The streetscape of Tienmu looks very different at 4.15 in the morning. The newly installed disco light poles were pulsing slowly in garish colours in the predawn gloom, a few strangely sober looking night owls wended their way home and screaming scooters flew through red traffic lights at speed. I held my breath waiting for a typically non-look turner to collect them, but they seemed to negotiate the journey safely, at least while I was waiting for Dan to pick me up.Onboard, we set off to Nan Ao on the east coast, some 2 hours drive away via the long tunnel on expressway 5. We’d checked the swell reports all-round and had convinced ourselves that everything pointed to an exceptional day at this vaguely mystical break. The only other time we’d made the trip it was fantastic, so we held high hopes. Bumping onto the deserted hard sand before 6.30 we were greeted by every surfers dream: sunrise surf lines of huge size and quality peeling off a craggy point, spray back indicating an offshore wind to clean the faces and a threatening rumble as inshore rocks and boulders were tossed around and against each other.
The next eight hours were quite surreal. The first trick to get out through the murderous shore break was negotiated, and then a building swell saw us wide eyed and trepidatious as we paddled over ever higher powerful swells. We both eased into the break and our first waves confirmed that this was, indeed, massive surf. I snapped my legrope on the second wave and went in to retrieve Dan’s spare and received the first of numerous pummeling on the inner boulder surge zone. Out again, Dan was gaining more confidence and really carving a few up: I followed suit on a biggy and rode it well until I came off and somehow in the swirling power of this wave I snapped another legrope, the board careering in over the boulders and shearing off a good portion of the swallowtail on my new MR board! We got into town to find some tiny Allen keys to borrow and managed to fix the legrope and tape up the back of the board, and then out we went again. Suffice to say we got lots of very big quality waves, I got smashed up many times (including nearly puncturing my stomach with the nose of my board), but to catch these waves was an absolutely unforgettable experience. Eventually, spent physically and emotionally from the highly charged adrenalin filled atmosphere we began the drive home at 4pm. The road was blocked by landslides from the typhoon so it took us 4 hours to get back, and I dragged myself in again some 14 hours after leaving in the morning!
On Friday, I was glad Cass wanted a very lazy day as I was incapable of anything else. I had cuts, nicks and bruises all over both feet, a growing kaleidoscope of colour on my nearly pierced stomach, some wicked purple bruises on my bum and a swollen bruised underarm from gripping the board so tightly under giant walls of whitewater.
We’ve had a 4 day weekend due to the “10/10” local holiday, and boy did we need it! We’ve been going non-stop since getting back in early August and we’re both quite exhausted. Later on Friday afternoon, we wandered down to the MRT and went into town. We went east to the Xin Yi area, had a look around the big Eslite store and marveled at all the very trendy stuff. After that we strolled along the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi buildings’ avenue took in the sights and sounds of an awakening weekend evening and dined at one of our favourites, the Macaroni Grill. We had a delicious meal and shared a bottle of Petaluma Riesling, lobster ravioli and veal Parmigiana and Pannacotta with caramel sauce. We then went and had a drink at the very slick and trendy Brown Sugar jazz bar nearby before, in deference to my cut and bruised feet, decadently got a cab home.
We ventured out to see a movie on Saturday, the surprisingly agreeable “Surrogates”, then made our way over to C’est Jacques for a light lunch…still delicately cooked in the French style by the same young woman/ French trained chef/owner. Evening time we watched the wonderfully nostalgic Hey, Hey it’s Saturday reunion show, which I had downloaded. It brought back lots of memories for us and it was just like putting on a cosy pair of slippers and we were transported away from Taipei to our living room in Hamilton or Georgetown all those years ago…it was great!
Today, we slept in, read our clippings (thanks Mum!) for hours over hot raison toast and coffee, then read our books nearly all day. The day outside is finally a pleasant temperature, but windy and overcast: just the day to laze around and catch up doing next to nothing at all! Photos: lots from Nan Ao, including my damaged board. Various shots from our night in Xin Yi and a shot from our lunch at C’est Jaques. Cass is reading “The Sorrows of an American”( she says it’s a complex vision of contemporary New York life) and I’ve just finished the superb, “The Slap”.
