Dave Ruben in the Maldives
Westbourne Road pharmacist Dave Ruben and a bunch of mate's packed their bags and headed to the Maldives recently, arriving just after we'd bailed back for home. Lucky bugger lucked into the big swell we missed. Unlucky for us, lucky for him. Check out their story below:
" MALDIVES 18-28 April 2011 Our group, comprising of 3 from PE, 3 from Cape Town and 1 from Durban planned to arrive at Male (Maldives capital) together; but alas a couple of those laid-back Cape Townians realized en route to Joeys that they were sans passports. (They joined us a day later with 1 set of boards that somehow got delayed as well).
We were met by our Maldivian tour operator as scheduled as shuttled off to the Hariyana (6-cabin en suite vessel built about 20 years ago). Stepping out of the air-conditioned airport was like stepping into Durban summer on steroids. The first pics we tried to take were useless due to misted up camera lenses. Air temp stayed a regular 31-34 degrees with the water never dipping below 30.
We decided to head straight for the Northern atolls first (2 hour trip) as we had to wait for the rest of the party to join us anyway. Surfed the left (Honkeys) at 3-4 foot the first morning with about 20 people out (mainly Japs). Not knowing any better, we were far too polite and actually let them get a few waves, paddle around us etc. Realizing that this was seriously going to compromise our wave count; we decided to go balls-to-the-wall and do everything contrary to Shaun Thomson’s Code of Surfing. This worked wonderfully for us then till the end, where crowds of up 50 people proved no problem for us at all.
On average only about 5% of the Japs,Portuguese, Costa Ricans, Italians, French, Kiwis and Poms could actually surf and make their waves; the rest were great spectators.
With the full moon and swell from South Africa approaching, we decided not to waste a full day sailing down south in search of less crowded waves. This proved fortunate as the swell did arrive and fired up the rights ( Jailbreaks, Sultans and Cokes). The lefts (Loeys, Pastas and Chickens) never quite latched onto the swell properly and with the wind being more cross at those spots, resulted in our goofies being a little put out.
A typical day on the boat would start off with coffee and biscuits (big tussle for the chocolate ones) and then in for session no.1. Depending on the quality of the surf a sumptuous breakfast would follow anywhere from 8-10.30 am. The 3 days of the full moon resulted in more rip than usual in the morning. (The rip was pretty much like an average rip experienced at Noordhoek).No complaints though as this cleared out the line-up and gave the waves some more attitude and impetus.
Another session after breakfast until noon. Then as the spots got busier we would relax until lunch. Crowds got much thinner over mealtimes (probably due to the inflexibility of the resorts with their meals). We who were happy to have a later lunch would surf over this time, and eat later. A siesta would see us to a final evening session if we still had the energy.
In total we were on board for 10 days. Of that, 2 days were not worth surfing; most days were between 2-4 foot, with one peach of a day between 6-8 foot. Waves were definitely softer than Indo, but would run quite quickly where 200m rides being the norm. Could be compared to a cross between Rincon and Millers depending on the days. No on-shores were experienced; however a couple of the days were cross-shore. Flat days were spent snorkeling and chilling. Beers were free due to a lack of promised air-conditioning. Our operator (who could surf) left us on the 3rd day to join one of the other boats. Crew, as great as they were (esp. the chef) didn’t quite command the Queens English, which would sometimes problematic.
On the first really first small day we did travel south as far as rip-tides. Seeing the swell decrease as we traveled further, we chickened out and U-turned back to what we knew. Pity the crew didn’t have a cell phone system where they could have phoned ahead to ascertain the conditions in other areas.
Other strange things about the trip were that night sailing was absolutely verboten. Also visiting any resorts would have gotten us arrested. (This did not deter a couple of us lonely-hearts from trying).
With hindsight, I would definitely go back. With the family, I would recommend the resort at Pasta Point. It has a good left owned by the resort with nice beaches etc. for non-surfing members to enjoy. The right-hand Sultans is across the way (a 5-minute boat ride).
The trip cost 25K all inclusive. With air taxis (a necessity to explore less crowded spots), I reckon you could add 10K to the cost.
