Sounds to me like people could use a little more harassment from lifeguards. 
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Sadly another all-too-familiar story!
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Not a beach, but a similar awful outcome, this time today in Wulai, New Taipei City.
Guy
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Three students around the age of 18 went to the beach at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, reported UDN. While in the water, the undertow of one particularly strong wave pulled all three away from shore.
There really should be mandatory swimming lessons at school (I think there was something related to this in the news a while back, but Iâm not sure), and some awareness of what to do when caught in such an âundertow.â
When I lived in California, I donât ever remember reading or hearing about people being swept out to sea like this (even though I did experience some trouble getting back to shore at Huntington beach once- I was pulled sideways but not out to sea). If these undertows are common in Taiwan (and I get the impression they are), then the government needs to do more to get the word out.
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White water is dangerous, tourists can maybe float down class 1 most of the time without dying, but high water due to floods creates extra obstacles even for someone familiar with the river. Best to have an understanding of the river dynamics and how to move a boat any time, and avoid floodwaters entirely unless you are very experienced and going with people who have rescue training and equipment. There is a reason Taiwan isnât a whitewater paddlesports destination, not a good place for it
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Even Taiwaneses who know how to swing will panic when they go ocean or any deep water. Is more about the over protective teaching.
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I agree, there are very few deep swimming pools out there. I have no idea how Taiwanese kids are expected to learn how to tread water.
One Taiwanese told me he went to Kenting for the the first time and panic because was no like in the âpoolâ. First time going into water without googles too.
Unless of course they are dying to give it a tryâunfortunately all too literally. 
Guy
There technically are. But unlike my high school (where you literally could not graduate without passing the not simple swim unit x 3 years worth of gym classes), exceptions are made up and down for most students here. And parents and their nonsense about âcatching colds because of wet hairâ make the problem worse.
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Also âswimmingâ in Taiwan consists of wearing a ridiculous swim cap, goggles and the most important caveat is being able to stand at any time.
Many Taiwanese kids claim to be able to swim after I tersely tell them that they canât.
I then suggest that they come out to Baishawan, Iâll put them on my boat, pilot them out to the middle of the bay, toss them in and watch them swim to the sand. Itâs less than 200 meters.
Then they admit that they canât swim at the beach and can only swim in a pool where they can touch.
That ainât swimming!
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Body found this morning.
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I worry about this too. The pool I use is great for lengths swimming, 50m long. But itâs around 120cm deep at each end, down to 140cm in the middle. Iâm quite short and I can stand up no problem everywhere in the pool. Young kids could learn to tread water, but no one older.
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My favorite story about swimming in Taiwan: when I first got to Hsinchu many years ago I was taken to Green Grass Lake by a local friend. Knowing there is nothing better than swimming in a lake on a hot summer day, I asked my friend if we can swim here.
He answered, âYou canât swim in this lake, itâs too deep.â
Still trying to wrap my head around that one.
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The problem with bodies of water in Hsinchu is the muddy bottoms. If and when folks run into trouble and hit the bottom, the instinct is to push off of it to get the surface. With the mud, their feet get stuck there and they drown. So if you see no swimming signs there may be a history of that sort of thing happening.
Guy
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OK, interesting. But from my friendâs comment, the concern wasnât about getting stuck in the bottom, the concern was that itâs too deep to touch the bottom. Which is what others are saying above, why donât swimming pools have a deep end, surely the concern there is not getting stuck on the bottom.
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More common further north in California. Decent number every year in Hawaii.
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Yeah itâs crazy how non-challenging the pools are here. One part of our PE final exam was to swim nonstop (no touching the sides or bottom) for 30 minutes. Basically they took out the lane lines and made the pool more like a track where everyone swam around the edges in the same direction. Our diving well was particularly deep too, 18 ft, if I remember correctly from my lifeguard training. We also had to tread water with one of those water aerobics âweightsâ held over our heads for some amount of time. If anyoneâs elbows touched the water, the timer reset. Again, this was for everyone in the school, no exceptions. I know all this was still in place when the last high schooler I knew there graduated in 2019.
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My father almost left this world this way.
Thankfully he was somehow able to get his landlocked-raised rear end back to shore.
Guy
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