WATER SPORTS PH

MACTAN NIGHTS

ON THE WATER

How sport and watersports grew at Budots Media, from a production house in Lapu-Lapu City to crews, clubs and a game.

1. 2014

   Budots Media is founded in Lapu-Lapu City, on Mactan Island.

2. 2023

   In the studio, a dragon boat crew of twelve (ten paddlers, a drummer and a steerer) and a stand-up paddle boarder are rigged and animated in Blender.

3. 2026

   Isda, Budots Media's fishing game of a Philippine barangay, launches free in the browser.

4. 2026

   PH Watersports goes into development: the 2023 crews race on the real shore of Hadsan beach in Maribago, built from map data, and the crowd watches from the sand.

5. 2026

   PH Watersports 0.3: pick your ride, ten of them, from the dragon boat race to the bigiw and a freedive at the Alchemy spot, two controls each.

6. 2026

   The Freediving Ocean Lab opens: Budots Media's 2023 long-fin freediver, re-rigged with four fins, dives in Isda's ocean with six more freedivers.

THE PEOPLE

The paddlers, athletes and friends in Budots Media's watersports story.

CLUBS & TOURS

PH WATERSPORTS

A free game in your browser on the real shore of Maribago, around Hadsan Cove. The coastline comes from OpenStreetMap, with the piers taken out, over a flat coral limestone island. A turquoise reef flat runs out to the drop-off into the Hilutungan Channel, with Olango across the water and the mountains of Cebu in the haze behind.

The dragon boat crews race a 500 m course about 60 m out from the crowd, and five stand-up paddle boarders work the lagoon. The crews and the SUP riders come from Budots Media's 2023 animation. They run on the engine of Isda, in a browser tab, with nothing to install.

Pick your ride

Ten ways onto the water, each with two controls: left and right (A and D, the arrow keys, or two pads on a phone). Paddle in turn to go straight, the same side again to turn; sail, drive, surf and dive by holding one to steer.

Dragon boatraceSet the stroke for a crew of twelve: 500 m against the other boat. OC6paddleSix paddlers in an outrigger canoe along the lagoon. SUPpaddleA stand-up paddle board inside the course. KayakpaddleA sit-on-top touring kayak on the lagoon. BigiwsailCebu's sailing outrigger: the breeze drives it, you steer. BangkamotorThe motor bangka: it cruises, you steer. SurfingsurfSit at the lineup, paddle for a wave, carve it in. SwimmingswimFront crawl off the beach, one arm and then the other. UnderwaterfreediveThe Alchemy spot on carbon Alchemy fins, over the sand. SpectatorwatchWalk the beach with the crowd and watch the races.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

THE FREEDIVING SPOT AT HADSAN IS SPONSORED BY alchemy

Hi-end freediving and spearfishing equipment, made in Greece. Out on the bright sand inside the reef’s edge at Hadsan, a freediver on long carbon Alchemy fins dives from a buoy flying Alchemy’s flag: the long blades sweeping through the water, the light of the surface dancing on the sand below.

CARBON FINS FROM €370

Alchemy’s entry and mid-range carbon fins, for freediving and for spearfishing.

V3 Pro€370Short carbon fins for freedivers who want to travel light: supreme power for intensive freediving, compact for mobility. V330 Pro€390A new class of performance and mobility for deep freedivers, in a short carbon blade. S€400Alchemy’s spearfishing-only premium carbon fins: power to your legs, full force, all the time. S30€420Carbon spearfishing fins that bend reality one kick at a time, as Alchemy puts it. V3€460The long carbon freediving fins that disrupted the freediving world, preferred by its deepest divers. V330€500The most powerful freediving carbon fins Alchemy has made: next-generation materials, lightning-fast response.

Prices on alchemy.gr (September 2026). The range goes up to the Alchemy ICON.

FREEDIVING OCEAN LAB

Budots Media's 2023 long-fin freediver, re-rigged in Blender with four fins and put into the ocean from Isda: an FFT swell, water that takes the red out of the light first, and caustics and light shafts made by the same waves. Four dive sites and seven freedivers, free in your browser.

Surface0 mBreathe-up at the competition buoy, the swell under you. The line−25 mFreefall down the rope on long carbon fins and in streamline. Four finsriggedTraining bi-fins, long carbon bi-fins, a delta and a competition monofin, each blade on its own bone chain. Fin studioplaySwap fins, scrub the kick, then take a constant-weight dive: equalize, turn at the plate, surface clean.