the Philippines Pro in November can stay on for the Longboard Pro in January and see two very different waves on one visa.

If you are planning to go

Getting there. Fly into Manila or Clark. From Clark it is roughly four hours by road to San Juan, from Manila closer to six; there are direct buses from both. If you are coming from Siargao, expect a full day of travel.

Timing. The waiting period is five days. As with any WSL event, plan to be in town for the whole window rather than a single date, and expect heats to run early in the morning light.

Where you will be surfing. Monaliza Point will be a contest zone while heats are running. Urbiztondo itself and the beach breaks along the bay stay open, and the whole coast is far less crowded in January than Siargao is in October.

Boards. Take a longboard or hire one there. San Juan's shops are stacked with logs and mid-lengths in a way that ours simply are not, because that is what the wave wants.

We will have more on this closer to the date. In the meantime, if you want to put in some time on a longboard before January, the small days of September and October here are exactly the right place to do it. Come in and we will find you a board.

Tagged: wsllongboardevents

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