Surfers Take What They Can Get in Hong Kong’s Unexciting Waters

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Surfers Take What They Can Get in Hong Kong’s Unexciting Waters

By Erin Mendell

Reporting from the island of Tung Lung Chau in Hong Kong

• April 3, 2025

For nearly two hours on a windy Sunday in February, Henry Hurren took a beating in the waters off a largely uninhabited island in Hong Kong, trying to surf a short wave for a few moments at a time.

The half-hour ferry ride there from the Chinese territory’s main island was bustling with day trippers. Mr. Hurren, 32, passed outdoor restaurants and families who had camped overnight as he hiked to the spot he paddled out from in a wetsuit.

But in the water, he was alone, trying to prove there are new places to surf in a city without a lot them.

The wave off Tung Lung Chau is known as a slab, a quick one that breaks on a rock. It is not the kind you picture a surfer riding smoothly toward shore in a world-class surf spot like Bali. Over and over, Mr. Hurren caught it for a few seconds before tumbling back into the chilly water.

Many surfers never surf slabs, said Mr. Hurren, a nature guide who teaches surfing and shares some of the waves he finds on his Instagram page. “It’s like a really concentrated version of surfing,” he said.

The surf scene in Hong Kong — a territory that includes more than 250 islands in the South China Sea — is concentrated at a few beaches that lack consistent year-round swell. But those beaches are relatively accessible to a city of about 7.5 million people.

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Mr. Hurren is on a mission to find new places to surf in a city without a lot of surf.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

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Tung Lung Chau is a popular destination for day trippers in Hong Kong.Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

The best-known and easiest to access is Big Wave Bay on the east coast of Hong Kong Island, the main one in the territory. It is a tiny, imperfect stretch of sand next to a village that can be reached in about 20 minutes by taxi from the high rises that dot the endless skyline Hong Kong is better known for. The waves there are usually not that big.

The beach is also used by swimmers and standup paddle boarders, and tensions can run high if too many people are in the water. Last year, the government began intermittently enforcing a rule against surfing at the beach, according to people who surf there.

One shop near the beach commissioned a sign explaining surf etiquette, complete with an illustration of a surfer shouting a Cantonese expletive after being hit in the head with someone else’s board.

Mr. Hurren has been going to Big Wave Bay since he was 5 but says he never felt entirely comfortable there and that it can be hostile to newcomers. Any secret surf spots he did not find himself were not his to share.

If he wanted more people to surf, he would have to find other places. Waves like the one off Tung Lung Chau are not for everyone, he acknowledged, but he has found about a dozen more spots suitable for a range of skill levels.

The wave off Tung Lung Chau is a short and quick one that breaks on a rock, known as a slab.CreditCredit...By Billy H.C. Kwok

“The thing that makes Hong Kong surf so special is you have to believe in it for it to work for you and everyone around you,” Mr. Hurren said. “I’d say turning nothing into something is what our Hong Kong spirit is.”

The sport had such a low profile when Mavis Lai, 41, was growing up in Hong Kong that she did not even know she could surf there. She first took it up at a weeklong camp in the Canary Islands after she had moved away and was working in London.

After Ms. Lai moved back to Hong Kong in 2015, she worked as a surfing coach for a couple of years before becoming a sports therapist. She recalled going to Thailand and marveling at how good the local surfers were despite, like Hong Kongers, not having much surf all year. The waves were much better there, she said.

“Maybe in Hong Kong we have the worst conditions ever,” she said she remembers thinking.

But Ms. Lai makes the most of it. In the winter, the main surf season at Big Wave Bay, she goes there three or four times a week. She tries to schedule her work around the forecast and trains to stay fit enough to last for several hours whenever the surf is good.

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Winter is the main surfing season at Big Wave Bay. Credit...Billy H.C. Kwok for The New York Times

the Chinese territory is concentrated at a few beaches with inconsistent swell. One intrepid surfer says it’s all about “turning nothing into something.”