Around the late 90’s, I was introduced to the surfing scene in San Juan, La Union. On weekend commutes, I would join a relatively small lineup, wipeout spectacularly, and get to know the people that lived and worked in the area. The scene was pretty small at that time, on a good day you could see a few locals in the line up. In the daytime some would work as fishermen.
I have not been back to La Union in around twenty years. These photographs were a from a time before resorts, sponsored parties, crowded lineups and other things one now associates with the place.
Surfing is not a real sport: it doesn't have scores, game-times or winners – it's a practice or simply something you do – there is nothing to achieve from it in a quantitative way. It's a process, like a relationship, that inevitably swells and changes, progresses and regresses without any apparent aim. The learning involved is not cumulative - if you can ride this giant it doesn't mean you will not be wiped out by the next one. Everything is constantly changing, and the lure lies in the ability to “adapt” fast enough, smartly enough to master yet another wave, get to know it sufficiently and then see it break on the shore.
-from L.A. Union Surfers by Catherine Borra