Life Is Where the Sea Is

Su Tar-zen is the “professor in slippers” who single-handedly created a system for professional scuba diving licensing and training under the Council of Labor Affairs (now the Ministry of Labor). He is also the founder of the Jonathan Su Foundation. But he is best known for leading students on a round-the-island canoe trip and heading up canoeing activities that take “young-at-heart” elderly sailors past Hua­lien’s Qing­shui Cliff. Those who know him say he is a dreamer, but even more he is someone who makes dreams come true. Driven by passion, he is determined to help the island people of Taiwan enjoy the beautiful ocean around them.

Ocean expert Su Tar-zen started the trend of canoe trips around the coast of Taiwan.

Canoeing around the island

Su talks about his last class at National Taiwan Ocean University: “We wanted to do something memor­able, so we decided that after the end of the class we would go around the island by canoe, to give those young people something exciting to remember.” Su and his students started off from NTOU in the summer of 2009, and paddled along the whole West Coast. But when they got to the East Coast they encountered Typhoon Morakot, so they gave up the trip and joined in the rescue operations. They completed the unfinished portion of their voyage in 2010.

This was the first time in Taiwan that a teacher had led a group of students on a round-the-island ­canoe trip. Since then, it has become a popular activity among students who feel, “If we don’t do it now, we will regret it later.” Su was the originator of this trend.

Having enjoyed studying in Hawaii in his youth, Su Tar-zen has created a new Hawaii on the western side of the Pacific in Yanliao, Hualien County, home to the Jonathan Su Foundation.

The misunderstood ocean

Su is himself an expert on the ocean. After retiring from NTOU, he decided to settle in Hualien County, where he hoped to be able to bring his expertise to bear to help Taiwanese people better understand the sea. “The sea around Taiwan is so beautiful, but people here are taught from a young age that it is dangerous, with the result that they know nothing about the ocean. We want to undo this deeply rooted culture of fearing the sea.” The Jonathan Su Foundation (JSF) was founded to promote ocean-positive education.

Unfortunately, this has proven to be an incredibly difficult task. Every time he organizes an activity, the four words he hears most are “Pay attention to safety.” But what does that mean? “The JSF believes there are three parts to safety. The first is people, the second is the environment, and the third is equipment. Only by understanding the capabilities of the people involved, observing sea conditions on the day, and having the right equipment can one set ‘safety parameters.’” “The safety parameters for a coach will differ from those for beginners,” Su emphasizes. “It shouldn’t be a case of simply keeping everyone out of the water whenever waves reach one meter in height. Otherwise what would surfers do?”

People living in Taiwan have a lot of specious ideas about the sea. For example, Su solemnly explains, “It is currents that carry people out to sea, not waves.” You only have to observe waves and you will discover that they ultimately move parallel to the coast and end up on shore. If you fall into the ocean, and if you have on a life vest, don’t waste energy trying to swim back, but just “go with the flow” and the ocean waves will naturally carry you back to shore.

In 2011 there was an enormous earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the relevant agencies predicted that a tsunami would also strike Taiwan. But Su, analyzing the issue from a scientific perspective, says that the main reason for tsunamis is topography. When ocean water pours into shallow bays there is no way for it to be discharged, and it continually builds up, thereby raising the water level and leading to a tsunami. But Taiwan’s East Coast is a vertical cliff, and there is no topo­graphy of the type that allows waves to build up, such as a littoral zone, continental shelf, or continental slope. As a result, “The chances of a tsunami occurring in Taiwan are infinitesimal,” Su says with confidence.

Observe, know, get close

Few people in Taiwan are know­ledge­able about the ocean. And in fact many marine accidents happen because people don’t understand sea conditions and just plunge right into the water.

As a veteran sailor, Su tells his trainee coaches: “Before going into the water you have to first judge the sea conditions. If you watch the waves you will know the depth of the water, and if you watch the changes in the waveforms you will know the topography under the surface and if there are any rip currents. Adequate observation will help you calculate the day’s wave conditions, such as how many small waves there will be between big waves, and from that you will be able to judge when to take the canoes out to sea. You can get all this information by observing the ocean.”

In its marine experience activities the JSF encourages students to go beyond their comfort zones to their “exploration zones.” Su explains: “If you take a little risk you will get a better experience.” By continually taking actions in your exploration zone, your comfort zone will expand until you find that the natural world is your oyster.

Young-at-heart sailors

The most successful JSF activity has been the training of “young-at-heart” elderly sailors. Already more than 200 people have taken part, as age has proven to be no barrier to the JSF’s “get close to the sea” ­activities.

On the day of our visit, young-at-heart sailors Lin Huai­sheng and Jean Chen stop by. Although Lin, who first made contact with the JSF at age 64, served in the Navy, he frankly admits that he was afraid of the ocean. But guided by his coaches, he started out by just floating in the sea wearing a life vest, and progressed to learning how to swim and how to right himself in a canoe after capsizing. “These days I really enjoy the sea,” says Lin, now 74, proudly.

