Denise Kwan: Exploring the Wonders of the Big Blue

In the summer of 2001, Denise Kwan and her family were strolling on Lobster Bay Beach in Sai Kung when a group of scuba diving students caught their eye. She no longer recalls the details of the interaction with the instructor; what she does remember, however, is her father signing them up to their first scuba diving course. She was only 11 years old.

And she despised it.

"I was scared; the visibility was poor; the water tasted salty; the gear felt extremely heavy on my small frame. I couldn't grasp what was going on for a long, long time," she says, recalling fearful memories of painful jellyfish stings and swarms of shrimp slithering into her wet suit. "I remember crying; but my dad urged us to push through with the course. Admittedly, the learning curve wasn't an easy one, but it became invaluable experience that now helps me to better connect with my own students."

In 2006, the Kwans took over a dive shop that they renamed Ocean World Dive Training Centre (OW Dive); and for almost every summer break in Denise's high school years, the family travelled to explore the deep blue.

Eventually, the sport grew on her.

"There wasn't an eureka moment. Honestly, it was a classic case of 'practice makes perfect'. Once I mastered the techniques and stopped panicking with every breath, I started to enjoy it," says Denise. Diving, to her, was like playing a video game. "Every time I go underwater, the surroundings seem surreal, but it's not – it's actually there within reach, all immersive, the whole 360-degree experience," she says. "So much of our Earth is composed of water, so it doesn't make sense to leave it unexplored."

In 2010, she completed all the exams to become a diving instructor, and four years later, course director. Now at 36 years old, she has spent every summer weekend on her family boat, taking fellow divers and students – some as young as 10 years old – to the waters surrounding the Sai Kung coastlines. It's a role that has nurtured her courage and sense of responsibility. Fortunately, she's never experienced any major mishaps.

"Different from diving as a sport – in which you still need to be careful, of course – being an instructor means another person's life is in your hands. That's something else," she says.

On top of her regular Monday-to-Friday job that's completely unrelated to her weekend post, she also manages OW Dive's social media.

Such is the life, says Denise, of most parttime or freelance diving instructors in the city, where competition for students and dive trips is not just amongst each other within Hong Kong, but against nearby coastal and island regions where underwater visibility, ecological diversity, accessibility to the sport and – sometimes – cost of getting a license – reign supreme. Personally, Denise can recall the countless, jaw dropping corals, wrecks and marine animals she's seen from the shores of Malapascua Island in the Philippines, depths of Sipadan in Malaysia, the big blues of Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the deep waters of Ishigaki in Japan. The list goes on, but there's something about Hong Kong seas that holds a special place in her heart.

Protecting HK's Backyard

Thankfully, this is a sentiment that many in the city also share, amongst other practical qualities of language and better time management that are unique to learning scuba diving in their home town. Though there are no official numbers, Denise has seen an increased interest in scuba diving in the past decades and especially over the pandemic, when Hong Kongers – confined to the city as a result of social-distancing restrictions and travel bans – took time to discover the gems in their own backyards. Since 2019, she's leveraged on the sport's growing popularity to spread the important gospel of conservation.

In the same year, she formed a group of passionate divers to conduct annual reef checks while personally, she volunteered to retrieve ghost nets – or abandoned and lost fishing nets; do beach clean ups and preach about marine conservation in schools.

"Inherently, scuba diving is detrimental to the environment, but on the other hand, it's also the most effective way for conservation awareness, by putting people in the oceans to get that first-hand experience," says Denise. "So what we can do as instructors is aside from nurturing their skills underwater, we relay as much as possible the ways we can conserve our surroundings, such as refraining from touching the corals."

HK as a Scuba Diving Paradise?

To hone its competitive edge against nearby cities, the HKSAR government has been actively promoting itself as more than a shopping paradise, highlighting its heritage, hiking trails, museums, and since the opening of Kai Tak Sports Park earlier this year, its flair for sports.

Denise says the spotlight has yet to touch scuba diving, attributing the sport's inherently high expenses – namely gear and boat rental and instructor hire – and time cost required in trekking out to Sai Kung, making it less attractive compared to free and accessible activities like running.

"We see spikes in interested students, but they're all temporary. Once passionate divers are either reluctant to spend money as a result of the current economy, or they're choosing to save and splurge overseas instead."

But as a family business that operates only during non-office hours, Denise is acutely aware of its limitations. She hopes to eventually take on OW Dive full time and apply for funding so she can further spread the joys of not only the sport, but of marine conservation and mindfulness to more who will listen.

"There's something about being in the depths of the oceans that just diminishes your worries and woes. The underwater world is completely silent, and you only need to focus on what's in front of you," says Denise. "It's also a sport that teaches you to live in the moment: we'd often travel somewhere to see, say, whale sharks, but there's no guarantee in nature. So when it shows up, just feet against your fingertips, it's extra thrilling."