I woke up early with a hang over that one Sunday. We have planned to go surfing in a beach down south and I was excited. Abe is a pretty talented guy. He cooks, he plays music, and he crafts his own surfboards and boats. His workshop at home is like a little playground for one who likes to create things out of the work of his own hands. That's exactly what Abe loved to do. He has been shaping and glassing his own boards for years.
It was less than an hour's drive to the beach but when we got there, we were greeted by calm water and blue skies. The scene could've been perfect if you were out there to relax, but we weren't. We were there for the strong raging waves, the swell that would put our balance to the test. Clearly, we have just missed the last bit of this surfing season by about a few days so we had to head back to the city frustrated and surfless and wait for another year.
I met Abe about two months before that surfing trip attempt through a sport he had just introduced to the city. He has just built a half-sized dragon boat in his workshop in his garage and a bunch of training paddles. Back then, dragon boat was nowhere to be heard in our little city but here is an ordinary man with extraordinary skills and ambitious goals.
It has only been three years since Tacloban lost thousands of its people in the storm surge. The super typhoon has made wounds that are so deep, it can barely be erased by time. People were still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and somehow a part of them have lost their faith of the sea.
Abe's sudden interest in this rising sport paved the way for creating Tacloban's first dragon boat team, The Saltwater Dragons of Tacloban, also known as the Salties. When he first launched the sport in the waters of Cancabato Bay, a few sportsmen like football players and rock climbers paddled his boat with him. He had two goals in mind, to introduce a new sport that will carry an environmental advocacy and to revive people's love for the sea.
The weekend after the dragon boat was launched, my rock climbing friends invited me to join this new sport. I respectfully declined the offer as I had already planned to go trail riding on my mountain bike that weekend. I woke up early that Saturday morning and was greeted by a pelting rain. I braved the downpour and convinced myself that riding in mud and dirt would be a fun idea. Of course it was a fun idea, but my mountain biking team didn't think so. They canceled the ride and I was left pedaling alone in the streets, under the rain. In the blur of things, I noticed the friend who invited me to join the dragon boat training. He was waiting for the rest of the team under a shade by the road. Because you can still paddle a dragon boat under the rain, I was convinced that I should just join their training instead.
I joined their training and then the rest becomes history. I was later elected as captain of the women's boat and went on to paddle for the Salties. During my time with the Salties, Abe and I became good friends. I found out that we had so many common friends and common interests. I found out that I've met his brother many years ago in my hometown and that my hometown is his hometown too. We would talk in a different dialect, Hiligaynon, and it felt nostalgic. He was a mountaineer, a rock climber, a surfer, a guitarist, a poet, an artist, and a fiberglass technician. He knew his way around the outdoors and the arts, and he was a handyman who can craft anything you can imagine can be crafted using fiberglass.
The other awesome thing about Abe is that he cooks, and he cooks very well! He grows his own yeast at home so he can make his own bread. He makes the best sourdough in Tacloban! One time when we were sanding some paddles in his house, he was baking bread in his kitchen. These freshly baked breads made with natural ingredients were to be served in his restaurants in the city, but that day, I was treated to tasty, oven-fresh bread. Moments like those would make me think being friends with a person like him is such a surreal idea.
It was real! I was friends with a genius like Abe and we get to talk about so many things. He would tell me about how many of the now well-known rock climbing spots in Visayas used to be their trad-climbing playgrounds in the nineties. He would talk about reading classical music pieces and then playing them on his bamboo guitar. He told me about how he enrolled into a fiberglassing course and how this skill is now very helpful to him. He would tell me about how great the past was and how he envisioned things in the future.
Abe wanted the Salties to become a great team. He built the team with his own sweat and tears and we were gaining momentum. On the anniversary of Yolanda, just about eight months from when the Salties began, we made history by doing the first long distance paddling event. As a commemoration of the tragedy, we paddled from San Juanico Bridge to Tacloban Astrodome, a good eleven kilometers. Long distance paddling wasn't a thing. Races almost always only employ categories of 200-meters, 500-meters, and maybe at most 2000-meters.
The guy was like a machine constantly coming up with great ideas. He wanted Tacloban to host the first ever long-distance dragon boat racing event. This dream came true exactly a year later in an event called the Paddle Surge. Preparing for such a big event with participating teams from all over the country was a tedious task. It entailed a lot of preparations and late night meetings, a lot of physical work in lifting boats and setting up tents. But all effort was worth it because Paddle Surge became a success.
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Abe is a truly remarkable man and I have always adored the things he could do. That was why it shattered me when I heard the news last night. Abe passed away silently in his sleep with no struggle. The cruel hands of cancer has taken the life of a dear friend.
Nonetheless, it was a life well-lived. Abe will always be with the Salties and he can count on the team in making his dreams come true.
Eternally grateful for good people and great friends,
@xaydtrips