Jean Chen was formerly a reporter and anchorwoman at Taiwan Television and also the director of Nanfeng Zaiqi (“The South Wind Rises Again”), a documentary about a voyage from Taiwan to the Japanese island of Yonaguni in Okinawa. She remembers going on a JSF activity during which she paddled a canoe and looked at the Qingshui Cliff from the ocean. “That was my most moving moment with the JSF. It was the first time I saw Taiwan’s coast from the sea and I discovered just how beautiful the island is.” Participating in JSF activities changed her life, and she began to do a lot of outdoor recreation including hiking and cycling.

The Jonathan Su Foundation is like a big family living on the coast. They promote ocean-positive education to enable the children of Taiwan to become children of the sea.

The south wind rises

In 2017, Su Tar-zen launched the “South Wind Rises Again” project, which involved traveling from Taiwan to the Japanese island of Yonaguni by bamboo raft. This may sound like a bizarre idea, but Su wanted to prove scientifically that Taiwan was one of the fountainheads of world maritime culture.

Many years ago Su read an article by the Japanese anthropologist Yosuke Kaifu, who, based on human fossils that he unearthed on various Okinawan islands, proposed that ancient Okinawans migrated from Taiwan 30,000 years ago. But other Japanese scholars wondered whether there was sufficiently advanced sailing technology 30,000 years ago that would have enabled people to cross the ocean.

Su decided: “It’s possible. I will show you.” In order to replicate what it was like 30,000 years ago, he made a bamboo raft, because back then there were no metal tools that would allow people to hollow out a tree trunk to make a canoe. He got students to cut bamboo poles using stones and then make rope out of twisted leaves of shell ginger, a plant native to Hualien, to bind the bamboo raft together.

But how could they sail without getting lost on the vast open sea? The key was in the art of navigation. Besides widely known navigation methods such as using the stars, the landscape, a compass, or GPS, there is also “navigation by the five senses.” Our ancestors knew how to navigate at sea by using the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. For example, if you observe a cloud remaining stationary in the distance for a long time, you will know that there is land underneath the cloud (humid air rises and forms clouds when meeting land). Also, so long as you keep waves at the stern of the boat as you sail, you will inevitably strike land. Su points to the examples of sea turtles and salmon which have the innate ability to return to their birthplaces after growing to adulthood, and says that the people living on Taiwan 30,000 years ago had similar instincts; unfortun­ately, modern civiliza­tion has weakened the connection between our intuitions and nature.

In 2017, Su led a team of young-at-heart sailors and young people on a successful voyage from Hua­lien to Yonaguni. “I wanted to show that human maritime culture could have started here in Taiwan, and that Taiwan is at any rate one of the important places of origin of world maritime civilization.”

Volunteers from the Jonathan Su Foundation are shown here with “little sailors” as the children experience the waves with their bodies, gradually overcoming their fear of the sea until they finally open their arms and embrace the ocean.

Because the sea is there

“It’s because the sea is there!” Su says, “You don’t have to be especially fond of it, but you can’t deny that it is part of your living environ­ment.” Although the ocean took the life of Su’s only son, who died in a diving accident, he still works to promote ocean-positive education and inform citizens about the sea.

Su’s dreams are already coming to fruition. Volunteer Van Fan has settled in Hualien and founded the Ocean Life Dream Workshop to give help to anyone who wants to get on good terms with the sea. Meanwhile, Ng Shengwei has brought to bear her expertise in early childhood education to organize the JSF’s “Pacific Little Sailors Camp,” patiently working to dispel children’s fear of the sea.

Su is gradually turning over the leadership baton to volunteer trainers. “What we want to do is to make it possible for students to go into the sea with peace of mind, and let them know how to safely have fun in the water,” says JSF secretary-­general Chen Kuan-jung.

Seeing all the smiling faces looking out to sea at the JSF, we look forward to the day when Taiwan will become an island where people live in harmony with the sea and a place where everyone can enjoy the ocean. After all, isn’t it a waste to turn your back on 70% of the world?

“Young-at-heart sailors” Jean Chen (left) and Lin Huaisheng (right) feared the sea in the past but now enjoy it. They have paddled a canoe together past the Qingshui Cliff in Hualien and navigated to Yonaguni Island in Okinawa, Japan. (courtesy of Ocean Life Dream Workshop)

Su Tar-zen’s dreams are gradually coming true. The young coaches he has trained are happy to help anyone who wants to learn to love the sea to experience it for the first time.

You can only enjoy the quiet, wildness and dreamlike nature of the sea by putting yourself in it. (courtesy of Ocean Life Dream Workshop)