BY HAZEL P. VILLA
ILOILO City – Early risers who take a walk or jog at the Iloilo River Esplanade in the last six months are now familiar with a woman standing daily on a standup paddleboard similar to a surfboard and using a paddle to move through the water.
Lucy Lynette Ponce Uygongco, 51, of Bacolod City took up Standup Paddleboarding or SUPing on Nov. 13, 2021 and on May 26, 2022 became the first woman to cross Iloilo to Guimaras via Stand Up Paddle (SUP) and repeating the same feat this June 10, 2022.
In her May attempt, she clocked 1 hour 31 minutes and 3 seconds covering 7.38 kilometers from Iloilo City’s Villa Beach and docking at Brgy. Morubuan, Jordan, Guimaras. On the second attempt, she took the same route and clocked 2 hours and 2 seconds.
“We were going really slow because we were waiting for the banca,” said Uygongco of the second attempt which this time went a bit further in Morubuan at 7.49 kilometers.
Also a blogger about all things Iloilo, Uygongco wrote on May 28, 2022, “So, after 6 months, I crossed this off my bucket list!”
Prior to her crossing to Guimaras, Uygongco intensively trained for four days at Villa Beach on May 20, 21, 24, and 25 to build her endurance for the ultimate test despite her daily paddling for six months using a stand up paddle board with a length of 11 feet and 2 inches, width of 30 inches, and a thickness of 4.5 inches.
However, what came as a surprise was her June 10 attempt because it was all unintentional. Uygongco simply wanted to reenact her first attempt because she did not have any decent photos, considering that her coach was also paddling beside her that time and her “guide boat” was 500 meters away and no media to do coverage.
Regarding the June 10 feat, Uygongco explains: “We (she and her coach) were waiting for the banca to accompany us in case anything happens at open sea and we decided to just paddle so the photographer can take photos and before we knew it, we were already about 20 minutes near Brgy. Morubuan and that’s when the banca that we hired saw us,” said Uygongco, adding that the banca was late because it had to deliver fish catch somewhere else.
Laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, Uygongco simply considered it a celebration of World Ocean Month that falls in June and June 8 being World Ocean Day as proclaimed by the United Nations Ocean Conference.
‘Someday, you can cross island-to-island’
A major factor in Uygongco’s crossing to Guimaras via SUP was the training she got from 41-year-old Gary Neil Benedicto, winner of the gold medal in the 2019 Elite Raceboard Sprint 400 meters Philippine Deep Paddle Games in Siargao Island and was named Fastest Stand Up Paddleboarder of the year.
Uygongco, a mother of three, was taking photos at the Iloilo River Esplanade when she saw Benedicto on a paddleboard on Nov. 12, 2021 and asked permission to take his photograph for her blog and he agreed.
Prior to this, Uygongco, also a biking enthusiast, was encouraged by her biker friend William Rocia to try SUP but she thought this was something impossible for her to do but said she would try and happened to meet Benedicto the following day and as destiny would have it – the two men would become instrumental in her interisland SUP crossing.
“At first, Lynette was shaking and I had to patiently coach her until she gained confidence on the board and from then on, she loved SUP and everyday she paddled at sunrise,” said Benedicto who then taught Uygongco to concentrate first on balance and paddling strokes as well as reading the tide, current, and water texture.
This was followed by paddling against the wind and with the wind, wave paddling strokes side by side with waves, and finally – long distance SUP facing different types of waves.
Uygongco would practice paddling before sunrise from Monday to Saturday under the coaching of Benedicto who is also a longboarder, skimboarder , surfer, outrigger canoe paddler and Watersport Ambassador for Environmental Awareness.
She would daily cover 10 kilometers or about 2 hours and 18 minutes of SUPing from the bridge at the Ninoy Aquino Avenue (also called Iloilo City Diversion Road) all the way to Brgy. Sooc in Villa Arevalo District.
A Cool Challenge on the First Feat
Uygongco, who has developed “competition-worthy” abs recalls that while she and Benedicto thought she was ready, two things came up to challenge her “coolness” and being a “control freak” right on the first attempt of crossing to Guimaras.
“From a distance when we were in the middle of Iloilo Strait, I saw a ship of Montenegro Lines and thought its still far off and the next thing I knew, it was near. Gary shouted that I should paddle faster to avoid the ripples of the ship’s waves or else I would fall off,” said Uygongco, a graduate of AB Interdisciplinary Studies from Ateneo de Manila.
Confident that Benedicto was paddling beside her and some 500 meters away was the banca she hired– Uygongco paddled furiously away from the Montenegro ship’s waves only to have Benedicto tell her that the ship may have intentionally came nearer so that the captain who was using binoculars could check her out – apparently disbelieving what he saw.
With that close call, a flustered Uygongco drank a gulp of an electrolyte drink and realized her knees were shaking even as she remained standing – something that has never happened during practice sessions.
“I can’t stop with Morubuan just 30 minutes away,” said Uygongco and all the while, Benedicto chatted with her, not knowing his trainee’s knees were shaking and upon reaching her destination, the feisty paddler finally shouted, “I did it! Yahoo!”
Uygongco’s friend William Rocia says that she is a model to all mature women who want to face their fears, and this is best done by exploring the beauty of nature in Iloilo City and engaging in kayaking, fishing, jogging, and biking in the Iloilo River Esplanade and most especially in SUPing that is considered one of the most recently fastest-growing watersports that has yet to become a trend in Iloilo City./PN
