ABW Sept 2020

In the late 90’s surfing in the Philippines was virtually
non-existent, or rather Surfing in the Philippines was
more like a closely guarded secret of hardcore surfers
from Australia and the Americas. The Philippines’ first
claim to fame in surfing was in the 70’s when renowned
director Francis Ford Copolla shot the film “Apocalypse Now”
in Baler, Aurora. In the movie there were several references
to surfing and a few shots of servicemen enjoying the surf.
“Charlie does not surf!” was a famous line from that movie
by the same guy who said “I love the smell of Napalm in the
morning.”
Paolo Soler grew up loving the waves, his dad managed a
resort in La Union and while growing up the beach was his
playground, there were even times when they’d borrow the
hotel’s body boards and frolicked on the waves.
In 1997, as college student Paolo picked up a flyer on
surfing lessons from the Hiroshi Yokohama surfing school,
this piqued his curiosity. That very same weekend he went
to La Union and had his first surfing lesson, and from then
on, like thousands of other surfers before him, Paolo was
hooked.
His love for surfing grew over the years and he was able
to try known surf spots such as San Juan, La Union; Baler,
Aurora; Real, Quezon; Eastern Samar and Zambales where
American G.I.’s used to surf when they occupied Subic
Naval Base. Surfing became so ingrained in his life that it
was even the subject of his college thesis. His original plan
for a business was organizing surf tours, the major flaw of
this plan was that it would cater mostly to visiting surfers,
because back then, in the Philippines, surfers were few and
PAOLO SOLER:
Spreading the
Stoke of
Paolo doing what he loves
36
Words by ROY ESPIRITU
Photographs by
PHILIPPINE SURFING ACADEMY