A brief introduction to a really fun activity that you can do in Hong Kong, enjoying unusual landscapes.

In a nutshell, coasteering is the activity of exploring a rocky coastline by hiking, climbing, jumping, and swimming. Trying to be as near as possible to the waterline. So you need to be comfortable scrambling on rocks, wet surfaces, swimming open water, and handling waves.

Clothes – Gear – Scrambling – Waves – What I wear

Clothes. Fast-drying, non-chafing fabrics. In colder areas, coasteering is done with a wetsuit on, which adds significant protection to the skin but it is too hot for the most part of the year in Hong Kong. Specific canyoning or water shoes are the best: five tens for example. If you don’t want to invest in this kind of shoes your second best option is (trail) running shoes with softer soles: I have had a good experience with the Asics 2000 non-trail running series and others. Try to avoid clunky, heavy, and hard-soled shoes or you will feel like on skates as soon as the rocks are bit wet. Avoid water shoes with no lacing system too, not the best for scrambling and you might even lose them in the waves. Full article with shoe information.

Additional gear. Gloves, in this case, are a must. From most to less protective that we use.

Knee and elbow pads, or long sleeves and pants, can help avoid scratches getting in and out of the water (barnacles and others).
A waterproof bag, ideally sturdy and buoyant and with a sternum and/or a hip strap, so that it does not move around when you are scrambling. The secondary option is to use your standard backpack (trail running with lower profiles might be best) with dry clothes and other stuff within, at least, a couple of thinner waterproof bags or, worst case, kitchen zipper bags. Always, at least, double bag your electronics. Sometimes I even bring a bag inside a bag inside a bag to avoid water leaking into those. Full article about bags.

Goggles can help you significantly in the (short) swim sections, above all, when trying to find the best “landing” point among the rocks, urchins, and barnacles.

Additional security gear. A helmet, life-jacket, rope, and others can be handy depending on the route and your ability. In my case, I bring a 5m rope to help (mainly tow in the water) others. Also a mesh cutter like the below one.

Fishing nets left behind in the coastline can be (from nuisance to) a real danger and that little thing (10cm) or a small scuba knife will help you out of them. I prefer the former, cause you can operate it easier, with way less chance of injuring yourself in a stress scenario. I also bring a Personal Locator Beacon that allows me to ask for help anywhere in the world meanwhile I have unobstructed visual access to the sky, i.e. connection with satellites. This is not necessary and quite expensive, but includes an extra layer of security. A gadget that I bought hoping to never need to use it.

I take my pics with the phone. For that, I use a waterproof case above the supposedly waterproof mobile itself. There are tons of different brands and models in the market. I have been quite happy with Ghostek. One piece of advice is to take care of the lens of the case itself. They are usually really easy to scratch or somehow deform. Therefore I tend to bring it within some kind of fabric bag, sock, or whatever.

Before using it check that the seal looks good and there will not be any leakage. Check in the initial jumps into the water that you don’t see any water coming in. In my case, I seldom jump from very high if I have the phone just with the casing. If necessary I put it in the waterproof bag (full tech post).

You need to be comfortable scrambling. A video summarizing the main concepts.

If you want to go to the next level, increasing difficulty, you can find tons of videos on Youtube with climbing technique, for example:

There is a nice concept in climbing called “problem solving”. The problem is the wall in front of you and depending on your technique, body, and fitness, different routes might be optimal. The more you do it the more efficient you will become coasteering. She looking from the top realizing that I found a way easier/safer lower route and was quite ahead of her 😛

In the case of coasteering to the problem solving you add an additional challenge or help: sea, water, and waves. If you are a good swimmer you can always “cheat” and swim longer sections. This is not the goal, but on average you can swim way faster than scramble, among others cause you can do it in a straight line. The problem for some will be to get in and out of the water considering the waves, rocks, barnacles, and urchins.

A long video explaining everything about the waves

The most important part is in the 7m07s. There you will see that the wave will move you mainly up and down and a bit to the front and back again. So, how to be safe? Keeping enough distance from the rocks for that forward motion. It will depend on the wave size, but usually, it might be a shorter distance than what you think.

In the video, you can see the relationship between wave length, amplitude, and others. For a wave to break the lower (underwater) force needs to be slowed down by contact with any solid surface. If it is a nicely sloped sandbar then you get the surfing waves.

