What are your thoughts on No Swimming in Taiwan?

We’re talking about not being able to walk in to water above our knees but below our bum, not swimming with the dolphins.

I don’t think that’s what the OP was talking about. He even said he would be ok swimming 50 meters out.

Oh. I can’t swim, only float. I just want to paddle in deeper water and occasionally float on my back.

Well, I’m not David Meca nor Phelps. Indeed, I think I need more training.

Example of tricky waters:

Beach where to swim doesn’t feel quite alright, for some reason:

This year already 7 people drowned in the Nanao area, really dodgy waters.

Probably not only because of the waves and how they create undercurrents in combination with the very steep drop offs, but also because of the steepness itself. If a swimmer is not confident and can’t reach the floor with their feet, then these waves will cause too much stress and the swimmer will panic.

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BTW, where exactly did they drown, and what exactly happened? Like 4 weeks ago a guy died doing snorkeling in LongDong, which was weird to me. The news didn’t say much about the cause, but it was very alarmist about snorkeling. It’s not the same than swimming!!! :smiley:

I don’t know, but on the beach in nanao they keep a warning sign, explaining why it’s dangerous and the amount of people who drowned. My guess is they were all caused by the combination of the waves breaking on the steep drop off few steps inside the water, people just don’t expect it.

Last time I went swimming was awhile ago. I was probably only 3 meters from shore, steep drop deep water, and started being dragged laterally towards the rocks. In retrospect I probably should have just taken the ride and climbed onto the small rocks but I decided to fight it because I was so close to shore. I was fine but I’ve been hesitant to go back in the water and next time I probably will let the current take me otherwise your energy just runs out.

again it’s not about price wise, rather think about how many hours they have to spent to clean it, whether they have to shutdown the pool to clean the filter, etc. if it’s too much to handle, no wonder they enforce this.

if they don’t enforce it to all visitor, or they let 1 or 2 people not wearing cap, the other will follow suit, that’s basic of human nature, not only taiwanese,

ok, i just made that up, at least we scrub our body 1-2 times a day, the chance of body’s hair to fall in bathroom is much higher than in a pool.

I think it is about taking the fun out of swimming. Everyone must suffer and wearing a swim cap is part of this.

Think about streamlining, it makes you swim faster.

I have asked before at a few swimming pools and was told the same thing: it’s a health department regulation. Supposedly, hair floating around in a swimming pool is unhygienic.

I even asked specifically why it is strongly enforced and they could never “let it slide”, and was told that if a health dept. inspector showed up they would get a serious fine.

Don’t know truth of above reasons, never looked into it, it’s just what I was told.

You probably know this, but I think the usual advice is to swim laterally to the current. If you swim against it, you’re probably going to lose, and you’re definitely going to tire yourself out. (Especially the case if a current is pulling you away from the shore.)

We once visited the place with seawater pools at Longdong Bay (on the left, right after exiting the Bitou Cape tunnel. The owner has a wall full of newspaper clips showing reports about accidents in the waters around Taiwan, especially the Northeast Coast. He mentioned that sometimes foreigners refuse to wear life vests when going on snorkeling outings with the outfit’s guides. So he refuses to take them out to the water. Better listen to the locals, especially if they have lots of experience.

There’s a use for everything. That’s what I meant in my first post, that they are alarmist and yet somewhat right… sometimes. To wear a life jacket by default is… unnecessary.

Yep happened to me before as well. Later I learned about riptides and how you can usually come back in from a further point down the beach . Worse comes to worst just float out far and try to get attention from rescuers . Fighting against the riptide can wear you out really fast.

That’s not snorkeling, that’s floating on the water with your face in the water wearing a mask and using a snorkel.

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The sea can be dangerous, I was doing a drift dive in the Philippines as I suddenly was caught in a down draft (current), went from 20-25 m to 35 m in no time. They forgot to tell me that if your at that rock, go left, a little further is a wall/drop-off going to 100 m.

Yes, this is the right advice.

I personally can’t tell which beaches are dangerous and which aren’t. I’ve done a 3k open water swim in Yilan and we went pretty far out. I’ve also done an open water swim at Fei Cui Wan and in Miaoli. Way out there all times. But I would never attempt that by myself. An athlete actually died at the Miaoli event, but I think it was inexperience and not riptides, undertows, etc. Big waves that day but nothing really too excessive.

And then I see the waters on the East Coast and I really would like to go in, but all the locals say forget it. I listen to them.