A Life Changed by Surfing

The pole climbing competition during the Ghost Festival every year is an important event for all of Hengchun. On August 14 numerous pole platforms, each tens of meters high, are erected outside the East Gate of Hengchun. Amid the rallying cries from the several dozen competing teams, the judges keep their eyes focused on observing the competitors' climbing techniques.

The festival has been held here for hundreds of years, and it is steeped in local color. As long as the competition has been held, those serving as judges have been prominent locals. Aswey, who has made Hengchun his adopted home for more than a decade, is the first non-native ever to claim that honor.

In twilight a father and son end their day at the beach. Aswey has passed along his love of surfing to the next generation.

An army brat, Aswey was born in Kao-hsiung in 1974. Because his father was constantly being transferred, he lived in many places. "Before I performed my own military service, I really liked Kending and Hengchun and would often come here to play." But when he was young, surfing wasn't popular yet, so the most he'd do with his friends was splash around in the surf before returning home. Back then, he didn't realize that his love affair with Hengchun was only just beginning.

After getting out of the military, he and a friend opened a business together. But when he offended someone important, his friend ended up betraying him. Aswey lost his work and fell into a deep funk. "The pain wasn't just from the loss of money," he reflects. "It was also disappointment about how mean people can be." With his erstwhile friend avoiding him, Aswey grew emotionally volatile. Sometimes he would fantasize about "getting even."

Just when it seemed there was no way out of his misery for the foreseeable future, Aswey, as fate would have it, returned to Kending. "A friend taught me how to surf, and I soaked in the water and felt its warmth flow over me." When he got back on shore, he realized that those few hours in the water were the only time in two years that he had felt free.

He decided to stay on. When he wasn't at work, he was almost always at the beach. At first he went out into the surf to escape his anger. But eventually he discovered that he loved the waves and enjoyed the sense of speed and freedom, the feeling of everything being unleashed.

With a successfully executed aerial move, he quickly became a champion in a domestic surfing competition. Then, after repeatedly winning domestic competitions, he earned a victory in a longboard competition in Irago, Japan.

Once Aswey's store opened in 2005, it became a must-see for surfers visiting Jialeshui. The business allows Aswey to pass along his joy for surfing to many more people.

Currently, his days are filled with surfing. His eldest son Chengcheng is already galloping out into the waves. On an afternoon with a hint of autumn in the air, the father and son practice surfing on the Jialeshui coast. "Papa's going to America and Australia for competitions next year," notes Chengcheng. "He says he's going to take me."

"A lot of people ask: Why does surfing make people so happy?" Aswey remarks. "Surfing is very stimulating. The feeling of being on a wave is entrancing. And who doesn't like sand, sun and bikinis? But often I think about that afternoon that changed my life. That's the secret of surfing."