Chari Legarda: Surf’s Up

Although she might not be a Brian Wilson “California Girl,” Chari Legarda is nonetheless a local babe born of our native shores and the Batangas sun. No matter where you are, the eternal summer starts here. Words by Max Eigenmann

Chari Legarda walks into the apartment sporting a baby blue statement tank top. It reads: “Love is Blonde.”

I had to laugh. “Isn’t it supposed to be blind?”

Of course, we didn’t start the interview just yet (there were other things to talk about first). It was only around the time that we had stuffed ourselves with steamed shrimp dumplings and red wine that we segued into talking about the article. Unorthodox, I know… But then again that was when it started to get just a little more fun than usual.

I’ll say this: Chari is probably the only girl I know who can kick a guy’s ass without even trying. Growing up with mostly boys—or girls who were like boys—it was very competitive. “We’d play street hockey until somebody cried. Then the game would be over.” Judging from the way she laughed after she said this, it was obvious that she was never the one who cried after a game. Which most definitely suggests that she was one of those “girls who were like boys.” That would maybe explain how effortlessly she opens a beer bottle using the flat end of a lighter.

As long as I’ve known her she has always been sunburnt. This isn’t surprising. Most of her younger years, if not all, were spent with her very many cousins. “We were each other’s barkada… and our playground would be our grandparents’ compound by the beach in Nasugbu.” She remembers the fishing trips her dad would take her to. She vividly describes her six-year-old self—waddling her legs and arms under water to keep her neck on the surface of the sea to keep breathing. Apparently their fishing boat would capsize and Chari would have to wait patiently for her dad to turn it over because the shore was just way too far a swim. In fact, her first surf story does not include a trainer or any sort of supervision at all. All it took was a board, guts and endless paddling. She refers to that day as beginner’s luck.