October 13, Dashi, a wild day out.

I was up a little late today, having attended a friends birthday party last night so had a few, but not too many. I first woke up at 5am, just as it was dawn but managed to fall back to sleep. Finally at just before 7 I scrambled out of bed, got change and rode my bicycle to the van via Roxy 99(Local bar located on Jinshan South Rd) and ran into Lucas  from the party last night. Lucas was surprised to see me and I him as Lucas had just come out and was swigging on water. 'Lucas, 'wow are you also heading home man?' 'No I said, 'I am off to the beach'. 'Ok, man, take care', so we parted ways. The van (pictured above)  which I had purchased for NT32k, USD1100 hasn't yet being christened but fingers crossed, it will take me on many future trips down to Hualian/Taitung area for surfing.

Anyway, the car ride to Yilan was fantastic, with the car smooth as silk and little traffic on the road. The swell along the coast was awesome, again perfect crystal blue sea with strong well but no howling wind unlike on Wednesday (see October 10, 2012). The pic below from Cool Surfing shows perfect waves coming in from the North East,

One couldn't ask for more beautiful weather and strong well, however looks are deceiving especially with surf and heading down to the beach front at Dashi showed huge choppy swell making it hard to get out. Pic 3 above shows this. However, I was determined to make a go of it and again was the only person heading into the water. It was great to again be greeted by 2 cool resident dogs, blackie and coffee (my names) who seemed to hang on the beach.  Such friendly dogs who always came up to me wagging their tails and waiting to be pat. After a couple of pathetic stretches. I went into the sea, with the aim to get out beyond the foam to be near the huge swell. Easier said than done, that is for sure.

Today the current was strong and moving from left to right compared to Wednesday when there was none. so this plus the rip which took you out from the beach about 50 metres or so. My first attempts to get out saw me continually dumped back into the ocean by the strong surf, finally realising that since the water wasn't deep, I could initially walk out first with the board and it was a quicker way out. So I made it past the first set of foam, is the best way to describe it but if you slipped at all, the wave would pick you up and dump you hard into the sand. Now that I was paddling to get out past the next set of waves, the rip was extremely strong and current tossing me around like a corkscrew in a swell. It was tough going, having to push under several waves, ankle sticking out the back as you push the nose of the board under the wave. I have never being good at this but certainly in a big swell this is the way to go as you come through the wave supported by the board.

The goal of getting out past that big swell was now dimming after about an hour n the water, waves at least 10ft+ were insurmountable. and it seemed an impossible dream to get out. I was dragged again to the far right by the current and tried to get back on shore but the waves didn't carry you all the way. Near the shore the swell was dumping sharply into the sand and I was churned over into the sand and the water was only 4ft. I picked up my board and tried to scramble up the beach but Dashi with all its rocks, makes it hard to run quickly. Anyway back on shore I spoke to a local who just seemed to be watching. According to him, it could be better in the afternoon but I COULDN'T wait that long.

I went back out again and the swell had dropped off a bit so was able to get out a bit further. A set came through and I caught the foam of the big wave all the way to shore, carving up the water. I then went out again and within a few minutes caught a 6ft wave and took off the right hand side, back up to the top and rode it up and down to shore. Then turning round to go out again, suddenly the swell picked up out of nowhere, pounding me into the water several times and without noticing, swept way along to the other side.

I threw in the towel and decided to call it a day but getting back onshore was not that easy so I paddled back out the middle and was able to catch the foam of a wave straight onto the beach avoiding being dumped. At that same time a group of surfers who were watching me try to get out, bailed in their cars and went elsewhere to look for a better wave, Dashi was too big and dangerous at present to get any decent waves.