Happy New Year from the British Kabayan or in Tagalog we say "Maligayang bagong Taon"
Ang taong 2024 ay ang pangalawang taon ko bilang retirado sa isla ng Palawan, at si Chester at ako ay magkakaroon ng iba't ibang karanasan na ibabahagi namin sa inyo dito sa aking blog.
Maraming salamat kay Luis para sa mga bagong TBK cartoons!
I first heard of the Alimanguan Skimmers back in 2020 when I was happy to sponsor their Christmas programme for the young people of Bgy. Alimanguan in San Vicente, Palawan, Philippines. You can read all about that by clicking the link below:
Their Christmas Programme, Paskohan sa Alimanguan - 11- 13 December 2020, went really well thanks to the hard work of the Skimmers whose ages range from 17 to 30. It is only a small Bgy. by the sea, and was decimated by Typhoon Odette last December. Back in 2020 Eighty four volunteers did a beach clean up on 11 December and recovered 124 tons of waste, much of which was recycled.
84 Volunteers participated in the beach clean up on 11 December 2020
As a sponsor Dionefel updated me on the results and I wrote a second blog to share them with my readers:
One of the Skimmers reached out to me when he lost his board, and with Dionefel's help ( Jack was 17 then and did not have a bank account) I sent him 3000 pesos to buy wood to make 3 more boards. We kept in touch via Facebook and they were very excited to hear I wanted to retire to San Vicente.
Jack Pacho, who I finally met at Victoria Beach House in Alimanguan
When the Power company in Port Barton, Powersource, held the hoteliers and residents to ransom and shut off the power Adam found me a room at Victoria Beach house in Alimanguan , where his mother lives. When I arrived and was sat in the sun ( before the storm) I saw some guys in Alimanguan Skimmers tee shirts skimming and doing cartwheels outside the hotel. So I messaged Jack and he arranged to come on Sunday10th April with some friends and put on a show for me to Video.
The skill of a skimmer is to jump onto the skim board as it moves on the flat water close to shore and then do tricks as it hits the incoming waves
The former President of the San Vic Surf club, Lemuel, also turned up and he explained to me that the best time to skim is the BER months ( SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER and DecemBER) as the water is smoother close to shore- which is what the skimmers need. However as a surfer he needed bigger waves further out , to ride to shore, or along. I asked if he had been a skimmer before a surfer and he said the skills were quite different. I later noticed the skimmers were smaller and lighter than the surfers, but a couple of guys did manage to surf and skim.
Lemuel briefs TBK on the differences between skimming and surfing
When the guys arrived at the hotel they were very shy and so I asked one of them to take some photos for me. Then when they were ready to skim he gave me the camera back and it took me a while to work out the best place to stand to get the best shots. The surfer was out at sea and the sun was setting behind him whilst the skimmers go up and down the shore line so you either get a picture of their backs or fronts depending where you strand. The bright sun ( and my failing eyesight) meant the guys had to shout when the surfer was about to get up on his board and ride the wave and then I quickly had to adjust the lens so he could be seen on the video. As he reached the shore a skimmer would go past close to me and I would get a flash of his ear! Hopefully it got better as it went on and Chester will work his magic on the Vlog edit. You can see the vlog by clicking on the picture below:
We had a great afternoon and the guys promised to come back on Monday at 3 but they did not bother, having had another 3000 pesos from me for another 3 boards.
It was great to meet them at last and I wish them all the best for the future.
This is The British Kabayan signing out from a rather wet Alimanguan- next stop El Nido. Having been asked by the impatient Skimmers to share the video clips Chester and I worked all day ( me) and night ( Chester) downloading the clips from the camera to the laptop to the external hard drive ( not enough space on the laptop!) . Then when the Ext HD failed I had to download them a few at a time again from the camera and send them to Chester to Edit. With over 100 pictures and 30 videos that took all day with the painfully slow Wi-Fi ( in between the brown outs) at the hotel.
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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