Philippine Windsurfing Championship, Puerto Galera

Image courtesy John Smart

Every year in February, Puerto Galera traditionally hosts the second leg of the Philippine Windsurfing Championships on the waters off Boquete Beach. In 2012 the event will be expanded into the Puerto Galera water sports festival, to include all manner of wind–powered and human–powered water sports.

In addition to the windsurfing championships there will be competitive kite–boarding, dinghy racing and paddle banka racing and potentially dragon boat racing. The goal is to make February the on–water eco–water sports tourism festival month in Puerto Galera and to provide a vacation–extension for windsurfers and kite–boarders who usually travel to Boracay for the Funboard Cup in January and then have nowhere els

Photo courtesy Philippine Dragon Boat Federation

At the IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Prague, at the end of August, 2009, Team Philippines broke their own World record and firmly established the Philippines as the premier dragon boat racing nation in the 200-meter distance category.

Team Philippines set the previous World record in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. In Prague they shaved almost two seconds off their Sydney dragon boat racing World record and set the new bar at 40.03 seconds, for the 200 meter Premier Mixed category, beating Team China by just one tenth of a