History of Siargao
General Luna, then known as Countor, enjoyed
a peaceful as well as a bloody era. The original inhabitants
of the place belong to the group of people known as the "Caravans".
They subsisted on fishing and farming. They
lived a life that was relatively peaceful until the arrival
of the Spanish colonizers and other colonizers sometime in the
15th century.
August 1, 1929 marked as the official day of
the formal entry of General Luna as an organized unit of government
in the modern Philippine Government System.
The succeeding years saw the peaceful change
of government through the electoral processes except during
the Japanese occupation and EDNA revolution.
Brief history
of surfing Siargao
Surfing started in Siargao Island sometime
in June of 1980. Two young men Tony Arruza, an American Cuban
descent, and Steve Jones, an Australian came to General Luna
“in search of a perfect wave.” They surfed in that
area now known as the “jacking Horse”, near what
is now “Cloud 9”.
Word
spread around in the Surfing world that there is a secret place
in Siargao Island which has good surf. Intermittently, surfers
came and among them was a man who introduced himself as “Max
Walker”. He surfed the area in what is now “Cloud
Nine”.
He seemed to be a troubled man and this was
proven when he died fasting right in the area. “Max Walker”
turned out to be a legendary man who founded several surfing
camps of Southeast Asia, like Nias and G-Land in Indonesia,
his real name is John Michael Boyum.
Then in 1992 the world famous surfing photographer
John Callahan together with legendary people in the surfing
world like, Kevin Davidson, John Slater and Taylor Knox took
pictures riding the big surf in “Cloud Nine”. Said
pictures landed in the surfing magazines in all Languages all
over the world and – the ball started rolling.
“Cloud
Nine” became so famous that the trickle of surfers became
a mass of surfers coming from all corners of the globe. So,
in 1995 the provincial government of Surigao del Norte, together
with some of the expatriates from Australia organized the first
surfing competition dubbed as the “Siargao International
Surfing Cup”.
The event was fairly successful and caught
the attention of the world. The year and the years thereafter,
the Siargao International Surfing Cup exposed the island to
the center stage of world surfing and tourism.
Cloud Nine has world – class waves. It
is one of the top five surfing areas and considered as the fastest,
swiftest, strongest waves in the world. The area is not for
amateurs. Siargao Islands has nineteen surfing areas, twelve
of which are located in General Luna with “Cloud Nine”
as its crowning glory.
