For those of you who like going to the beach at Tahsi, a popular surf, camping and party beach about 2 hours on the train from Taipei, you should be aware that things are getting ready to change there. On October 11 the nephew of the Premier - as in the Premier of Taiwan - drowned there. Last week there were meetings among government agencies with some jurisdiction over the beach. What they’ll do still hasn’t been decided, but possibilities include stricter administration and possible restrictions on activities there (the surfers probably won’t stand for this but they may try), or speeding up plans to develop the beach into a resort.
No wonder the Taiwanese are soooo freaked out over swimming. It’s cause they can’t.
I found out this week that a teacher at my school maybe,28 years old, is in the same swimming class as one of my 5 year old students!
I’ve a friend who went swimming at some beach in the Taipei area. The attendant there shouted and sweard at him and made him come out of the water again. Why? Because he would be a bad example for the Taiwanese, who can’t swim and might drown…isn’t that crazy???
[quote=“mungacious”]but its always interesting to hear stories of people who are swept away by the sea whenever a typhoon comes around…
When local crazies hear that a Typoon is coming…they think ‘Hmm, now’s a perfect time to…’:
go fishing on the pier…with the waves crashing all around them…
go swimming/snorkeling/diving(of course at night)…
go as close as possible to the water’s edge, to see the big waves of course…
cuz…all the 24hour news reports, huge gusting winds and constant rain wouldn’t be good enough warning to stay the f-ck away from the ocean… [/quote]
Yeah, there’s always a certain segment of society that doesn’t seem to “get” the warnings. I remember seeing a news story about some people in Florida who planned to “party out” a hurricane a few years ago (it’s always fun until a flying pice of metal takes off a head). Then there are those who chase tornadoes. I’ve never understood such mentalities – I’m more of the bunker down with a few cases of beer type.
A friend of mine was swimming in the river at Pitan. He made it look so easy, some Philipino workers decided to go in as well. Unfortunately, they couldn’t swim. I forget whether one or two drowned. Do you remember that, Sandman?
There are no life guards there, and precious few swimmers, but lots of probable non-swimmers (wearing life jackets) paddling around in boats. It’s pretty common to come across one of the Pitan bridges and see the fire department out in their inflatable rescue boat pulling someone out of the water.
As for Tahsi, it has amazed me that in all the times I’ve been there (20+), I’ve never seen a rescue, a drowning, a fight, or an arrest. As for water safety, yes, lifeguards might be expensive (as stated in batboy’s article), but why couldn’t they organize a volunteer lifesaving squad? If they want to maintain the beach as an attraction for their community, perhaps they should explore other means of providing for the safety of beach-goers.
That being said, I personally feel that swimming in the ocean or a fast-flowing river is dangerous. Those venturing into the water do so at their own risk. If people do not have the skills to look after themself, they should stay on the beach. Other users of the area should not have their access to the water limited because some are unable to keep themselves out of harm’s way.
[quote]A friend of mine was swimming in the river at Pitan. He made it look so easy, some Philipino workers decided to go in as well. Unfortunately, they couldn’t swim. I forget whether one or two drowned. Do you remember that, Sandman?
[/quote]
I remember it. Only one of them died that time, but I remember a year or two after that when a dragon boat overturned during a practice session and about three or four of the oarsmen copped it.
As for Daxi, it has a dangerous rip, as I found out one night. Pretty stoned, I was floating on my back just past the surf, chilling and watching the stars, when I dozed off for a few minutes. I few minutes later I woke up and discovered that the fire on the beach was just a tiny pinprick of light in the distance. That was a loooong swim back!
Actually, that’s one of the reasons why I prefer to find the most remote locations for my regular (previously daily, but now much less frequent) swims in mountain creeks.
In the past, I often swam in more accessible places, where other people were likely to come by. But I quickly learnt that the sight of a foreigner swimming there was an irresistible provocation for many of the guys to plunge into the water with me – especially young guys with groups of their mates or girls to show off to. Unfortunately, it was evident that many of them could barely swim, and they’d usually just take off their shirts and swim in their trousers – in deep, fast flowing, swirling water, for God’s sake! It used to make me really worried that one or more of them would drown, and I’d be blamed for it (every summer, there are numerous reports of people drowning in such places). I sometimes tried warning them that the water was deep and dangerous, but of course they would never let that deter them (if the foreigner can do it…). So now I almost never swim in such places, but take the extra time and trouble to head on to the hard-to-reach pools where I’m sure I’ll be left alone (and which also have the advantage that I can get in the water bare-butted).
