How do you feel about your part in turning Siargao into what it is today?
Quite good, actually - as you may expect, I have been asked this question before.
In 1992, Siargao had a population of about 100 000 people and one of the highest out-migration rates of any location in The Philippines. Thousands of people left the island annually to find work elsewhere, in Cebu City, Manila and with the many overseas labor agencies, with construction and ship crewing for the men and domestic helper (housemaid) and bargirl for the women.
Other sordid trades proliferated; like organ-selling where people underwent extremely risky backroom operations to remove and sell a kidney to fund their children's education or even worse; the production of child pornography where foreigners would come to Siargao (non-surfers) and pay local families to film pornography with their children and sell the clips.
Sad, but true - when people are desperate, they will do anything to make a cash income and in 1992, making a cash income was difficult on a remote and forgotten island like Siargao.
It was (and still is) a tragic situation for thousands of families on the island and in The Philippines in general, that people have to leave their home province and live elsewhere, separated from their families in many cases for decades, in order to find a job and make a living.
As the popularity of surfing on the island increased, so did development - many new accommodation and food and beverage places were opened, each with local staff, vastly increasing employment opportunities for locals. Thousands of people were working in visitor-related businesses on Siargao pre-pandemic, who otherwise would have been forced to migrate in search of jobs.
The construction and opening of an airport to direct flights from Cebu and Manila also aided development, as did the continued support of the Surigao del Norte provincial government with their funding for the annual Cloud 9 event, which brought thousands of people to the island annually, all of them posting images on social media and spending money on food, beverages and accommodation while on the island.
In 1996, the first year of the Siargao Cloud 9 Invitational event, a local woman approached me and asked "Are you John Callahan?" I said "Yes, I am". She told me a story how she was from the island, General Luna town near Cloud 9, and had worked for many years as a housemaid for a minor sheik in the UAE.
The Sheik would take his household to London for the hot summer months, and while there, she had the assignment to go to Harrods and buy food for the house once a week. On one trip, she passed the magazine rack and there was a copy of Surfing World Australia in front with "Philippines" in a cover blurb.
She picked up the magazine, browsed though the article from myself and Kevin Davidson and she told me "I knew then my life was going to change. I recognised Siargao and General Luna from the photos. I resigned from the Sheik's household staff the next day and bought an air ticket from London to Manila". She said she now worked at a posh resort in the La Union area as Head of Housekeeping and was able to live in General Luna with her family and make a living at home for the first time more than a decade. She told me "Thank you for coming to Siargao and taking your beautiful surfing photos - they changed my life"
That story meant and still means much more to me than any whiny entitled tourist surfer dude who says "You ruined it bro - so crowded now, bro" .
To all the whiners I say: There are many more waves in The Philippines and elsewhere that have no one surfing - do your research and go out and find one for yourself instead of wasting your time complaining. It's not only about you, you, you - it is about the locals who live there and the kind of place they want to live in. Unless you are a citizen of the country, you really don't have any ground to stand on - you are just a visitor and if your vision only goes as far as my surf trip, my waves - you need to think a bit more about what you are doing and why.
So yes, I'm quite happy my images of Siargao all those years ago contributed to the development on the island and created opportunities for hundreds of people to remain on the island and find a cash-paying job while living with their families - and they did not have to leave leave the island, sell a kidney or sell their children for porno videos to make a living.
