Almost Taiwan time, almost frothing.

[jaffa1949]

Uncle Jaffa is on the verge of his next surf trip.
Heading to Taiwan. South and East Coast. bisect board in two halves and packed: check,rash vest and boardshorts packed: check, wife ready and packed; no,have you seen how much they pack,
Cameras: check frothing: unchecked.
14 days of Fridays coming up: check:goingsurfing: check

[kitesurfer]

Good stuff, have a good trip and i look forward to seeing the photos on your return.

KS

[drowningbitbybit]

Now where is the green-eyed emoticon...?

Have a great time - it'll be quiet on here without you

[jaffa1949]

They're very tech savvy over there so might be able to post! No promises though!

[surf patrol]

I'm very jealous. I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time. Looking forward to seeing all the photos.

[StephanX]

Uncle Jaffa is on the verge of his next surf trip.
Heading to Taiwan. South and East Coast. bisect board in two halves and packed: check,rash vest and boardshorts packed: check, wife ready and packed; no,have you seen how much they pack,
Cameras: check frothing: unchecked.
14 days of Fridays coming up: check:goingsurfing: check

Where to get the best facts on Surfing in Taiwan, please?

[jaffa1949]

Stephan X I'm going with SurfTaiwan http://www.surftaiwan.com/ There is also taiwan surf tours http://taiwansurftours.com/

SurfTaiwan can also be booked in Australia at least with world Surfaris as well as going direct to Surf Taiwan.
All the regulars Wanna surf etc have information but is sketchy and often a little wrong.

When I get back I will put the known spots on SWs surfing Atlas and leave the secret spots for travelers to find themselves.

An interesting fact a lot of the groundswells that hit Taiwan come from Typhoons, the Civil Guard and Maritime service shut down all water activity including surfing if a Typhoon tracks to close to the island. Big fines if you don't obey!

look for a report when I come back or maybe whilst I'll there 24 million people 22 million mobile phones.
More Ipads Iphones etc than anywhere else per capita

[StephanX]

Jaffa, that sounds really good.

Looking forward to some solid infos on how to get around there as a surfer, where to stay and what to do, apart from the obvious, that is!

[surf patrol]

7 days to go, tick tock tick tock

[StephanX]

7 days to go, tick tock tick tock

Lets hope for the first update tomorrow...

[jaffa1949]

A report but not there yet first day surfing will be the 21st September afternoon.
Had a cold water dribble today at home beach so bad just proned in after one wave Felt the love for the beginners .
Strangely after so many years of surfing my skin goes weird if I don't get in the salt at least once per week

I will update when there is something to update.
But for now I've become 衝浪爺爺

[jaffa1949]

A report but not there yet first day surfing will be the 21st September afternoon.
Had a cold water dribble today at home beach so bad just proned in after one wave Felt the love for the beginners .
Strangely after so many years of surfing my skin goes weird if I don't get in the salt at least once per week

I will update when there is something to update.
But for now I've become 衝浪爺爺

Seems at this stage I've exchanged a cold water dribble day for a warm water two dribble days so far.
My wife and are having a double happy cultural revolution and taking in the sites/sights, there is a typhoon lurking off the east coast but it is not generating any swell YET!

If lacksurf continues then after going to look we will go to the mountain hot springs and have some fish eat the dead skin from our feet, then we will go to the national aquarium a look at fish that coul eat the feet from our soon to be dead skin

Today Saturday is a day of holidays before school goes back, the local beach is featuring no swell bigger than the 500 jet skis towing banana boats and waterski donuts can generate.
The entire cohort of city dwelling office workers are on the beach turning themselves into cooked lobsterpeople.
There is a surf school here with pink foam learny boards and the surfers are so petite they can stand on the board after the simulacrum of a wave has past underneath.

" I urge all you surfers to be good girls and boys as this would the exact version of surf hell you would descend to if you were not".

Seriously the people around the surfing scene are most welcoming the food is great and like all "good" surfers we wait for the swell,to show, so many potential surf spots. Bring on the swell.

[jaffa1949]

Well howdy folks,just a quicky first surf in Taiwan this morning,better than last in Oz.
Going back for another this afternoon.

[surf patrol]

Finally, your first surf. Let the trip really begin
Make sure you pack all the non related surf things in before the surf (hopefully) starts pumping.

[jaffa1949]

It's a question of priorities, tomorrow with the rising swell a dawn patrol, ( this was encouraged by a better surf at the same spot I surfed this morning, the size had doubled and was head high on the sets)


Then I am going to the hot springs and a place where you get fish to nibble dead skin from your feet, then to the national aquarium where big fish if they could would nibble your feet from your skin. Photos of each event will be taken!

The water is very warm so tropical a lot of Hawaiians come here as they are at about the same level in the tropics .
Joke name Tawaii.

I'll advertise the crew that are looking after my wife and I. SurfTaiwan google them, there are other. Surf groups here too have good look some may be more suitable than others, but for the Jaffa SurfTaiwan worked well.
Pictures when I get back!

[surf patrol]

Great stuff. It's good that the surf's coming good for you.

[drowningbitbybit]

Then I am going to the hot springs and a place where you get fish to nibble dead skin from your feet

Ooh, ooh, wanna see that... actually that's going to be pictures of your feet with some small fish isn't it?
Never mind, still want to see it because I was trying to convince my girlfriend just last night that this does happen!

Oh, yeah, and the surf n' taiwan n' stuff too

[surf patrol]

Photos of feet will be forthcoming no doubt.

[dtc]

I would be interested in your views on the local surfing scene (if any) - I spent some time in Asia (mainly HK) and the surfing scene (excluding ex-pats, who made up the majority of surfers) comprised about 25% people who were more or less psycho (if often not that skillful) and 75% people who surfed with helmets (and sometimes life jackets) and refused to get in the water if the waves were over chest high.

Admittedly (as I eventually realised) swimming skills are very low across the population as a whole and swimming pools quite rare. So those who surfed were the minority and the braver/more water confident of the 'locals' (notwithstanding life jackets). But coming from Australia, where virtually everyone can at least swim and most are not uncomfortable in the surf, it was a bit of a shock.

[jaffa1949]

Well the dead skin has been chewed from our feet, we soaked in sulphur baths at the hot springs and had hydrometer massage, this was after a 3 hour morning surf of about 3ft perfect A frame beach break left handers 3 out, 2 Hawaiians and me. Ran through the entire range of groovy longboard stuff ,stalls head dips nose rides and had a whole lot of fun. The swell was increasing hour by hour as the typhoon swell started bending around the bottom do the island, today it went to overhead and then double, heading to the east coast where the typhoon is predicted to hit with 11 to 15 meter seas due to pound the coast.
+ of course the typhoonic winds too accompany the swell.
Not for me but maybe a photo opportunity

Went o a village of the Taiwanese Aboriginals who were probably the ancestors of the Polynesians .
Interest were served a nice chicken dish with the chickens head intact and eyes open
No photos.

Nuff for now!