Gosh, so can somebody explain to me, why Taiwanese, living on an island, can barely swim? Don’t they learn that in school? We do in Europe…
I remember my boyfriend being quite surprised, when I told him that I could swim. He said he could too, but I’m not so sure about that. Sounded more like he was ashamed to admit, that he couldn’t…=)
In the past, they tended to be afraid of deep water, and the parents and grandparents would drum it into their kiddies’ heads to keep well away from it. As very few of the overcrowded and underfunded schools had their own pools, and there weren’t many public ones available either, very few schoolkids had the chance to learn to swim
But now that is changing rapidly. The government has recently decreed that primary school kids should be taught to swim, and most seem to be finding ways to provide the requisite classes. So it’s likely that future generations of Taiwanese will be much better equipped for keeping out of trouble in the water, and we should see a drastic drop in the number of drownings.
they are spastics pure and simple…i live in tamsui and frequent both sha-lun and baishawan…every time you go to either beach there are a bunch of shit-for-brains who go to the beach wearing jeans etc. and then insist on playing like little kids in the water…no common sense, no survival skills. and taiwan does have dangerous waters as i have discovered myself…
My Mucha wife said that her father wouldn’t teach her and her brother to swim because he was afraid they would then play in the river and possibly drown. Of course, being kids, they played in the water anyway, and were simply left without the one skill that might have helped them should they fall in deep water.
Chinese thinking is logical, but too narrow to be of much use at times.
Have lost count of all the people I’ve rescued over the years…
Funny though that the only people on this island with any sort of water sense are the aboriginals…
Let’s not forget we had a foreigner drown at spring scream this year…Anyone underestimating the power of the sea or a fast moving river has no business being in it.
Some of them claim they can swim…in a swimming pool.
Less than half the kids at my Cram School can swim, and those that can wouldn’t last five minutes in adverse ocean conditions.
We dive up north on a regular basis, with rips, wild currents, surge and large waves… Over the years I’ve developed a very healthy respect for the conditions there.
Maybe we could start another thread concerning river and ocean safety issues to insure it doesn’t happen to someone here.
Let’s be careful out there…Sandman, I love your ocean stories…hammerheads, starry nights on your back far out to sea…Great stufff!
Well, luckily I grew up next to a river and my dad wouldn’t even let me get close to it before I could swim and he wouldn’t let me use our boat before I could row like a venetian…=) I’m wondering if I still can…anybody got a boat here?
If some people are dumb enought ot play/swim in water they can’t handle, it shouldn’t stop the rest of us from enjoying it. No swimming? The very audacity of it! Fuck off. It’s not your water. I’ll do what I like in it.
As for Taiwanese and swimming. Nearly every cram school kid I’ve taught these days can swim or is learning.
Unfortunately though, that’s exactly what’s likely to happen. The easiest option for the authorities and all that. It’ll be interesting to see how they do it – some of those surfers are a hell of a lot harder than any lifeguard. I foresee hilarity ensuing.
Unfortunately though, that’s exactly what’s likely to happen. The easiest option for the authorities and all that. [/quote]
They’ve already put up large numbers of “No Swimming” signs near every patch of easily accessible water around Wulai, Wawagu and Tonghou, especially next to the waterfall pools that are some of the best places for swimming in Taiwan. Not that anyone who really wants to swim pays any attention to them. And I’m sure the authorities don’t really give a damn whether people swim there or not – they just need to cover their arses in case there’s an accident.
However, it can cause trouble. One time a few years back, an embarrassed Forestry Bureau employee apologetically told me that a member of the public had complained about me swimming in one of those pools, saying that I might get into difficulties and put people in danger who had to try to rescue me (oh, ha ha!). But the FB chap, with whom I was on very friendly terms and who also liked to swim there from time to time, had to ask me to swim further upstream out of sight, in case that busybody came back and made a fuss about it. Of course I complied, because I didn’t want to get the good fellow into trouble, so I haven’t been able to swim there since.
Are you talking about last year, i.e. 2002? There was a South African English teacher living in Kaohsiung who drowned at Long Beach (Ta Wan) at the giant rave on the beach. But that probably had nothing to do with treacherous waters. He was last seen at around 2am, was suspected of taking ecstasy and possibly other drugs, and found dead in the surf at 8am. Or are you talking about a different incident?
