Sept 27th, Dashi Early morning plunge

With the Typhoon offshore and the swell up, I was determined to be at Dashi at the crack of dawn, so that meant a Friday night train ride, one I hadnt done quite awhile. After a late dinner I caught the MRT to Taipei Main Station, raring to go but with no amber necktar (beer) supplies for the train ride. I also had my Google Kindle to accompany me on the ride, a great asset to pass the time on the train as the view is pitch black (obviously being night duh). While there are numerous 7-11s within the station if you enter the platform from the B1, there are none at the B2 area, so after buying my ticket I had to negotiate the rabbit warren to find another convenience store to stock up. Finally locating a High life I got 4 cans of Taiwan beer for the journey. Note for all those bargain hunters there were no specials at all in the store so I would say stock up before outside the station to get the 'bargains'.

I raced back down to the platform and joined the squeeze to get ont the train (even before most alighted) and found my favourite '2 seater', the seat and I have this love hate relationship. My name is written all over it. I think I had accidentally bumped into a lady in my race to get the seat and during the journey she kept glancing up at me, mask on. As, I was knocking back the beers and reading Kindle, a guilt feeling slowly crept over me and I eventually went over and apologised. 'No worries' she said, surprised that I had come over apologising for bumping into her. When they alighted later on. the couple waved to me and I waved back, cool we were friends again.

Around 11.30pm I arrived at Dashi, the sea was roaring and wind howling like a gale but such a great feeling. It always re-invigorates me whenever I arrive here, such a calming affect on me and puts me on a surfing high. I crashed at Cool Surfing. coolsurf.com.tw (I am a member) but you can make reservations and rent boards, a good place to stay if looking. The waves were really loud which is fine but I am a light sleeper so got a couple hours. Up at 5am, it was pouring with rain and with a strong wind, nearly pushed onto the fence. Eventually reaching the beach at high tide, it looked scary and I was questioning my sanity to go out alone.

Bugger it and I plunged in the swell only to be dumped on several times and pushed under. After a few minutes, with the sun coming out (but still dark) I managed to get out ahead of the foam and paddled out over the huge swell. at least 8ft plus. Sitting like a duck, bobbing up and down I got my breath back and grabbed the first wave of the morning, managing to go straight downt the wave and just standing up in a wobbly fashion before wiping out. That is typical of me on most mornings, not to mention I hadnt surfed for 2 weeks. Next came a huge set and let the first one go and was positioned for the next, a whopper, took off to the side perfectly (rare for me) and what a ride it was. I cut back into the top, back down the wave and it was like you were floating on air, moving in and out of the wave, then rode off at the end.

If there was such a thing as a perfect wave, that was it. As well getting back out was quite easy as there was no rip that I could detect and the current wasnt strong. The rain was pouring down, with the dark clouds still hovering over, it could have being January, wind chill factor was a killer since I only had a rash guard on. However, just waiting for the next wave you could see the sun slowly pushing through showing up the local fishing boats and the sounds of the motors chugging just out to sea. Plenty of fish still around here.

My next wave came up quickly as I am easily distracted thinking about life and I was late getting on it, ending up going straight down with the wave crashing all over me as I road the foam for a bit, before bailing out. It took at least another 10-15 minutes to paddle out as a hug set rolled in and pounded me for awhile. I pushed through the waves, forcing the board down and keeping my ankle up and came through the last wave at last outside. I could see one car pull up, so soon there were 2 of us out there,, not bad. The next wave was  textbook ride, hanging out to the left handside, straight down to the bottom and cut back slowly as the wave was just about to close out so I flicked out and just got out before the wave crashed.

Awhile later I got a ride right into shore and was tiring alittle and wanted to try to get out once more. I turned around to paddle and was hit by a succession of huge waves, ducking under the water without time

to get my board which is always a hassle. I eventually gave up and left the lone surfer out there to enjoy the waves alone.