Clad in a black bikini with shining water beads trickling down her light caramel skin, the American girl with the sun-kissed hair stuck out like a sore thumb on the beach.
But as soon as she picked up her board and paddled out to sea, Jennie Miller of Texas looked like she was in her element, as did the hundred other surfers at Jialeshui (佳樂水), Kenting.
“It was love at first surf,” said Miller, describing her first encounter with the increasingly popular sport in Taiwan.
“I have wanted to learn to surf for a long time and when I saw the opportunity, I grabbed it,” said the Tamkang University MBA student at last month’s Third Annual Kenting Cup International Open Surf Contest.
Miller, who had never surfed before she came to Taiwan two years ago, was among the handful of foreigners who in recent years have discovered the thrills and spills Taiwan’s waves have to offer.
Taiwan may be considered a tropical island, but contrary to the typical image of Pacific islanders, Taiwanese are not known as water sports enthusiasts.
In fact, many adults born in the 1950s can hardly swim without the aid of a floating device.
Seeking to explain the paradox, Soochow University political science professor Luo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said older generations had been raised to dread the ocean because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime had deployed barbed wire and gigantic cement blocks along the shores to turn the beaches into military bases during the Martial Law era.
People were not taught to swim, he said, while recreational beaches were only open to a select few.
By no means a major destination on the world’s surfing radar screen, Taiwan has nevertheless been gaining in popularity among locals and expatriates.
Comparing the waves in Taiwan with those in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia and the UK, Neil MacDonald, a 52-year-old Englishman and long-term resident of Kenting, touted the waves here as “world class,” albeit quite inconsistent.
“Seventeen years ago, there were maybe two or three American surfers. Six people sharing the beach was considered a crowded day,” he said.
“Now there are too many people,” he said.
Hawaiian Duggar Parrish, 49, said he relished the good old days when he started surfing in Taiwan 11 years ago.
“There was hardly anyone here,” he said. “Back then, there were only a few local boys. The surfing scene in Taiwan has definitely changed.”
Looking “cool,” Parrish said, is the main reason behind the sudden boom.
“It’s the surfing lifestyle that is attracting the young people. The surfing equipment industry in Taiwan is also pumping up the excitement. And most all, surfing is fun, relatively easy to learn and not that expensive,” he said.
Neil Narbonne, another fan of Taiwan’s waves and who grew up both in Taiwan and the US, attributed the growing popularity to the fashion industry.
“Clothing manufacturers made a big push into Taiwan, some are pure surfing brands [OP, RipCurl, O’Neill, Stussy, Billabong] while others are just outdoor manufacturers that also include a surf line [Reef, etc] tied together with the media promoting surfing as a cool sport, as well as a general liberalizing of the youth as can be seen at local night spots,” he said.
Moreover, girls today are more willing to wear bikinis and both boys and girls are more willing to try action sports, he said.
For some seasoned surfers, however, Taiwan is still off their recommended list because of the dangers of surfing — mainly the result of poor supervision, underqualified swimmers and lack of “etiquette” among surfers.
“It is rare to find a lifeguard on beaches, and even if you see one, they are often not properly equipped,” Parrish said, recounting how he and MacDonald rescued two or three unskilled surfers in recent months.
A surfer should be able to swim at least 1km without touching the ocean floor before he can hit the waves, he said.
“But most importantly, you must learn to first understand and respect the ocean,” Parrish said
Surfing is also about maintaining an inner balance of peace and learning how to coexist with Mother Nature, said Michael Cosby, a sexagenarian surfer from Seattle.
“The surfers must be in harmony with the waves, the wind, the board and most of all with yourself [sic]. You must be physically, mentally and emotionally balanced so you can be focused and centered,” he said.
For MacDonald, the danger arises when people violate the surfing “code of ethics.”
Surfing etiquette, among other things, is knowing when to leave a wave alone, especially if another surfer is already riding it, he said.
The lack of surfing etiquette can sometimes be the source of friction between locals and foreign surfers, Narbonne said.
“The locals feel there’s a need to protect their local turf. This tends not to be a problem if you remain courteous and adhere to surfing etiquette, which is the same around the globe. I have seen some small skirmishes that were calmed once the non-local apologized. After all, this is still Taiwan and the ‘face’ issue still exists,” he said.
All the talk about the possible perils of surfing Taiwan seem to be lost on younger surfers like Narbonne, however, who says that surfing in Taiwan is “perfectly safe.”
Typhoons make the sand shift frequently, he said, but even then, it remains very smooth and the water covers the rocks.
“Over the past few years the Coast Guard has been actively issuing warnings and tickets to those who defy warnings to surf during typhoons after the government has issued official typhoon warnings,” he said.
Her eyes firmly glued on the ocean, Miller said she does not worry about safety because the sport is more exciting without the lifeguards.
“Hey, it’s more fun to live on the edge, right?” she said.
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