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

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.

American twang