The Hurley Surf Cup proves that there are real breaks to be caught in this most densely-populated of cities.

This Sunday, 60 surfers from around Asia will compete for glory and a HK$3,000 grand prize at the sixth annual Hurley Surf Cup, hosted by local surf shop X-Game on the glorious beaches of Sai Kung's Tai Long Wan.

We met with Ken Choi, Hurley Surf Cup organizer, X-Game founder and Olympic medallist, to talk about Hong Kong's burgeoning surf scene.


CNNGo: 

Is Hong Kong a good place to surf?



Everybody thinks that Hong Kong has no good surfing, that it's just a big city, but that's not true. In wintertime, from November to April, I'm able to surf three times a week. Of course we can't compare it to Bali, Australia or Hawaii, places like that, but it's surfable. We're lucky compared to people in Thailand, where you can only surf for a couple of months a year during the monsoon, or Singapore, where there's nowhere to surf at all.

CNNGo: 

So where's the best place to catch a break?





Tai Long Wan is the best. Okay, there's a little bit of hiking through Sai Kung Country Park, an hour walk from Wong Shek Pier, but the good thing about it is that it's open sea, so you get a good consistent swell when the wind blows northeast. For me, the best thing about it is that there's not too many people. Say you go to Big Wave Bay near Shek O, it's like such a small beach, the breaking point is so small, and you have 50 people there queueing up. It's so easy to have a collision. That's not nice.



In Hong Kong we really have two seasons: winter and summer. Here we get wind swell, there's nothing like Bali or other places where you have reef break. In the winter, when the northeast wind blows, we have two choices, Big Wave Bay or Tai Long Wan. In the summer we have other options, like Pui O and Cheung Sha on Lantau. But they're only good when the wind blows southwest, [which means there will be] nothing in the direction of Tai Long Wan. It all depends on the swell and the wind directions. 


CNNGo: 

Where do Hong Kong surfers go when they want to get out of town?




Usually they go to Bali, or if they want something cheaper, they go to Taiwan, which is really good in the winter. The coast is long and you can drive hours and hours and come across so many places where you can surf. Besides that, wintertime is good on the east coast of Hainan Island. But it's really only Japanese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong people that go -- surfing isn't really big there. You need to bring extra equipment because if you break something, there's no surf shops where you can replace it.

CNNGo: 
How long have you been surfing?



I've been surfing for 20 years, but it's really only been my top priority for maybe six years. In the 1980s I windsurfed and in the 1990s I did wakeboarding. 

If you're a surfer you just feel good. It's hard to explain. If you have a lot of pressure at work, or from family or whatever, you surf and you forget about everything. If you surf in the morning, come to work in the afternoon or at lunchtime, you just feel good.