“Snorkeling’s three ‘treasures’ are the mask, the snorkel, and the flippers. The mask allows us to see in the water. Human eyes have difficulty focusing in the water because it is denser than air, so we need masks to see. Snorkels allow us to breathe normally with our heads under water….”

A group of children in wetsuits and life vests listens attentively as their coach explains. The kids are fifth graders from Ye­liu Elementary School in New Tai­pei City’s ­Wanli District. They’ve traveled to He­mei Elementary, located about 28 kilo­meters from Ye­liu in Gong­liao District, to undergo He­mei’s nationally renowned snorkeling training.

Snorkeling provides great opportunities for observing marine life. Hermit crabs are everywhere.

He­mei does its snorkeling training in nearby Long­dong Ocean Park. One of the most popular snorkeling destinations on the northeast coast, the park offers professional instructors and a full range of snorkeling equipment.

The kids’ first step is learning how to put on their gear. The next is climbing into the training pool to familiarize themselves with some basic techniques.

When they finally hit the sea, the students from Ye­liu are very comfortable in the water and quickly master the breathing and floating techniques. Following their instructors’ directions, they move on to identifying blue starfish, sea urchins, and a variety of tropical fish, tiny shrimp, and crabs that live in the waters of beautiful Long­dong Bay. For the kids, the entire trip is just one delight after another.

In fact, the students of both He­mei and Ye­liu Elementary are old hands at maritime sports. Some are even quicker than their coaches to identify sea creatures correctly.

Many of the primary schools along the northeast coast have already developed their own maritime sports programs. He­mei is known for its snorkeling; Ye­liu teaches canoeing and ocean swimming; Fu­long, located near Yan­liao Beach, has developed a sailing program; and Aodi, located in the Gong­liao District, is planning to combine folk tradition with athletics by teaching kids to handle dragon boats on the ocean.

During the graduation ceremony at Hemei Elementary, students paddle canoes by themselves to a specified destination, leap into the water, then dive two to three meters beneath the surface to find their diplomas.

Urban kids are likely envious of the opportunity to explore all kinds of ocean sports. But these coastal schools themselves see them not only as a good use of their natural environment, but in some sense a matter of survival.

Populations are declining in districts on the outskirts of New Tai­pei City. Jin­shan, ­Wanli, Rui­fang, and Gong­liao have long struggled with the outward migration of working-age residents, and in recent years have also suffered from declining birthrates. As a result, enrollments at district primary and secondary schools have been shrinking. Plainly put, these schools are too small to provide students with access to even athletic fields, much less heated swimming pools.

But necessity is the mother of invention. What the schools lack in infrastructure they make up for in world-class coastal topography. This fantastic natural venue has given rise to the idea of integrating the local environment into a maritime education program.

Yeliu Elementary is a case in point. Every Friday morning, the school’s entire faculty and student body make use of the nearby Yeh­liu Geo­park for an 800-­meter run that also happens to offer gorgeous views of Ye­liu’s renowned coastal rock formations.

The ocean swimming class at Yeliu Elementary requires students to ­practice leaping into the water. To teach children how to handle an unexpected fall into the water, the coach gives hesitating students a quick shove.

Ye­liu Elementary also has ocean swimming and canoeing programs. Principal Xiao Hui­yin says that when the Ministry of Education began encouraging primary schools to teach swimming, there simply wasn’t a suitable pool within a reasonable distance of her school.

When Wang Guo­chang, a well known scuba-diving trainer, became the deputy director of the Ye­liu Elementary parents’ association in 1998, he began providing the school with expert advice on how to systematically develop an ocean swimming program.

At first, the school trained its students in a nearby abandoned aquaculture pond that had once been used to raise abalone. It later leased the retired Hai­wang­xing Pier from the National Property Administration. With its mild currents, calm seas, and lack of sea-borne litter, the pier is the perfect place to get children accustomed to swimming in the sea.

Since the program’s inception, Ye­liu’s fifth and sixth graders have been required to take a ten-week course in canoeing and ocean swimming. Classes are concentrated in the relatively warm months of May, June, and September, and taught by instructors who are either graduate students at National Taiwan Sports University or professional coaches.

The school uses its annual graduation ceremony to demonstrate what the kids have learned. Before being awarded their diplomas, students make a complete circuit of the Ye­liu fishing harbor on their own in a canoe. In accordance with a local custom, they then leap into the water and swim 75 meters.

Ocean survival skills are very important. Should students get into trouble on the water, they are taught to float in a circle with their companions to make themselves more visible to rescuers. This is one of the things included in the ocean swimming class at Yeliu Elementary.

Swimming above the ocean’s depths can be difficult and dangerous. What gives Ye­liu’s students the courage to do so?

Principal Xiao says while it’s only natural for children who grow up on the coast to have a connection to the sea, in recent years parental protectiveness has kept many kids from playing in the water. Xiao and others worry that the younger generation may lose its connection to the sea, causing the area to lose its distinctive local culture.

Teaching kids to swim in the ocean and paddle a canoe gives them a chance to reconnect to their roots. Fishermen from the Ye­liu area used to fish the coastal waters from sampans, but kids today have no contact with this aspect of their local history and culture. By learning to handle a canoe, they gain a sense of what it was like for their grandparents’ generation to make their living from the sea, both in terms of the knowledge required and the risks faced.

The swimming class also serves as a forum for gaining an ­understanding of the ocean.

“It’s only by understanding the nature of the ocean that we can avoid ocean-related tragedies,” says Wang, who volunteered to help set up Ye­liu Elementary’s swimming program. Wang notes that the drownings we hear about every summer are typically the result of the victims overestimating their swimming abilities and overlooking the ocean’s dangers.

These include the water’s salinity, which can cause great discomfort to swimmers who get seawater in their eyes or up their nose. Seawater’s buoyancy can encourage swimmers to swim out further than they can swim back. Likewise, its waves and tides can pull them far from shore. A tired swimmer in a pool can rest by standing on the bottom or holding on to the side. A swimmer at sea doesn’t have that luxury, and exhaustion can quickly turn into tragedy.

“Knowing how to steer clear of trouble and save yourself in a crisis is more important than pure swimming ability,” says Wang, summarizing the gist of the ocean swimming class.

Another significant aspect of the ocean swimming program is that it helps kids develop strength of will.

Hemei Elementary has been particularly impressed by this aspect of its maritime PE courses. Principal Xu Heng­zhen says that at He­mei’s graduation ceremony, graduates are required to paddle to a designated location, strip off their life vests, dive into the water, and swim down to the bottom to pick up their diplomas and a gift.

When it comes time to jump into the water, fear or an excess of nerves causes some students to hesitate. But the encouragement of their teachers and peers ultimately helps them push through and complete their task.

“These kinds of challenges teach children to overcome psychological obstacles, which is exactly what kids today need,” says Xu.

These ocean-oriented PE classes are not only giving the kids of Taiwan’s northeast coast the knowledge of the ocean and the survival skills that the citizens of an island nation should have, but are also providing them with memories and lessons that will last a lifetime.