It was such
an adventure discovering hometown surf the first time.
“Look, Taiwan
got some surf dude…”My Sol Cal surf buddies always show me surf stories or
pictures about the surf in Taiwan in the magazine. Having been residing in Sol Cal
and surfed a lot of places in different countries, I do want to discover the
surf in my hometown sometime. It has been put off for years because my visit
was always occupied with family activities and errands.
Finally
once-a-life chance appeared itself: 24 hours. During one of my visits, my parents
had to attend a very important wedding out of town. I was left home alone for
one day! I immediately called everyone I know. No one wanted to take a day off
to get in the water in Dec. Water temp was still in the 70s but the air could be in the 60s. It was the kind of season that only surfers could enjoy going to the
beach. It could be a bit intimidating and exciting at the same time, thinking
that I had to surf in a new spot all by myself. But I
can’t waste this once-a-life time chance. Surf forecast showed knee to waist
high the next day. It would be a piece of cake if I could find the spot. Quickly arranged things with a local surf
shop there, I rushed to the train station.
The public
transportation system in a big city like Taipei can be confusing sometimes,
even for a native Mandarin speaker like me. I jumped on to the train at 730 pm that
was supposed to take me to the surf town, according to the staff. At rush hour, the train was crowded… full of students
and people just got off work. I was very excited about my adventure. People
started to get off the train, as the train left the city further behind.
Finally it was just 4 or 5 people in the train carriage. At 9 o’clock, the train
conductor announced that next stop would be the final stop for this train… I
looked up the name on the map…
I was told to
wait for another train at the “last stop”, a little train station for another
30 minutes. No one else was there. Just me and another nut who took the wrong
train as well… my phone rang. It was my mom.
Me: “Hi mom”.
Mom: “Hello. What are you doing? Is
everything all right?”
Me: “Everything is good”
Mom: “Where are you? Why it sounds so
empty”…
Me: “I was… hum… in a train station”
Mom: “WHAT??? What are you doing
there??”
Me: “I’m going to surf…”
Mom: “to SURF? Don’t you surf enough
in LA? Why can’t you stay at home and wait for me to come back? Who are you going
with? Where are you staying?”
Me: “errr.. no body… I’m staying at a
local surf shop”…
Mom: “WHAT????? You’re going alone???
It’s really late now and you haven’t got there. Go home now. You can go next
time.”
Me: “I’d be fine…”
Mom: “G-O H-O-M-E”..
Me: “I can’t…”
… silence…
………………..
Mom: ”FINE, GOOD LUCK”… finally my mom burst it loud and hung up.
The nun gave me a smile. I smiled it
back. My heart sank a little. I looked around the dark station again. Ya…. It
was kinda sketchy being here all by myself at this time of the day.. but I have been to worse parts of the world. I
would be just fine in my home country. Most of people were nice anyways. I was
so close. I couldn’t just turn around.
At 10
o’clock, I arrived at the station in the surf town. It was dark. A woman took
off the train at the same station too. From the corner of my eye, I saw a guy
in his 20s and a little boy waiting at the station. I went pass by them and
walked outside of the train station. The surf shop told they were “just outside
of the train station.” But I saw nothing outside of the train station. There
might be something.. but street was so dark... I couldn’t really tell. I
decided to walk towards a light about 500 yards at the left of the station. Occasionally
trucks and cars sped past by with whistling and yelling… then I heard people walking behind me. Many thoughts came to
my mind. I started sweating and getting nervous so I walked faster and faster towards
the light. I started to wonder if it was a wise idea. Maybe I should have
waited for next time. The steps behind me sped up too. I started to run and reached
this little grocery store with the light before they caught up with me. “Excuse..
excuse.. me... where.. where is the.. the surf shop?! “, I asked while catching
my breath. “Excuse.. excuse.. me...
are.. are.. you.. Ming..?” a voice came from my back, out of breath too. I
turned around and they were the guy in his 20’s and the boy. Whue!! I relieved
and laughed. They weren’t sure if I was the guest they were expecting. They
wanted to ask me but I kept walking faster and faster and started running.
I followed them
back to a small surf shop that had like 3 racks of clothing and a bunch of surf
boards. Behind the store there was a room with wood floor. There was a huge
flat screen TV in the room, some blankets, pillows and the owner of the surf
shop, a man in his mid 40s with long hair, and his 3 yr-old daughter. “Wait…I did not just book a sleeping space in this room… this
can’t be real…” I thought to myself. The owner started to introduce himself and gave me a warm
welcome. It turned out that he was a fellow surfer and a pretty nice guy. They later showed me the dorm room I would be staying
behind the house... Whue!! Great. Things looked more legit now.
Next day I
went surfing early in the morning with another surfer who happened to be in the
dorm that day. Although it’d probably be a piece of cake for me to surf alone
on a small day like that, I just felt so much relief and comfortable getting
into a new spot with a local.
The spot was not well marked either. The surf shop was right by the water. We
still had to walk past a few bridges, beaches and dogs to get there. There was
nobody. No other surfers. Pretty cool. We surfed in a beautiful bay surrounded by high
mountains. It was a right point break so the shape was good. The water was still warm in the 70s in Dec. Wave was small
that day but I was still super stoked about the entire trip. I sat on my board
thinking “I can’t believe I make it!”
For more
info on the surf trip in Taiwan, please contact Friends in Taiwan.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
By Ming for Friends in
Taiwan Adventure
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