Windsurfing in Taiwan

Travel Taiwan Travel
1

I’m new here, so hi all. :slight_smile:

I’ll be travelling to Taiwan for 15 days at the end of October, and was hoping to get in a few days of windsurfing during the trip. The first 5 days I’ll be staying in Taipei, meeting friends and sightseeing, but after that I’ll be traveling alone and my current plan is kind of loose.

I’ve found a place called WagaliGong in Dulan, near Taitung that looks good (though their website seems to have been hacked since I visited it last, and tries to send you of to some scam pages, so I’m not posting a link).

Penghu Sunrise B&B seems like a nice alternative, though it would require a ferry ride or extra plane trip to get there, and I’m not sure my windsurfing skills are up to the conditions found there.

I tried finding something near Kenting, but only found surf spots, no windsurfing.

Do you have any recommendations for a good spot for windsurfing in Taiwan? It would need be a place where I can rent intermediate level equipment, as I’m not bringing my own.

2

This place called Sailboat & Coffee, not exactly in Kenting, it’s in Dongkang’s Dapengwan sailboat base.

I read online that Kenting’s condition isn’t suited for beginners. So I’d imagine windsurfing in Kenting would be similar as windsurfing in Penghu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecUyJRs-3nQ

If that isn’t an issue, then near Nanwan you will found a couple sailboat clubs and surf shops that also have windsurfing equipments.

There are windsurfing training sites near Fulong, Zhanghua and Hsinchu as well.

So if you are in Taipei, you can hop on a train and go up to Fulong.


3

We did visit Dapeng Bay recently and there you can rent wind surfing equipment. I think the lagoon is a great place for windsurfing, it can be windy, but you don’t have the waves of the ocean. There is also go-carting, which was lots of fun. :slight_smile:

We stayed at the hotel there, which is on the expensive said I think. Didn’t pay myself so not sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFTrgvZWmaI

You can see a bit of windsurfing after the 14 min. mark of this video.

4

What’s the cheapest way to get there from Taipei using public transportation? I’ve been wanting to go there, but public transport seems like a slow option.

I’ve found

  1. Take the HSR to Kaohsiung and then the Kenting Express to DaPengBay (which leaves every hour from Zuoing HSR station)
  2. Take the train (TRA) to Zhen’an Station and then taxi to Da Peng Bay

Any other choices?

5

I wound up booking a few days at WagaliGong in Dulan the first week of November. The guy I talked to there, Mark, seemed really friendly and it seemed like a nice place to visit.

I also contacted one of the B&B at Penghu, but got the impression that conditions there could be a bit extereme. Maybe I’ll go there next time I visit Taiwan. :slight_smile:

I’ll try to remember to post here about how it goes, once I get back.

6

I thought I would reply to my own post again here, with some useful information for others later.

I’ve now been a couple of days at WaGaLiGong in Dulan. The town itself is small, but nice, with tourism growing in only the past couple of years, so I’ve found among other things a nice coffee house and an Italian pizzeria (across the bridge to the North of WaGaLiGong on the left hand side) run by an Italian windsurfer that makes excellent pizzas.

To get here from the train station, I took bus 8103. It costs NT$57 for the ride, just ask the bus driver to let you know where to get off. It’s nearby the Sugar Factory, an old factory that is now used for concerts in the weekend.

The people I’ve met here at WaGaLiGong and in the area have all been super friendly. They rent out both surfing and windsurfing equipemnt here, and Mark offers lessons on both, and is a very nice teacher.

For (wind)surfing there are four spots North of here. You can either go in the van they have, or do like many surfers do here, and rent a scooter with a small rack on the side that can carry your board (I don’t think it can take a windsurfing rig).

The surfing is excellent, IF you can handle big waves and strong winds. The winds were apparently even stronger than usual this week, but are usually very strong at this time of year (20 knots or more, I think it was over 30 knots today). I’ve been windsurfing for 4-5 years, mostly freeriding on relatively flat water in relatively low winds 8-10m/s (my go to sail is 9m, and my smallest is 7.3m), on a Taboo Rocket 145l. So while I can blast in hooked in and in the footsraps on flat water, big waves are a completely different beast I quickly discovered. Firstly I was on a 98l board with a 4.5m sail (I’m 80kg), which was new to me, but the biggest problem was dealing with the waves.

So in short, after spending an hour or maybe more, just trying to get on the board, and being wiped out by waves repeatedly, even with Mark’s super helpful guidance, I just completely failed. I also realized that if I managed to start sailing, I might get over the first few waves, but would probably be thrown by the third or fourth one, and be washed helplessly back to shore. The conditions were just too much for me.

What Mark suggested to me is that I should get used to strong wind sailing first, with a small sail and board, on flat water, and once comfortable with that, I could try wave sailing, and he’s probably right about that. :slight_smile: I should practice and come back in a year or two.

Funnily enough, the opposite of what I thought was true. Penghu is actually the easier spot of the two. Yes, the wind may be about as strong there, but you have a lagoon between the island with flat water, so you don’t have to deal with the big waves. In Dulan you’ve got the pacific rolling right in.

So, if you’re an experienced windsurfer, that knows how to ride waves, this place will probably be awesome for you, at least at the right time of the year. The guys here, that knew what they were doing, were doing big jumps and even flips on the waves, and having a blast, while I sat in the bar and enjoyed a cold beer. :blush:

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