Dagupeño to compete in world windsurfing event
A 14-year old boy from Dagupan will be among the five Filipinos chosen to represent the country in the World Windsurfing Competition in Vietnam from June 10 to 14.
Joaquin Manuel Reyna Gimenez, a Grade 9 student of the Tomas Escola in Pasig City and the son of the daughter of former City Councilor Liberato Reyna Jr., Cecilia, said he discovered wind surfing by accident three years ago when he and parents were vacationing at Anilao Beach in Batangas.
Windsurfing, he said, is not an easy sports because while a surfer balances his body against the wind, he must sense where the wind is blowing.
Gimenez pulls up the sail to join the regatta.
Gimenez said the gears for windsurfing – a sail, a boom and a bar surrounding the sail – may not be afforded by all.
So he was happy to hear from Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez that the city will soon acquire windsurfing equipment for local youngsters who wish to train for the sport.
Fernandez said she is bent on making windsurfing and diving as additional activities at the Tondaligan Blue Beach.
Gimenez said windsurfing is ideal at Tondaligan Blue Beach in Dagupan because it is clean, in fact, cleaner than many beaches he’s been to.
Windsurfing as a sport, he added, is seasonal because the best period for it is only during the northeast monsoon or ‘amihan”. He said one cannot surf during a heavy rainfall or when the wind is blowing from east to west or “habagat”.
Gimenez was part of the Philippine Windsurf Team that came to Dagupan to hold a windsurfing clinic last May 28-29 on the invitation of Mayor Fernandez.
Asked if he would like to share his passion for windsurfing to the youth in the city, he said: “Oh yes, when I am not racing, I will come to Dagupan to do this.”
Gimenez was invited to join the Philippine Windsurfing Association’s national team after he won in a local tournament last year and placed second in another national competition.
He admitted he failed to earn a medal when he competed in Thailand and Hong Kong in his first two international competitions but he is working on clinching a berth in the Philippine team to the World Junior Wind Surfing Tournament in Argentina this year after the Vietnam competition. (Leonardo Micua)
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