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In his heart of hearts, Wouter knows that river running is his real passion. Sometimes, though, he gets a little distracted by the sea. A postcard from the Maldives.
Apart from studying in Durham, my home from now on is going to be Singapore. Which is not bad if you like your surf kayaking as much as I do! As it leaves the Maldives only a 3 hour hop away. Having only been in Singapore for a day, I already found myself, with my dad and family, flying against my newly attained jetlag, to Male, the Capital of the island nation of the Maldives. Dad with his surfkayak too, and Mum and my sister keen to do some diving.
The Maldives themselves consist of nearly 2000 separate Coral Attols. During the summer months of May to September, it is blessed with slight westerlies (off shore) whilst providing perfect reefs for the long distance swells form the storms in the southern Indian ocean between Durban and Perth, to break.
Nothing really happens by car here, apart from on Male. For the rest it’s either speedboat or dhoni, so straight off arrivals it’s on to the boat to Lohifushi, our island base for 8 days.
Surfing reef breaks in a kayak is not beginners territory, the ocean has a lot of power in it and this explodes, with considerable force, on to shallow, and sharp coral reefs. Surfing, in my opinion is one of the nicest things kayaking gives you access to*, but start at a beach, with a fast kayak, that can handle the speed of the waves. Tumbling in on the foamies is often not seen as being in control, even though it may resemble the ultimate freestyle hole to the average butt-bouncer. Anyway, I am not here to lecture anybody about etiquette but be courteous, and take care.
My dad and I mainly surfed three breaks whilst we were there, in order of ‘hollowness’ these were Ninja’s, Sultans and Lohi’s. That’s two rights and a left. Lohi’s is the break that wraps around the reef at the SW point of the island we were on, the others are all accessible by dhoni and 3 times daily trips are available organized by the resort.
Every morning we got up at sunrise, had a surf before breakfast, morning trips away were common after which the afternoon was often spent chilling out, surfed out, although perhaps a sunset session was had sometimes. It’s a surfing paradise!
Going to have to get used to carrying a fully loaded creeker again when I get back! Just a few more preparations and then its Aeroflot time!!
Wouter has sent in a small mpeg clip of a ride [1.62Mb].
