INTERVIEW/Swiss national makes historic kitesurfing journey across Taiwan Strait

Taipei, July 10 (CNA) An extreme sports enthusiast from Switzerland made history earlier this month by becoming the first documented person to kitesurf across the Taiwan Strait.

Geza Scholtz, 43, said he set out from Taiwan's Dongju Island, one of the Matsu Islands, on July 2, and headed to Yongan Fishing Port in Taoyuan.

Standing on a surfboard and holding onto his kite, pushed forward only by the wind, he managed to traverse a distance of 165 kilometers in 10 hours.

He had chosen the Taiwan Strait to conquer after learning about the demise of windsurfing pioneer Arnaud de Rosnay, who disappeared during a similar attempt across the Strait in 1984.

"That's exactly what drove me," Scholtz said.

Originally, Scholtz said, he wanted to kitesurf from China to Taiwan, but given the expected complicated application procedure that would entail, due to political tensions across the Strait, he settled for the next best thing, but that also meant surfing an extra 40 km.

Perfect opportunity

The weather that day was calm, and the northern winds were blowing in place of the prevalent southern winds in summer, providing him with what seemed like a perfect window of opportunity to kitesurf southbound from Dongju to Taiwan's main island, Scholtz told CNA in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

The stars seemed to have aligned, but little did Scholtz know that his upcoming expedition would test his limits.

Scholtz was not expecting turbulence before his journey officially started -- he became seasick from the hour-long boat ride from Nangan Island, where his team had been staying, to the starting point, and the nausea persisted early in the kitesurfing journey.

"After half an hour, I still felt really ill ... I decided to stop for a moment, and I just vomited twice into the ocean," he recalled.

Frustrated, Scholtz said he began to criticize himself. "It took me two years [of preparation] to get to this point. And the weather, the wind, everything is correct. And now you feel ill?"

Nevertheless, Scholtz said, he decided to forge ahead, and he felt better after about an hour.

However, the challenges he faced next nearly jeopardized the remainder of the journey.

"We suddenly had 2.5-meter waves and 20-25 knots (35-46 kilometers per hour) of winds, which were quite strong," Scholtz said.

At the limit

To surf at high speeds, Scholtz picked a 12-square-meter kite, the second biggest in his arsenal, which was now overpowered by the high winds, he explained.

"It was super at its limits ... If the wind speeds had been one or two knots higher, it would not have been possible anymore," he said.

Asked why he did not stop to change the kite, Scholtz said he decided to keep going rather than navigating through all the potential pitfalls associated with a kite swap that could cut the journey short including, for example, pulling in the kite in the strong wind and roaring waves from a boat without getting the line caught in the propeller and launching a new kite in that condition.

"I just switched my mind off and continued, continued and continued," he recalled.

Scholtz said he felt very "emotional" when he finally reached the shores of Taoyuan and exhausted, he was glad that he had achieved his goal.

"Not a day that passed over the past two years that I did not think about this day. Where will I arrive? How will it look like?" he said.

Youth message

Scholtz had a message to the youth after he set the record.

"I want to show that life doesn't happen on screens -- It happens outside," Scholtz said. "I hope my project inspires young people, in particular, to believe in their dreams, plan them and make them a reality."

Asked what his impressions of Taiwan were during the 2.5 weeks he spent in the country before and after the expedition, Scholtz, a dentist in Zurich, said he would like to thank all the "little helpers" who voluntarily assisted him with the logistics throughout his project.

"Taiwanese people are some of the kindest, warmest and most heartfelt people I've met in this world," he said.

"I've traveled to somewhere between 80 and 90 countries. I've been everywhere in the world, and I have to say that the support and the help I got from the Taiwanese people was just amazing," Scholtz said.