Where to Surf While the Contest Runs

For ten days from 31 October, the Cloud 9 peak belongs to the World Surf League. Everyone else surfs somewhere else — and that is not a consolation prize.

Here is the thing most visitors do not realise until they get here: the same swell that makes the contest work lights up reefs the length of this coast at the same time. Siargao is not one wave with a village attached. It is roughly forty kilometres of reef with a dozen named breaks on it, and during the contest fortnight most of them will be emptier than usual, because a large share of the island's surfers will be standing on the boardwalk watching heats.

If you plan the fortnight properly you get better surf and better viewing than you would in a normal November week.

Where we will be sending people

• Jacking Horse. Two minutes from the main peak, and the wave most people should be on anyway. Forgiving walls, a soft shoulder, sand and dead reef underneath rather than live coral. Best on mid tide with light wind. The obvious call for beginners, for anyone on a log, and for anyone who wants volume over drama. It will get busy during the contest — go early.
• Tuason Point. Just down the road from Cloud 9. When the swell swings north this wedge comes alive both ways, with fast walls and a shallow inside section that will introduce you to the reef if you misjudge it. Not a beginner wave. Best on a pushing tide with size in the water.
• Stimpy's and Rock Island. Boat-access lefts up the coast with proper pointbreak lines — long, mechanical, and worth the boat fare on the right swell. Bring booties for the lava rock exit and expect the trip out to eat an hour each way.
• Pacifico. Head north for open-ocean energy and long, clean rides. This is our go-to when General Luna is stacked, contest or not, and it is far enough from the event that the crowd effect works in your favour. About an hour and a half on a bike; make a day of it.
• Salvacion. Inland side, worth the ride when the east coast is blown out or when the wind swings and everything in General Luna goes to pieces.
• Daku and the sandbars. On a small day with the family, the reef breaks are not the answer. Take the boat, take a soft-top, and treat it as a beach day with waves in it.

A realistic plan for the fortnight

The events run on a waiting period, not a fixed schedule — the call goes out in the morning and there will be lay days when the swell drops. Build your plan around that rather than against it.

On a competition day. Surf at dawn somewhere that is not Cloud 9 — Jacking Horse if you are learning, north if you are not — then be on the boardwalk by mid-morning when the light is good and the marquee heats run. Eat, sleep through the heat of the day, and go back out in the late afternoon when the tide is right and half the island is still watching.

Or flip it entirely: watch the morning heats, then get on a bike at eleven and ride north to Pacifico for an afternoon session with nobody in the water. Both versions work. Both give you the two halves of what makes this island worth the flight.

On a lay day. These are the gifts. The contest is off, the swell is typically smaller and cleaner, and the whole visiting circus is looking for something to do on land. Cloud 9 reopens to the public on non-competition days — check with the event before you paddle out — and the northern spots go gloriously quiet.

Etiquette during a busy fortnight

Everything below is true in any week. It is more true when the island is at capacity and half the lineup has flown in for the same ten days.

• The locals get the wave. Not as a courtesy — as the actual rule of every reef in the world. Sit wide, wait your turn, and you will be given waves faster than if you paddle for everything.
• Do not paddle into the contest area. It is marked, it is patrolled, and being the person who blew up a heat is a bad way to spend a holiday.
• Pick a wave that matches your level, not your ambition. A crowded reef in November is the worst possible place to find out that you are not ready for it. There is no shame in Jacking Horse; there is a lot of shame in getting fished off the reef at Cloud 9 in front of a broadcast crew.
• Wear a leash you trust. A loose board in a crowded lineup is how people get stitches.

Come by the shop and we will tell you what is working, arrange the boat, and put you on a board that suits the swell. During the contest we will also know which days are on and which are lay days before it hits the feeds — one of the advantages of being three hundred metres from the scaffolding.