Jay-R Esquivel Claims Philippines Top Grommet Title at Billabong Grommet Competition

Text + photos: Tim Hain

3 December 2008, La Union-Philippines: 12 year old La Union local Jay-R Esquivel used his local knowledge and aggressive forehand attack to put together strong combinations of hacks, turns, floaters and aerials and best Siargao's Philmar Alipayo in a closely contested final to claim the championship title at the 2nd annual Billabong Grommet Competition presented by StokedInc. held over the weekend at the beach breaks of San Juan in the province of La Union.
For his championship win, Esquivel received a brand new Anacapa surfboard from Aloha Boardsports, a leash and deck pad from Dakine, sunglasses from Von Zipper, shoes from Kustom, wax from Sticky Bumps, a shirt and boardshorts from Billabong, in addition to the rights to his championship title.
Starting his surfing career at the tender age of 8, young Esquivel has already traveled and competed in surf competitions throughout the Philippines since he was 10 years old. When asked how he felt about his win he replied, "I'm so happy to win here at my home break, in front of my friends and family. And to win a new surfboard, that's the best thing ever! Thank you so much to Stoked Inc and all the great sponsors for having such a great event."
Runner up 16 year old Alipayo hails from Siargao Island, an area rich with good surf breaks, and also put on an impressive display of surfing in the 25 minute final, but just came up short on points when the horn sounded. Coming in equal third were last year's winner Peter Alipayo and Danny Coldura, both also from Siargao.
A total of 46 kids from 6 provinces in the Philippines (La Union, Daet, Catanduanes, Samar, Lanuza, Surigao, and Baler), ranging in age from 7 to 16 years of age, arrived at the beach on Saturday morning November 29th to compete for prizes and the prestige of becoming the Philippines top grommet surfer.
Competition was fierce and the conditions were often very challenging for the brave young surfers, as the South China Sea was dishing out some rough 3-4 foot waves that pounded onto the sandy bottomed beach of San Juan.
Good wave selection as well as technical ability was required to get good scores, as often only one or two maneuvers per wave were possible. Big bottom and top turns and completed floaters were what the judges were looking for, and after almost 8 hours, three rounds of competition were completed by 5 pm.
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SURFING MALYSIA
On the morning of the contest we were greeted by clear skies and bright sun, with 2-3 foot surf on offer. Over 90 contestants from Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, United States, France, and Indonesia attended the competition, which included Men’s Open, Masters, Women’s Open, Grommet, and Bodyboard divisions. Of special note was the participation of Tim Brent in the Masters division, one of the earliest guys to regularly surf Cherating back almost 20 years ago. On the second day of competition all but the finals in each division had been completed, and the decision was made to hold off on the finals until Sunday. The remainder of the afternoon was spent with Tai, Mamat, and the Billabong crew giving surf lessons to the kids. The kids seemed to have little or no fear of the water, and most stood up and rode the whitewater on their first or second try! Cherating Beach is an excellent place to learn to surf, due to both its abundance of small whitewater waves on the inside and its sandy bottom that’s free from potentially dangerous obstacles.
After a pretty crazy Saturday night at a nightspot called “Little Bali”, where Sumatran born Stratocaster wielding blues legend Gugun and his band blew the roof off the place in a three hour Hendrixian rock-blues jam session, the finals of the Billabong Pro Am got underway.
Though the size of the surf had dropped, local champion Mamat Davd used his savvy wave knowledge to best his lighter and younger competitors and bring home yet another Cherating Beach competition trophy! Runner up Yen, also a Cherating local, didn’t seem too upset with his second place as he knew he had the first place trophy in the Grommets division already in the bag.
In the Women’s division it was Noriko from Japan that hoisted the first place trophy, joining Billabong’s Paul Anderson (who won the Masters) as two non-local, non-Malayasian division winners in the event. The Bodyboarding division win was taken by Jarul Aliff Zulkifli, a tough job for him and the judges given the small waves during their final.
The last afternoon sun glinting off the yellow-green South China Sea provided a picturesque backdrop to the award presentation, which was attended by several hundred people including the surfers, government people, local townsfolk, and traveling tourists, many of whom went home with Billabong, Von Zipper, Kustom and Nixon freebies thrown out to the crowd.
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XGame Hong Kong Surf Cup 2008
Final results:
Men\'s A:
1. Ibrahim \"Moro\" Gandawali
2. Chris Par
3. Graeme Nicolson

Men\'s B:
1. Thomas Mackenzie
2. Man Hing Wang
3. Andrew Guilot

Women\'s:
1. Menchie Par
2. Chan Sin Man
3. Amy Chiang

Boy:
1. Alec Diao
2. Andrew Guilot
3. Atticus Summers

Best Local:
Kenneth Chan

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