Surf, Paddle and Sea-Kayak Lantau
Rent a paddleboard at Cheung Sha in the morning and you can be threading sea caves off Chi Ma Wan the same afternoon, provided you already have the paddling hours to back that plan up.
Surfing and stand-up paddleboarding on the south coast
Long Coast Seasports, based at Lower Cheung Sha, rents surfboards, stand-up paddleboards and kayaks by the hour or half day, running roughly HK$100 to HK$250 depending on gear and duration. Cheung Sha’s three-kilometer stretch of sand picks up a consistent beach break during summer swells and winter groundswell, and it is wide enough that a first-timer wobbling through a paddleboard lesson is not fighting for space with someone practicing an actual surf pop-up nearby. Pui O, a short bus ride further along South Lantau Road, carries the same rental culture on a smaller, calmer beach that suits complete beginners even better than Cheung Sha does.
Sea kayaking around Chi Ma Wan
For a full day on the water rather than an hour, sea kayaking expeditions launch around the Chi Ma Wan Peninsula and circle its southern headlands, working into sea caves and landing on pebble beaches that no road reaches. Currents around the peninsula’s tips run stronger than the sheltered water off Cheung Sha, so this is a step up from a rented paddleboard, not a direct substitute for one. It rewards a paddler who has already logged open-water hours somewhere else first.
Matching the activity to your actual experience
Cheung Sha and Pui O both work for someone who has never held a board before; Chi Ma Wan does not forgive that kind of inexperience the same way, since a change in current or wind a kilometer from the nearest beach is a different problem than falling off a paddleboard in two meters of water. Treat the beach rentals as the entry point and the Chi Ma Wan circuit as the thing you build up to, not the other way around.
The verdict
Cheung Sha is the better bet if you want consistent surf and options if the wind turns against you; Pui O is the better bet for a first paddleboard lesson with lower stakes; Chi Ma Wan is worth booking only once you can already read water on your own.
Check the Hong Kong Observatory’s tropical cyclone warnings before a Chi Ma Wan trip specifically, since a signal that barely affects the sheltered beaches at Cheung Sha can still put dangerous swell around the exposed southern headlands.
For the bigger single-day expeditions that pair with these sports, including the pre-dawn Lantau Peak climb, see adventure tours on Lantau Island .