‘This is vitally important to what Hong Kong is. It’s a magical place,’ says Dickson. He lives on Big Wave Bay on the south side of Hong Kong Island, where he surfs as often as possible. ‘I’m 25 minutes from the city, but I’m surrounded by nature.

‘Early in the morning there’s less wind and fewer crowds, and often the swell will be a bit better. But the main thing is finding time away when you have a family. Before the kids are up there’s that time, at 5:30am you get that magic hour, when most of the world is still asleep.’

Dickson, a newspaper photo editor who has called Hong Kong home for 27 years, has only an hour or so before the crowds begin to show up.

‘When there’s a really good swell you’ll have 30 people on that wave at 8am, and then it’s not so different from trying to fight your way down the pavement in Mong Kok. There’s been an explosion of interest in watersports in Hong Kong, the same thing that happened with hiking and trail running a few years ago. It used to be that people didn’t want to get a tan, that they’d cover up outside to stay pale. Now there’s huge growth in beach culture. It’s suddenly seen as very cool.’