Picture from SSN

On rocky more vertical surfaces the waves will break more abruptly. The more time you spend swimming in open water close to the coastline the more you will understand several patterns. Usually, waves tend to come in series. 3 to 5 big waves are followed by another 3 to 5 smaller ones (just saying random numbers, will depend on the situation), then other big ones, etc. You will also realize that you can use them to help you instead of hurting you, even as a kind of a lift to higher ground if your timing is good enough (remember to securely set your feet, most surly you will not be able to hold yourself just with your hands with the sucking force of the water). Play safe initially and try to approach the rocks when the waves are smallest.

If you calculate wrong and you realize that the wave is going to push you against the rocks, put your feet between you and the rocks. You should be able to control the “landing”: the rubber on your shoes is the safest contact point. If necessary, push yourself out back into the sea and reassess your exit. The main reason why people get injured is for panicking and trying to grab the rocks with their hands or similar. You can end up with urchin spikes, barnacle scratches, or, even worse, hitting yourself with the head or other parts of your body against the rock.

For beginners I try to avoid days/routes with swell over 0.5m. You can always find an alternative more protected route in the area. For example, if the forecast is too big in East Dam go to Tai She or Kau Sai Chau (with boat).

Once I am talking about waves, here is the full speech that I used for years in my old lifeguard life. Rip currents. Do not panic, do not try to swim against them. On very few occasions you will find something like that on a rocky shoreline but in case just learn how they work.

For wave and wind forecast I used to check magicseaweed and windguru websites. Also the tides. Usually the lower the tide the more options you will have and you might be able to just wade instead of swim some sections.

Nowadays checking more windy.com. An important clarification on all these webs. Their algorithms are not perfect and often understate the protection offered by solid land mass. If you see a completely covered bay with big swell waves theoretically coming through that protection, you have good chances that it is and error. For example in the Kau Sai Chau outing this was the wave forecast.

And it was almost flat. This was so because we were covered from the South East swell by Jin island and from North wind by Kau Sai Chau itself. In East Dam the sea that day was very choppy. In general, you need a big mass of land in the middle of the swell direction to be effective, sometimes even kilometers away. Protection for wind is more limited, I would say some hundreds of meters max.

Swell waves and wind waves can be significantly different. Swell is created in the deep oceans travelling long distances. Wind waves are created close to coastline itself. For example, here we were checking the next-day forecast.

0.2m swell looked like a really calm day. But the expected wind was really strong (22 knots, over 40 kph) and therefore the wind waves were significantly higher.

Up to 1.9m in the open sea. 1.3m in a more covered area like Cheung Chau island. We ended up going but with the full gear on (see bottom) and the wind was as strong as expected.

We had a fun bumpy day out. One last thing about waves: swell waves tend to be more dangerous, wind waves more superficial and less strong. We would not have even tried that route with a 1.3m swell forecast, as a reference. A video with quite some of the wave dangers you can find while coasteering with further explanation in the description.

Just one more clip that I should add. Tunnels, caves, and other passageways amplify the force of the waves. Be extra careful therefore in them. Even on completely calm sea days, you can get into trouble there otherwise.

For tides I tend to use tide-forecast.com these days. Every approx 6 hours you have a tide change, from low to high and vice-versa. Actually a little bit more, so that the tides delay approx 1 hour each day. The strange thing (for me who comes from a region where the tides are almost perfectly semi-diurnal) is that in Hong Kong sometimes they are kind of symmetrical but sometimes you have intermediate tides. Easier to see with the graph.

So a “low” tide in HK, as per above, can be 1.17m but also 0.18m high. If you are trying to wade a tricky section or traverse a challenging wall with the possibility of falling into the water that difference can be huge. So beware when anyone tells you that they did it in “low” tide or “high” tide. I will keep on adding the graphs for reference in future coasteering routes.

Where can you go coasteering? I have already uploaded quite some routes but you can also check the Catalogue of coasteering routes by Colin. It was one of the nicest discoveries quite some time ago. Detailed maps

with explanations of what you will find, difficulty, estimated times, etc

In most of the cases, we agree with the grading (here the base of mine explained) but there are some differences. The main one, I guess, comes from our background, his more climb related and in my case long-distance swimming & surfing. In any case a wonderful resource for your initial explorations.

