SIARGAO – Philmar Alipayo made history by winning the 19th Siargao National Surfing Cup on Thursday.
Alipayo defeated fellow Siargao native and previous national and international Siargao Surfing Cup champion Piso Alcala in a 25 minute man-on-man duel in 2-3 feet waves at the world famous Cloud 9 to become the champion of the first leg of the Philippine Surfing Championship Tour.
The finals happened under gloomy and drizzling afternoon skies as the last two surfers emerged as the finalists of a field of 186 competitors.
Alipayo started aggressively, initiating a paddle battle against Alcala to jump into the lead.
Piso tried to answer back but failed to complete his manuevers, so Philmar went back to work with several high flying aerials on the left-hander of Cloud 9 to leave Piso struggling to catch up.
Philmar was on fire, later raising the tempo even further by landing a massive 180 pop shuvit going left, earning him with an almost perfect score of 9.35, the highest single wave score of the competition. That sealed his victory with a final combined heat score of 17.85 against Piso’s 13.25.
“Hindi ko naisip na makumpleto ko yung huling trick, tiwala lang talaga. Salamat sa lahat ng suporta, sa mga kaibigan at sa PSCT,” Alipayo said.
Philmar recounted how tough it was for him to perform his moves given the wave condition.
“Maliit yung alon tsaka maliit yung swell kaya pag may dumating na set kailangan mo talagang kunin. Sakto nung nag start na, nakuha ko yung alon. Advantage talaga yung makakuha ka kaagad ng magandang alon,” he added.
After Siargao, the PSCT shifts to Lanuza, Surigao del Sur this November.