History of Siargao

General Luna, then known as Countor, enjoyed a peaceful as well as a bloody era. The original inhabitants of the place belong to the group of people known as the "Caravans".

They subsisted on fishing and farming. They lived a life that was relatively peaceful until the arrival of the Spanish colonizers and other colonizers sometime in the 15th century.

August 1, 1929 marked as the official day of the formal entry of General Luna as an organized unit of government in the modern Philippine Government System.

The succeeding years saw the peaceful change of government through the electoral processes except during the Japanese occupation and EDNA revolution.

Brief history of surfing Siargao

Surfing started in Siargao Island sometime in June of 1980. Two young men Tony Arruza, an American Cuban descent, and Steve Jones, an Australian came to General Luna “in search of a perfect wave.” They surfed in that area now known as the “jacking Horse”, near what is now “Cloud 9”.

Word spread around in the Surfing world that there is a secret place in Siargao Island which has good surf. Intermittently, surfers came and among them was a man who introduced himself as “Max Walker”. He surfed the area in what is now “Cloud Nine”.

He seemed to be a troubled man and this was proven when he died fasting right in the area. “Max Walker” turned out to be a legendary man who founded several surfing camps of Southeast Asia, like Nias and G-Land in Indonesia, his real name is John Michael Boyum.

Then in 1992 the world famous surfing photographer John Callahan together with legendary people in the surfing world like, Kevin Davidson, John Slater and Taylor Knox took pictures riding the big surf in “Cloud Nine”. Said pictures landed in the surfing magazines in all Languages all over the world and – the ball started rolling.

“Cloud Nine” became so famous that the trickle of surfers became a mass of surfers coming from all corners of the globe. So, in 1995 the provincial government of Surigao del Norte, together with some of the expatriates from Australia organized the first surfing competition dubbed as the “Siargao International Surfing Cup”.

The event was fairly successful and caught the attention of the world. The year and the years thereafter, the Siargao International Surfing Cup exposed the island to the center stage of world surfing and tourism.

Cloud Nine has world – class waves. It is one of the top five surfing areas and considered as the fastest, swiftest, strongest waves in the world. The area is not for amateurs. Siargao Islands has nineteen surfing areas, twelve of which are located in General Luna with “Cloud Nine” as its crowning glory.