Iāve been somewhat naively swimming in the ocean off Taiwanās East Coast for almost 30 years, but never really regularly (maybe a few days on average each year). But lately Iām swimming much more often. Iāve learned enough about ordinary undertow and riptide through experience, and am a very relaxed (not strong, but relaxed) swimmer, so I donāt need input on those - I know they can be brutal in Taiwan and tend to be underestimated. But I have a question for more experienced swimmers or surfers. My question is, is there such a thing as ocean currents that would drag someone far out to sea, and that are close enough to the beach that they would be a third concern for a swimmer like me? I ask this question because I am now the father of a young child and so hoping to be a bit more safe and responsible as well as to teach my child how to be safe while enjoying swimming in the future. To give some context, I lately tend to swim at Fulong (temple side), and tend to swim out to the end of the pier because the sandbar makes the water so shallow that I need to swim out pretty far to feel like Iām actually swimming. Iāve tried to google this general free water swimming question with little success. Again, Iām not asking about ordinary riptide, but is there any more insidious type of current I need to be comcerned about?
Taiwan waters are very dangerous to swim in. Best you stay very close to shore and watch for rip currents.
There certainly are currents that will take you far out to sea. I was caught in a rip tide and current once a long time ago, took me out probably a mile or two. Five to ten foot waves. I thought I was a goner.
How did you get back in? Did you just gradually swim in, or get rescued?
In my experience here the riptide usually doesnāt carry one out that far if you pay attention and swim at angle toward the beach as recommended when caught in one, but Iāve heard stories like yours too. Hence my question.
I see the rip current issue being shared on FB all the time by the Taiwanese friends. My wife is from the East Coast. I guess there are beaches that the locals know to stay away from. I believe Chi Shing Tan in Hualien is one of them. I have NEVER seen anyone swimming there. I guess thereās a precipitous drop into the deep not far from the shore.
I guess rip currents are easy to spot:
But having said all this, Iāve been involved in three in open water swims where we swim 300-400m or so straight out. We head back to shore or turn left or right for the longer swims. Again, I think there are beaches that are safe, and others where you just put your feet in the water. Talking to the locals when you go to the beach is probably the best thing to do.
Yes, I opened my original post saying ānaivelyā swimming because when I first began ocean swimming in Taiwan I didnāt have any understanding of riptides. I felt myself in trouble a couple of times before getting a feel for how to handle them. Most of my open water swimming before coming to Taiwan was in lakes and rivers rather than the ocean.
I agree with you about talking to the locals before swimming at an unfamiliar beach. Itās funny that you mention Chi Shing Tan (äøęē) in Hualien. I swam there once with two friends in the morning after camping on the beach the night before. The water was cold and choppy and there is a very steep drop off as you mention. Two of us got out after 5 minutes or so, but our other friend seemed to be enjoying the swim and didnāt get out for another 10 or 15 minutes. After he came out, he told us he had been stuck in the current and had struggled really hard to get to shore. We had been completely unaware that he was in any trouble. The fact that we couldnāt tell at the time that he was in trouble was eye-opening in itself. Iāve sinced noticed that the water tends to be rougher off the pebble beaches on the East coast than off its sandy ones ā at least that has been my perception.
Were the open water swims large organized swims with lots of swimmers? Iām curious about where you did them and what distances you covered?
To get back to my original question, I guess what Iām really wanting to know is whether there is a certain distance from the beach where you have to start worrying about some kind of ocean currents other than just beach riptides.
Another risk is currents caused by tides (not riptides, caused by waves), they can be VERY strong in some parts of Taiwan (less on the north east coast which tides are much smaller than the north west coast), especially close to the capes (where the water flows are concentrated) such as a north Baishawan or around Shimen.
Tides current can push you a few km/h away for 6 hours, then will reverse their direction.
There was a Truku man named Tsai Yaoxing who got both his arms amputated after accidentally touched a high voltage power line at age 16. He later swam his way to 7 consecutive gold medal in the National Disabled Games. He used to swim at Qixingtan. He drowned under Jinwen bridge in Taroko back in 2012 thoughā¦
A series of photos of Tsai swimming at Qixingtanā¦
blog.xuite.net/eyeshot34/wretch/ ā¦ A%E3%80%89
So I wouldnāt say no one swims at Qixingtanā¦ but at the same time, I guess that doesnāt say much about the safety of swimming there, or in the rivers of Taiwanā¦
Yes, this is the kind of thing I was asking about. So I guess you would know you are caught in one if you find yourself being pushed further from the beach than by an ordinary riptide. Is it possible to swim out of such tidal currents and back to shore? Is there some strategy that is helpful for doing so? Or do you just have to hope you get rescued?
