2008 June 7 to 8 Crystal Beach Resort, San Narciso, Zambales

Finally, the long-awaited return to Crystal Beach for more surfing.

We took the newly opened Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). I’ll have to say that it beats NLEX hands down. It has NLEX’s nice asphalt surface PLUS Star Tollway’s low traffic. It seemed to be a very good place to open up your throttle and see what your driving machine is capable of. And open the throttle I did. Hell, everyone did. Khae, who was driving a gen 8 H car, was going at 160kph and I was doing the same (to keep up, y’know). Most everyone else were just a little bit slower and two bikers even went by at around 180kph. I noticed that the car was still moving along smoothly, no shakiness as when I tried 160kph at Star Tollway. Nice surface indeed.

At the resort, we had ready our board shorts, rash guards, and sunblock. There was only one problem: the surf was FLAT! For the two days! With surfing out of the question, it became just your regular beach outing of swimming, chilling, and kayaking.

It was my first time kayaking but I think I was able to get the hang of it. Michelle and I paddled beyond the far end of Crystal Beach to check out a big cluster of pine. We beached the kayaks then ran across the very hot sand to the pines. We stayed for a bit under the shade of the pines to rest. We then walked and ran back to the kayaks and paddled back to Crystal Beach. It was a total of only about a kilometer but our arms and backs were aching already! Seems to be good upper body work out.