Skunked in the Philippines: The Stance DVD Shoot
By Clinton Bolton
Posted December 18th, 2007

Hey, everyone - sorry for the late update on this trip. I've been in New Caledonia and haven't been able to find a connection here that is strong enough to send this, but anyway, here's what happened on the Stance DVD shoot in the Philippines. I hope you enjoy it!

21st October

I'm on my way to the Philipines, to shoot a wave-riding DVD with Stance Magazine. I just spent a few days in Tarifa for the Best Dealer Meeting, and left Malaga today, and I'm now in Zurich, Switzerland. I have a 17 hour wait for my connecting flight to Miami, so I'm going to cruise around town and try pass by the time.

22nd October

I'm in Miami. It's been a long day of traveling and it doesn't stop here. I stay the night at a friend's house and will leave tomorrow morning to fly to the Philippines, where I'll be for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I'm heading there a week earlier than the crew, due to some last minute change of plans on their end, so I'm looking forward to when the other riders show up. It's going to be an insane time hanging with friends and checking out the kiting scene in the Philippines.

25th October

I'm finally in the Philippines. It was a long trip with it all going bad in Miami. I'll try to make it short: even though I was at the airport 2 hours before my departure time, I ended up missing my flight. American Airlines couldn't figure out how much JAL Japanese airlines would charge for my board bag, but finally determined JAL wouldn't take a bag over 40 pounds and my bag was about 82 pounds. The only solution was to buy another bag and stuff half the weight in the new bag, and check in an extra piece. What's the difference, really ... you put all the bags together and they weigh the same total ... I don't get it, but they make the rules, so I had 5 minutes to run around Miami airport to find a shop that sold bags, repack and then make it to the check in desk before it closed.

A race against time, and I didn't make it. I was 2 minutes late, and all they could say was, "Sorry, sir, you're just 2 minutes late - check in is closed." Come on, give me a break! So... I missed that flight and had to change my flight connecting in LA with a 13 hour wait. Oh well.

So now I'm on this island called Boracay. It's sick crystal-clear blue water is a paradise, lush with palm trees and friendly locals. It's awesome staying at a sick hotel right on the beach called White Beach, as the sand is so white it looks like flour. All we need now is wind.

27th October

I've been checking out the island. It's small - about 4 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. The locals are very friendly - always smiling and helpful. Still no wind so I've just been chilling and enjoying the hospitality. Went on a few dives to check out the sea life – the water is super clear and the reef and sea life is unreal. If you think above the water is beautiful, under the water is even better. I've also checking out the night life and have been to some crazy parties. I met up with some local kiteboarders and we're going to check out this one spot that gets some wind due to these to hills that suck in the sea breeze ... I hope there will be enough to ride.

29th October

Well, there wasn't much wind at the spot I went to with some of the local kiters. It's been raining a lot for the last 2 days and it just never seems to stop. It's unreal how much it rains and the island just floods since the water has no where to go. Right now, I'm just at the hotel chilling - nothing to do but watch movies on the laptop and wait till this rain stops.

31 October

Last night at around 8 PM there was wind, so I decided to go for a night session in front of the hotel to at least ride a bit. I have way too much energy from doing nothing. It was fun as they had spotlights set up on the beach for me – unfortunately, it was only windy for 30 minutes and then it died instantly. The crew finally arrived and they're sleeping due to the jet lag, but it's good as they'll need to prepare themselves for tonight. The island goes crazy with Halloween – it's one big party, and the partying has already started and it's only 1 pm. I'm going as a hula girl, so it should be interesting to see how tonight will turn out. Happy Halloween!

2nd November

WOW. What a night. Halloween was insane. Everyone was out in their costumes, and we got some footage of the mad night that went down, interviewing everyone and just going crazy. Right now it's blowing but it's light, so I'm going to go out on a 15 and see if it's possible to ride. Well, the wind was light and it was a test to stay up wind. We couldn't really do anything, so we just messed around kiting which was fun just trying see who can do the dumbest thing on a kiteboard. The wind doesn't look good for the next couple of days so have to try to find something to do.

5th November

The wind hasn't picked up over the past few days. It was windy for a short while yesterday, so everyone's just done their own thing, cruising the island and enjoying the scenery. Some of us are sick with fever and colds – it's horrible to be sick when in the tropics, but yeah ... Etienne, myself and the photographer have been sick in bed for couple days now. Tomorrow it looks like there will be wind but light again. I hope I feel a little better to get on the water. The winds are coming from the west so it will be on white beach where all the resorts are, so it will be cool to put on a little show for the tourists and locals on the island.

