CAMARINES SUR governor Lray Villafuerte, here trying wakeboarding first hand, is seeing his sports-tourism venture taking flight.

THE number of participants is expected to double from last year when the national wakeboarding finals gets under way from October 26 to 28 at the Camsur Water Sports Complex (CWC) in Pili, Camarines Sur.

Some 150 aspirants will troop to the Bicol peninsula for the event officially dubbed as the second Philippine Cable Wakeboard Nationals offering 10 different categories.

“We started last year and we were surprised we even got 78 participants in our first national finals,” said Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymond Villafuerte.

Villafuerte also announced that the World Championships will be hosted by the CWC from July 2 to 4, 2008.

The 10 divisions include groms (boys, nine to 13 years old); junior men (14 to 18); men’s (19 to 29); masters (30 to 39); veterans (40 and over); girls (13 and under); junior women (14 to 18); open women; pro wakeskate and pro men.

Villafuerte, also the president of the Philippine Water Ski and Wakeboarding Federation, said there will be no qualifiers for the nationals.

“We want to promote tourism in the province, particularly sports tourism,” Villafuerte said.

Wakeboarding is a combination of waterskiing, snowboarding and surfing techniques. Instead of using skis, riders use a single board with stationary nonrelease bindings for each foot, while they stand sideways.

The CWC, which features a centerpiece man-made lake, was completed in May 2006. The facility created an immediate buzz in the world wakeboarding community, an Australian publication on the sport called the CWC “the best in the world”.

The complex, which sits on a six-hectare land with a six-point cable-ski system, is visited mostly by European wakeboarders. Villafuerte said that the world’s top 10 in the men’s and women’s divisions have already gone to the CWC.

Besides wakeboarding, the CWC offers mountain biking, skateboarding, and varieties of wakeboarding like kneeboarding, waterskiing, and wakeskating.

Interested parties who want to join the second Philippine Cable Wakeboard Nationals may go directly to the CWC in Pili. Registration forms can be downloaded at www.camsurwatersportscomplex.com.

UE a win away from history

NOW, it all boils down to one game.

University of the East (UE) has ducked talk about the “S” word for some time, but with one game left in the preliminaries, the Red Warriors can’t escape the fact that they are on the verge of history.

X-periencing the X-treme

THE number of participants is expected to double from last year when the national wakeboarding finals gets under way from October 26 to 28 at the Camsur Water Sports Complex (CWC) in Pili, Camarines Sur.

FILIPINO light-flyweight contender Bert Batawang will finally get his shot at a world crown.

According to Batawang’s manager and promoter Sammy Gello-ani, the Cebuano fighter is set to challenge International Boxing Federation (IBF) light-flyweight champion Ulises Solis of Mexico on October 4 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Mark Fernando and his cousin Anthony—both national team members—each carded two-under-par 68s, the same output churned in by the less-known Paul Echavez yesterday in the first round of the 2007 Philippine Amateur Golf Championship in Iloilo City.

Ginebra bags spitfire Artadi in 3-team deal

THERE’S no let up as far as building up its backcourt is concerned for Barangay Ginebra in the coming 33rd season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

SEA Games update: Wushu brass makes modest prediction of 4 gold medals

WUSHU is targeting a modest four gold medals in the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

Wushu Federation of the Philippines (WFP) president Julian Camacho said a four-gold medal haul is attainable despite the reduction of wushu events in the Thai calendar.

Part of the Game: Does UP need a nose lift?

AFTER coach Joe Lipa made the announcement that people in UP were after his head for the Fighting Maroons’ dismal showing in the UAAP, it’s been open season for intriguing news items, eyebrow raising text messages and gripey grape juice from the grapevine about the UPMBT. (That’s the UP Men’s Basketball Team.)