Have you (or anyone else reading) every experienced getting caught in this kind of tidal current?
Yes, Iāve swum at Qixingtan quite a few times, but not since the last experience there with two friends that I mentioned above.
Iāve been caught in currents when surfing in Ireland. On one occasion a rip pulled me out and then another current running sideways starting along the coast. I had about a kilometer walk back by the time I managed to get to the shore again.
Exactly what you should do depends on the location, but a good rule of thumb is to aim to swim out of the current, as opposed to against it.
If youāre pushed away by currents caused by tide, youāre either at the wrong place (channel) or too far from the shore (close to the shore, frictions reduce the current). Swimming perpendicular to the current is much less useful than for riptide (for this one, perpendical swimming is the best option), as the current is much broader and regular. I would say the best is, if someone know youāre there, to just float and keep your energy. Youāll not derivate fast (still faster than you can swim) but it will last a long time. Actually one Taiwanese kayaker just died a few month ago south of Keelung as he was separated from his kayak and the current push him away too fast so he could not be found.
To avoid that, you can also look at the tides strengh, which changes every day according to the relative position of the moon and the sun. This current is also much weaker when the sea is high and when itās low (little currents 1 houre before until 1 hour after). Current is strongest in the middle (ie 3 hours after low or high sea).
There are riptides everywhereā¦ Itās odd that in most places, this is what the authority does about it:
But this is what Taiwan does about it:
Telling people not to swim almost everywhere is kind of like only teaching abstinence to kids.
Good information. Thank you.
Agreed, it would be much more realistic and helpful to teach people how to swim safely.
This might be a good place to link to, um, the other place, where there is a post that may save someoneās life:
I think I was 17 and had just completed the Red Cross Lifeguard certification. A few of us , all just recent grads of this thing went body surfing in Wanli. The waves very very high that day, five to ten feet. We all got caught in this rip current and quickly brought out to sea. We knew we were in trouble and knew to swim sideways as rip currents are usually not wider then 50 yards, but we went from one rip into another. I was swallowing water because I was being rolled by these big waves.
It was very scary. I honestly thought I was going to die.
But I kept praying and swimming and I finally was able to swim out of the rips and bodysurfed in. When my feet touched the ground I had barely enough strength to walk out of the water. Took me 45 mins in total and my buds were right behind me.
We lived ! And since then I have had a very very healthy respect for the oceans. I stay very close to shore now.
Well, that is Taiwanese culture. Avoid the problem rather than finding a solution, right?
:bravo: Thanks for sharing the story.
Sounds like if you go in the ocean in Taiwan away from shore, you should wear a life vest.
Following.
Cool to find this thread. Last weekend I swam in a couple of beaches in the south of Yilan county, in NanāAo and somewhere else. The waves there last weekend were kinda strong, but not terrible IMO. Something caught my attention in a beach right next to SuāAo: there was a board saying something about āfreak wavesā. Apparently these āfreakā or āmad dogā waves are just bigger than usual waves, not necessarily related to the steeper underwater slopes that some of these beaches have, and swap fishermen and swimmers (probably just selfies takers) away.
The weird thing is that the diagram showed a circle of what I interpret as currents that seem to be the contrary to what I would expect.
I canāt upload right now a picture of the board, but basically it should be something like this:
I canāt understand a word of what this says, but Iād say that usually the current that drags you into the ocean is usually under near the sea bed (so to say), and not in the surfaceā¦ but looking at the diagram it seems to be otherwise.
This is the beach:
ettoday.net/news/20150808/546830.htm
Soā¦ dunno if the problem in these beaches is the slope and the weird currents it creates, the waves being sometimes too big/strong, or if both things are actually related.
BTW, you guys are always talking about rip tides, but it seems to me that one of the cases you explain here is a ārip currentā actually:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_tide
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_current