Underwater photographer and dive instructor in Hong Kong on why he loves his alternative lifestyle

Simon Lorenz, a Hong Kong-based German underwater photographer, diving instructor and owner of a dive travel company, explains the benefits of an alternative lifestyle

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Simon Lorenz, diving instructor, underwater photographer and owner of a dive travel company, with Hong Kong clownfish at Bluff Island. Photo: Simon Lorenz

Kate Whitehead

Published: 11:15am, 17 May 2024Updated: 11:39am, 18 May 2024

Corrected [11:56pm, 17 May, 2024]

[11:56pm, 17 May, 2024]
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Simon Lorenz went back to Berlin when he was 15 years old, not Bonn.

My father is German, and my mother is Czech, and they met at a summer camp where they were both improving their Russian skills. I was born in Berlin in 1978 and have a brother who is a year younger.

My father has always been an adventurous man and focused on Eastern Europe, and that defined my childhood. We travelled and did a lot of camping.

When I was about six, he said that if my brother and I were good we’d get a present. The reward was a snorkel set. Soon after that we went to Austria and snorkelled all the time and I caught a pike with a butterfly net.

I was always a water baby and everyone in my family loves to snorkel.

Simon Lorenz as a child (centre) and brother Kevin (left) playing on Lake Weissensee, in Austria, around 1985. Photo: Simon Lorenz

American twang

My parents worked for the government. My mother is a linguist. She is a Russian teacher and speaks 10 languages. My dad is a socialist at heart and only in the last few years did he lose his love for Russia.