6th November

Surprise, surprise ... the wind never cooperated so we decided to go to another island and check out the waterfalls and caves. We took a 30 minute car ride and then after an hour hike through the hills, we got to a waterfall hidden in dense vegetation, where we chilled for a couple of hours, jumping off the waterfall. Then afterwards it was back to Boracay to go to the spa, so the rest of the day we chilled at the spa discussing what to do for the rest of the time we're here on the island, and what other beaches to go to, to get footage when the wind picks up. Tonight there's a Motorola VIP party that we got invited to, so we'll be attending that and enjoy the partying.

8th November

So yet again, we're still waiting for the wind. It's been raining all day yesterday so not much was done yesterday - just hanging at the hotel surfing the net, watching movies and playing poker. Today there's no wind so we organized to go play golf and get some funny footage of us playing golf. I don't know if we'll survive or even finish 18 holes – we might have to come back tomorrow to finish the rest of the course - maybe it'll go on for a third day.

11th November

We got some wind today. It's light but we were able to go out on 15's and get some filming in, pretty much just messing around in front of the camera. It should be funny when it comes out on the DVD. Today there's another Motorola party so that should be great fun.

13th November

Yesterday was another lazy day. We went to watch the cock fight, which was great to see the vibe – it's unreal, with everyone cheering and betting. It was a bit cruel but it's been a tradition for a long time, like bullfighting in Spain, so it was great to experience something new and do a bit of betting myself. But I just can't tell which is a good fighting chicken so I always lost - I just don't know yet what to look for in a chicken :) .

14th November

So it's finally strong winds - it's 7m weather right now, so we're going to quickly pack our stuff and go to the beach. It's overcast and raining, but hopefully we can do some filming anyway.

Ok, so the wind was insane, like a typhoon, raining damn hard, and I was lit out of my mind on my 9m, doing some megaloops and a couple of kiteloop handlepasses till we called it a day, as it wasn't worth filming due to the crappy light. So now we're chilling at the hotel. Tomorrow is the final day - everyone leaves on the 15th , but I'm here till the 18th , so I'm going to have a few more days to enjoy here. We just hope it will be windy again tomorrow and not blow itself out but also we hope that we have sunshine to keep filming.

15th November

Yet again, it's windy today but still no light. It's thick with clouds but it's not raining so maybe later in the day the clouds will clear.

So, we tried to do some more filming, but the light never got better so it sucked but it was windy and we were all having fun just being able to finally kite on small kites. The filming ended soon, as one the cameras broke - water got into the housing and completely drowned the camera, so it was over for today. Everyone's now packing and getting ready to leave tomorrow. Some of the guys leave tonight at midnight. I just hope the wind stays for the extra couple of days that I'll be here so I can get some good sessions in before leaving this beautiful island.

17th November

So everyone has left and I'm here by myself, just hanging with the local crew. The wind hasn't picked up but the rain has: it's been raining all day since the guys left. I've been diving a lot, enjoying the underwater world that you don't see very often when kiteboarding. The marine life here is unreal – I wish you could go diving for more than an hour but one tank only gives you a certain bottom time. Also, during the days that we had no wind I decided to carry on with my diving courses. You can choose from different courses that you want to get certified on, so I did wreck penetration, which makes you certified to enter into ship wrecks or any kind of wreck and explore it from the inside. This afternoon, I passed my exam and now I'm certified and really stoked with that. I can't wait to check out a lot more wrecks in the world. So tonight everyone here from the kiteboarding schools, and the Boracay dive school has organized a farewell party for me, so I'm looking forward to it. My dive master has one finally exam for me so kind of nervous because it involves a lot of drinking.

18th November

I left the island this afternoon and flew to Manila, where I am now. It's 10 pm, and I'm hanging around the Manila Airport waiting for my flight to Miami at midnight. Last night was insane there were loads of people we had a BBQ, music and drinks. I want to thank everyone for the party – it was with everyone that I had became friends with over the last 3 weeks and it was sad to leave them. Also, my final exam was to do the snorkel: you put on your dive mask and snorkel, and while you breathe through the snorkel, the dive master pours cans of beer and gin down the snorkel and you have to drink it fast. It's like a funnel but a lot harder, as you can't breath through your nose due to the mask. It was a challenge but I managed to do it. From then on we took the party into town I ended up going to bed early as I had to still pack, but the rest of the gang partied on for me. Thanks to everyone for the great times and showing me your magnificent island. Thanks to Freestyle Academy and Boracay Scuba.