A tip on your return to RSA is spend an extra day in Dubai. A real eye-opener with a day of snow boarding spent at Ski Dubai (in a shopping mall) proving to be great fun."
" MALDIVES 18-28 April 2011 Our group, comprising of 3 from PE, 3 from Cape Town and 1 from Durban planned to arrive at Male (Maldives capital) together; but alas a couple of those laid-back Cape Townians realized en route to Joeys that they were sans passports. (They joined us a day later with 1 set of boards that somehow got delayed as well).
We were met by our Maldivian tour operator as scheduled as shuttled off to the Hariyana (6-cabin en suite vessel built about 20 years ago). Stepping out of the air-conditioned airport was like stepping into Durban summer on steroids. The first pics we tried to take were useless due to misted up camera lenses. Air temp stayed a regular 31-34 degrees with the water never dipping below 30.
We decided to head straight for the Northern atolls first (2 hour trip) as we had to wait for the rest of the party to join us anyway. Surfed the left (Honkeys) at 3-4 foot the first morning with about 20 people out (mainly Japs). Not knowing any better, we were far too polite and actually let them get a few waves, paddle around us etc. Realizing that this was seriously going to compromise our wave count; we decided to go balls-to-the-wall and do everything contrary to Shaun Thomson’s Code of Surfing. This worked wonderfully for us then till the end, where crowds of up 50 people proved no problem for us at all.
On average only about 5% of the Japs,Portuguese, Costa Ricans, Italians, French, Kiwis and Poms could actually surf and make their waves; the rest were great spectators.
With the full moon and swell from South Africa approaching, we decided not to waste a full day sailing down south in search of less crowded waves. This proved fortunate as the swell did arrive and fired up the rights ( Jailbreaks, Sultans and Cokes). The lefts (Loeys, Pastas and Chickens) never quite latched onto the swell properly and with the wind being more cross at those spots, resulted in our goofies being a little put out.
A typical day on the boat would start off with coffee and biscuits (big tussle for the chocolate ones) and then in for session no.1. Depending on the quality of the surf a sumptuous breakfast would follow anywhere from 8-10.30 am. The 3 days of the full moon resulted in more rip than usual in the morning. (The rip was pretty much like an average rip experienced at Noordhoek).No complaints though as this cleared out the line-up and gave the waves some more attitude and impetus.
Another session after breakfast until noon. Then as the spots got busier we would relax until lunch. Crowds got much thinner over mealtimes (probably due to the inflexibility of the resorts with their meals). We who were happy to have a later lunch would surf over this time, and eat later. A siesta would see us to a final evening session if we still had the energy.
In total we were on board for 10 days. Of that, 2 days were not worth surfing; most days were between 2-4 foot, with one peach of a day between 6-8 foot. Waves were definitely softer than Indo, but would run quite quickly where 200m rides being the norm. Could be compared to a cross between Rincon and Millers depending on the days. No on-shores were experienced; however a couple of the days were cross-shore. Flat days were spent snorkeling and chilling. Beers were free due to a lack of promised air-conditioning. Our operator (who could surf) left us on the 3rd day to join one of the other boats. Crew, as great as they were (esp. the chef) didn’t quite command the Queens English, which would sometimes problematic.
On the first really first small day we did travel south as far as rip-tides. Seeing the swell decrease as we traveled further, we chickened out and U-turned back to what we knew. Pity the crew didn’t have a cell phone system where they could have phoned ahead to ascertain the conditions in other areas.
Other strange things about the trip were that night sailing was absolutely verboten. Also visiting any resorts would have gotten us arrested. (This did not deter a couple of us lonely-hearts from trying).
With hindsight, I would definitely go back. With the family, I would recommend the resort at Pasta Point. It has a good left owned by the resort with nice beaches etc. for non-surfing members to enjoy. The right-hand Sultans is across the way (a 5-minute boat ride).
The trip cost 25K all inclusive. With air taxis (a necessity to explore less crowded spots), I reckon you could add 10K to the cost.
A tip on your return to RSA is spend an extra day in Dubai. A real eye-opener with a day of snow boarding spent at Ski Dubai (in a shopping mall) proving to be great fun."
