A huge typhoon went over the Pacific towards Japan this week and it produced an incredible ground swell for the east coast of Taiwan. From the beginning of the week Chris and I watched the swell and saw that the weekend was supposed to be amazing. Magic Seaweed reported that the swell would hit by Sunday and rated it with 5 stars. That itself is pretty exciting to see on a surf report. The swell was headed directly west and the waves were supposed to be double overhead with an ideal offshore wind and a long period. Awesome!!
We surfed Saturday afternoon hoping that the swell would hit by then but it was pretty small. In fact it was hard to imagine that the report would be right so we crossed our fingers, slept early and awoke this morning hoping for the best. When we rolled up to Jialeshuei, sure enough, it looked beautiful. We've had a ton of rain this past week and it produced a huge sandbar from the rivermouth. Jialeshuei is usually a soft, forgiving wave that's fun but not very fast. That's why it's pretty popular with longboarders. However today, oh, today, it was not a longboarder's wave. They were fast, double overhead, barreling, I mean really barreling waves. Unfortunately for me, I tried to get barreled a couple of times but instead got knocked over like a lifeless rag doll but I came so close! It was still epic. I Even the wipeouts were epic. Chris got his first standing barrel and it was sick.
It's days like this that I feel a physical swelling of joy and I can't stop thinking about all the reasons I love to surf. As much as I miss home, it's really tempting sometimes to decide on sticking around for a while longer just to keep living this awesome lifestyle...
If I move back home would it be possible to work a few hours a day in the evenings, support myself and my habit of living near the beach, surfing everyday and still save some money? It wouldn't be easy. Sometimes I forget why I still plan on moving back home in a few months...
Again, I was too busy surfing so I didn't take many pictures. Here's a video clip of what the waves looked like that day. Sorry it's shaky.
If you want to check out some pictures of what the conditions looked like, you can check this blogsite:
http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/kenting-surfshop
About Me
- Hannah
- I was raised in Southern California by my very hardworking first generation Korean parents. I graduated from University of CA, San Diego in early 2007 and instead of pursuing more education or finding a suitable 9-5 career like my traditional parents raised me to do, I decided my newly found love for snowboarding would direct me to pack up my things and I moved to Breckenridge, Colorado. I snowboarded Colorado for three winters and surf-traveled parts of the world during the off seasons. After those wonderful years, I decided to leave snowboarding and start up a relationship with surfing again but this time in a completely different setting. This is why I'm currently living in Southern Taiwan, surfing everyday and teaching English part time to support my love affair. I love board sports and I love to travel. Life's grand when the two go hand in hand.
That was awesome, I am infinitely jealous of you and Chris. Please post more pictures and try to get some video when you are not having an epileptic fit.
ReplyDeletelove,
david
haha you're right I don't know why the camera was so shaky. I wish you came out to visit us! Well, who knows where we'll be after your job at USD. You can try to meet us somewhere and catch good waves then. There's another typhoon in the forecast so I'll try to take more pictures especially for you.
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