Surfing is to me one of the greatest all round sports you can ask for. It provides great strength training especially for your "core". It requires balance, determination, style and focus. It allows you to progress at your own pace and the regular surfer never stops improving. You can combine it with friends and vacations, it puts you in some of the most beautiful places in the world and allows you to humbly offer yourself to the mercy of mother nature. Harnessing the power of the ocean for a few seconds of adrenalin rush is quite simply the most powerful experience I have ever had!
When you think of the Maldives what springs to mind? For most people it's a classic aerial view of a resort island featuring the overwater bungalows. You know the kind I mean. Then you think sea planes and diving. Well all these are quintessential Maldive experiences but what most people don't realize is that the Maldives offers some amazing surfing too. Right now one of my good friends is there and filling his insta feed with just awesome photos of perfect Maldive waves. Here he is on a bomb.....
It got me thinking of my last trip to Maldives to surf there for the first time at one the Island nation's best known breaks. It's unimaginatively called "Cokes" - because there is a Coca Cola factory there. It's to the north of the capital Male and is reached via 2 - 3 hour speedboat transfer directly from the airport. It's one of the world's great waves and seeing it for the first time is humbling. I don't have any pics of me surfing Cokes but here she is in all her glory....
Source: https://www.perfectwavetravel.com/surf-trips/maldives/cokes-surf-camp
What makes the waves of the Maldives so special is the clarity and quality of the water. I mean it's just crystal clear and you are sitting in the lineup over healthy reef teeming with life. There's always reef sharks and turtles and dolphins all around you and if you have a mask (which you never have because who surfs with a mask), you can put your face in the water and see all kinds of reef fish under you. It's wild. Here is another photo from my friend who is in Maldives right now. This is taken on the inside of the break....
A short boat ride from the main break of Cokes are four other equally awesome waves. One of them is known as "Jails" - you guessed it, because there's a jail on the island. Actually the jail is now gone but the wave is still known simply as Jails. It was surfing here one day in just perfect conditions that a photographer was plying his trade in the lineup. Basically he was sitting about 40 meters down the wave from the take off point and snapping photos of each rider. He then gave u a little wrist band with his website link so later that evening you could login and look at your photos. Then if you wanted any you could Paypal him some cash and he would release the photos for you at full resolution. Here's some of the pics I bought from him....
There is one downside to surfing in Maldives though. No alcohol is allowed on any of the actual local islands. And so for us surfers that cant afford to stay in a luxury resort or onboard a charted yacht (me and my pals) we are stuck with the only option available - small local hotel on a true Maldivian island. Ten days without a cold beer after each surf session was pretty tough but I guess ultimately that's not so bad. I sure drank a lot of coffee and sodas though hahaha.
Im jobiker - not the greatest surfer out there but trying my best! Would I go back to the Maldives for a surf trip? 100%!
Photos of my great friend Aloo surfing Maldives used with permission....