If you are a beginner and you want me to choose some good and easier routes. A route that can be done dry in Yau Tong, for tons of early exit options and incremental difficulty in Hong Kong Island, Trio beach to enjoy better water quality and test your jumping.

PS summer 2019: As some have been asking me, here is the exact kit I took with me for simple coasteering.

Up to bottom: light waterproof bag (yellow) with dry clothes, money, first aid, extra gloves (in case myself or anyone scratches his fingers), electronics, snacks, etc that I don’t want to get wet inside a sturdier waterproof bag (blue). That + camel bag goes inside the main compartment of the backpack. I trap some air in the waterproof bag and I can inflate the camelback while I am drinking the water. That way I add extra buoyancy and I can use the backpack as a lifejacket or floating device to give to someone having problems in the swim sections.

Good grip shoes, in this case, Terrex CC Voyager Aqua. Not as grippy as the Five Ten (full post about shoes again here) but usually more than enough for coasteering.

Clothing. A cap with little fabric so that doesn’t absorb much water. Bright colored super quick dry t-shirt (bought in Decathlon). Removable sleeves. Non-finger cover gloves (they provide me a better feel when scrambling/climbing, the con is that you can get your fingers cut with barnacles). Speedo (more comfortable than underwear when sea wet). Full leg tights. Heavy-duty shorts (I don’t want a thin swimming suit that will tear easily when on rocks) that do not gather much water. Exactly those are cheapo Simond climbing shorts from Decathlon too. Drymax shocks to avoid chaffing.

My old Ultimate direction Fastpack 30 backpack slightly modified. I drilled little holes on the lower part of it with a needle for easing the release of the trapped water when I come out of the sea. I also use an old backpack’s strap as a kinda hip belt. The new Fastpack 35 does have its own removable hip belt.

Goggles. The mesh cutter. A thin rope to tow swimmers with problems. Garmin GPS watch. And the phone within the waterproof case, to take pics and check the offline maps if necessary.

Going full pro in wintertime.

Tyler convinced me to try wetsuit coasteering in late 2019 and I must admit that opens completely new opportunities. I cut a really old surfing wetsuit of mine, so that I could have better mobility in my arms. Buoyancy increases significantly and also adds protection against scratches. A full waterproof bag, helmet, and ready to handle winter big wave days or longer routes without needing to care much about carrying tons of water with you.

Compared with my set shown before the main changes.

Overboard waterproof bag. In his case the Classic 45L. We have an orange 30L Pro-vis one and a yellow 20L Pro-Sport. More visible with them on, to try to avoid accidents with boats around. It provides also quite some more buoyancy. Perfect for those not completely comfortable swimming (gf for example). Full post about backpacks. Climbing helmet. Five Ten access mesh. 3mm wetsuit. Long sleeves and shorts above to protect it a bit. Sturdy gloves.

If you do not want to buy a full wetsuit but want to increase the months to be coasteering in, you can buy a neoprene vest. Left a bit thicker, or really cheap and thin (not so warm, therefore) on the right.

Updated gear that I have been using since 2020, including extremely long routes.

Main changes: I definitely moved to use only waterproof bags. For most routes, the 20L Overboard Pro-Sport suffices. I am able to bring all that you see in the pic + if necessary even paddles and fins in and the helmet tied out. In the outer mesh pockets, to be able to access easiest, I bring the (Safe sea) sunscreen, mesh cutter, a strap with a couple of small carabiners so that I can connect with my trousers/belt to pull the bag if I decide to swim a long section, and a soft flask with Perpetuem for hydration. The main con of using this small waterproof bag is not being able to carry a camel bag with the tube out. So therefore the soft flask is out and a water bag inside from where I drink and replenish the flask every time we stop. Inside the backpack, I keep on bringing the old sturdy waterproof dry tube and a small light one within with the power bank, first aid, money, and others that I want to keep 100% sure dry. The Overboard bag and similar ones are pretty good, but nevertheless, some water will leak in if you jump enough times to the sea. Always, at least, double bag! Because of the same reason I bought an Overboard multipurpose soft case where I put the phone with the Ghostek casing when I am going to be jumping from high or swimming.

The rest of the time the phone stays in the blue camera holder that fits perfectly. Additionally, for the whole (Covid) year, I have been carrying with me an orange bandana. I use it as a temporary face mask or to put it on my head to make myself a bit more visible or to avoid sunburn when I have cropped my hair short.