Exciting!

Dave has spent 9 days going round the island. Jialeshuei down in Kenting lived up to its rep and provided some power rights into the river mouth with good size for days on end. The left worked most days as well. A bonus were the summer temps, light winds and blue skies.
The south east and mid east coasts, however, are a revelation. Check the slide show above. Lots of places, lots of potential...exciting!

New friend Jandré from Ilan had a very cool motorbike/surfboard setup as well when we met up at the eight immortals...

No surf in Taroko but...

...there's plenty everywhere else!!
No photos yet, but Dave's southern then slow east coast crawl surfing odyssey is nearly over with some awesome discoveries and confirmations of long held rumours. That "special" google map for 'pointies only' will have a lot of updates soon. Take it easy...

Foam City!

Boy in the bubble bath (top): Tom Woods, 12, emerges from the clouds of foam after deciding that surfing was not an option
It stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at the beach for more than three decades.

This happened at Yamba on Australia's far north coast near the world renowned Angourie Point...freaky!

Lots of Pointies headed out for the xmas break...expect some tales from spots all over the world as well as our own Taiwan in a week or two!

Stephanie Gilmour: Another Australian world champ!

In her rookie year, Coolangatta girl, Stephanie Gilmour has won the womens' world surfing title. Read more about this remarkable surfer here.

ALL VICS

A stack of Pointies dropped their hats and boards to don their T shirts for a night of revellry. We were celebrating Andrew's buck's night. Check it out...

Occy: over and out

The great man retires this week after the Pipe Masters. A short article on his ups and downs.

Blue and Clear

What a magic day! Dave and Tobes met back at the factory at dusk, must have been good to keep them out that long. Light offshore, fun waves and best of all, clear blue skies and clear blue water. The guy beside Dave in the bottom photo didn't have such a great time though! Video above of a short full right at the Cliff.

Surfboard ban on BA

Check this article. Seems British Airways has put in place a complete ban on boards as baggage about a month ago. Let's just hope this sick attitude doesn't spread, or on your next trip you might be hiring a beat up old clunker to get some waves...

If you have a Facebook account, you could join the Facebook ‘British Airways Surfboard Ban’ group to add your voice to the protest.

Kamikaze Reef Rockers

Dan and Dave were keen to test Green Ball out on their dawn run, but Jinshan's size indicated it wasn't quite going to do it. Could that thunderous fast left on the other side of Jinshan point give them what they needed? After checking various, back to this spot: paddled out straight off the rocks and both boys got some screamers!

After a few heart stopping rides hugging the rocks, they moved over to the point to get more big boppers, steep critical drops then long carvable walls . Even though Dan nearly got hypothermia with no wetty, it was a top shelf morning and a new gnarly spot has been tamed.

Mixed bag

wushi harbour blown Taj a little better...
Rivermouth with potential
local girls...

Dasi's clean fast cross shorers (above and below) Saturday saw Tobes and Carl get some clean 1 1/2 footers at Baishawan early all to themselves. Dan had it a little bigger at Jinshan but shared the peak with 20. Sunday, Tobes and Garry went north early, but all blown. Dave headed east and Wushi didn't look good. The Taj was OK but Dasi was worth the little extra drive. The cross shore was holding up some great fast little shooters across the bay...fun for all! A rivermouth spot was spied with some potential too...

Cliffs burning

Scott writes in about a session on Wednesday morning : "...did a dawn patrol session yesterday before work. We ended up going to Cliffs which was somewhat clean (compared to the last couple of weeks) with a steady 3' swell. We had a couple of fun rides.
As always, a great way to start the day."

Corpulent Pork and Rusting Wrecks

It's certainly not the best looking beach in Taiwan, but apart from the pigs roaming the foreshore and the burnt out car wrecks, when other places are a foaming mess, the Pillbox often turns it on.

Offshore 3-4 footers pumped through for 3 hours plus this afternoon as the tide dropped; the surf just got better and better.

Who cares if it stinks and has a few pebbles?!

Fanning: World Champ

Slater and Taj got knocked out, Mick Fanning won and is now the 2007 world surfing champion: Australia's first champ since Occy.

Reality Check: Korean Style

...and you thought Jinshan got crowded?

Chilly Pilly

Tobes and Gary hit Baishawan early but found it to be blown out, strong NE winds ruining any surf. Both Dan and Dave hoped to find something up Pointies/Rocket way, but Dan's car had some trouble, so Dave and Cass ventured out. Jinshan, Pointies, Rocket all blown mush...Green Bay not much better, but every surfer in Taiwan was out there!

So off to the Pillbox: bit cold, wetsuit on and a little cross shore with an occasional puff of offshore...Dave got a few little entertainers. Pillbox best of a bad bunch and you have to love that crowd...

(photos:Cass)

Pickin' up some scraps...

What a great day! Even though the wind was full on onshore, the sun was out, the waves were fun, the crowd was non-existent and the water was clean and cool...what more could you want?!

Baishawan Beauty

Side shore wind with a messy beach break about sums it up at Baishawan Sunday morning. A few rides were had, but nothing to get excited about. Beauty of a day, but the shifting waves made for poor surfing. On the bright side we downed a box of Dunkin Doughnuts and some good coffee while we watched the surf.
(photos and words: Tobes)

Sobering

Yesterday, Dan and Nicky ended up cruising through the tunnel down to Yilan Tucheng in the afternoon...

"Pretty solid swell was hitting parts of the coast with an off shore wind.
Surfed a rocky series of outcrops between the northern end of Wushi harbour and the taj mahal, a couple of hundred meters past a new yellow building that you can't miss. Felt like the swell was building. Only have a stick picture unfortunately. Spied a new vehicle that I am thinking of getting to carry my boards.
Arrived as they were retrieving some dude who had been swept past the tetrapods at the southern end of wushi harbour beach. He had numerous abrasions on his head and didn't make it, pretty crazy and sobering that is for sure."

Surfer Girls and Top Photography

After a request from an avid reader of pointyhat, after recent posts, I submit this surfer chick shot. This shot was sourced from an amazing Taiwanese east coast surfing web site called eastrange. Check this link or the link on the right (under "Taiwan") and go to "images" for some fantastic shots. Also, check "location" for a nice little surf shot map: so much for us keeping our surf spot map secret!
Thanks to Scott for the website info...

Fun and Slushy

A few fun, slushy ones for Dave at Pointies today...it was actually pretty good. (see video on youtube pointyhat as well). Saw Scott and a few mates out and had spied them doing a pretty good job with the sea kayaks earlier.

Tobes reported that a good gang got some nice ones at Fulong on Thursday, before flattening out yesterday. A member of the party "did a hammy", one foot sliding off the back of the board while the other kept going...ouch!

(photos and video: Cass)