 I
guess it’s just asking too much to get good weather and timing for a
dive. The long awaited February trip to Ft. Lauderdale was scrubbed by
the charter captain due to bad weather. I am way beyond dry rot. I just
want to get wet somewhere other than the shower. Since I don’t have a
February dive to write about, I’ve been searching for ideas to share
that are diving related and thought that I would go back through some
old log books to see what might help.
I guess some of the more interesting entries describe our diving
experiences in the Far East – specifically Taiwan and Japan. Here, in
the United States, we take our freedom for granted. If we see a section
of beach and want to jump in the water, we just do it. We take our boats
offshore and the only paperwork necessary is checking the charts for a
favorite dive site. The marine police only care that we are following
the speed limit and not running over manatees. That wasn’t the case when
we lived in Taiwan.
We arrived in Taiwan just after normalization. That is the period of
time when the U.S. decided to recognize “Big China”, otherwise known as
the mainland or the PRC. Almost overnight, the Republic of China was
abandoned and left to survive with no support from the U.S. government.
Taiwan was a rugged place. They were under martial law and everything
was geared to protecting themselves from military action by China. The
coastlines were considered strategic harbors. Strategic harbors ranged
from the important shipping ports and military installations to the tiny
inlets holding small fleets of fishing boats built with PVC pipes and
longshaft outboard motors.
Gary, my husband, was the only English speaking NAUI instructor on
Taiwan so he spent many nights and weekends teaching Scuba diving. It
was truly an adventure in those days. Oddly enough, it wasn’t legal to
scuba dive off the coast of Taiwan. People did it – there were dive
shops – it just wasn’t legal. The coastline was dotted with little
cement huts, labeled Coast Guard Stations although to most of the
ex-patriot community, they were known as the “Blue Meanies”. In most
cases, they left us alone. Sometimes they would approach and we would
pretend we didn’t understand Chinese and just keep wading into the
water. If we had cameras, we would explain that they were underwater
lights, and we would just keep wading into the water.
Gary had a group of students who had completed their checkout dives
and who thought it would be fun to head to the south of Taiwan for a
group trip. The southern tip of Taiwan has some beautiful blue water and
on a clear day you can see the northern islands of the Philippines. It
is truly some of the nicest diving you will see anywhere. The plan was
to rent a tour bus, head south, stay in a hostel and dive those crystal
clear waters. After a good night’s sleep, and a hearty breakfast, we
loaded our scuba gear into the bus, donned our wetsuits, tanks, masks
(while we were still in the bus) and picked a place along the coastline
to dive. This was no minor task. We were in a Greyhound-size bus and had
about 15 divers – we had to jump out of the bus in full gear and get
into the water before the Blue Meanies spotted us. I know you are
thinking that we had to be crazy but we just wanted to go diving. We had
some spectacular dives along the coastline and also discovered that when
we avoided the Blue Meanies on the way into the water, everything else
was smooth sailing. When we returned to shore, they were very friendly,
wanted to know what we saw and didn’t really bother us. I should
probably mention that cameras were not a good thing. There were signs
along the coast stating “No Photo Taking” and if you were seen taking
pictures of the coastline, your camera would be opened and your film
confiscated.
You could understand the caution of the Taiwan Coast Guard. They were
very concerned that we would take photos of their underwater harbors and
share it with mainland China. They were also concerned that with a
single scuba tank, we could cross the Taiwan straits underwater, head to
mainland China (90 miles away) and do something – not sure what we would
be doing – but it could be something. Our years in Taiwan began back in
1980 and things have changed since then. Today, diving is a widely
accepted (and legal) activity on the island. The coastline, once very
rugged, has been transformed into structured beaches with accommodations
for divers and beachgoers and the winding roads are lined with dive
shops.
The real point is – as U.S. citizens we take our freedom lightly. We
always assume we have the right to do what we want, within the law, and
it’s an eye opener when we lose that freedom. You might also think that
it was logical because Taiwan was under martial law at that time but
consider this--
In 1992 or so we headed to Japan. We quickly made friends with a
Japanese diver and found many occasions to drive down the coast to the
Izu Peninsula. This is an area where you will find some of the largest
soft corals in the world and has been featured in National Geographic.
The dive site was a small bay where you parked your car, lugged your
gear down a path, and waded over huge rocks to get to the water. Just
before you began your descent, you could look up and see snow-covered
Mt. Fuji in front of you. The water was chilly and visibility was very
good. The Japanese summer/dive season was spelled out – it began
sometime in June and ended sometime in early September. For the rest of
the year, Japanese divers would travel either out of the country or to
Okinawa to do any diving.
We decided to beat the crowds that would arrive at the dive site in
June for the first dive of the season. We picked a beautiful day, late
in May and on a Monday. We made the trip to the Izu Peninsula. As we
began the trek down the path to the water, we were stopped by a guard
who wanted to know where we were going and why were we here on a Monday.
After lots of gesturing, and the help of our Japanese friend, we learned
that we couldn’t dive in this area on Monday (or any day other than
Saturday and Sunday). It seems that the Japanese Fishing Association
owns the waters around Japan. They dictate when you can or can’t go into
the water and we definitely hit one of those “CAN’T” days. The final
decision boiled down to the fact that there might be “blasting” in the
water and it wasn’t conducive to a good dive. It seems that dynamite and
fishing go well together.
We used to drive down the coast and see places that looked like ideal
dive sites. The water was clear, the path to the water was easy, and the
water was calm. We would ask our friend if we could just stop, park the
car and jump in. He, nervously, informed us that you can only dive in
the prescribed spots.
I guess the point is – we take our freedom lightly. Are there ways
around it? We did manage to log hundreds of spectacular dives in Taiwan
and Japan during the 8 years we spent there. Was it challenging? Yes -
in so many ways. Was it worth the hassle? Without question.
Every time we go to the Keys, or Ft. Lauderdale or the Gulf of
Mexico, we take a moment to appreciate that the world is our oyster. We
have so many choices and so few restrictions. Is life good or what?
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