Nov 13, 2008
Sri Lankan Pro 2009 : 8-14 June
The 4th edition of Dhonveli Pro will happen again in Maldives at Pasta Point mid-June. That will be a World Qualifying Series 6star prime, one of the 11 biggest WQS events of the year. Write down this date in your agendas !
Nov 4, 2008
Ismael Miglav aka “Issey”
26 years old
First surf experience : 16 years ago
Quiver : 4 surfboards from 5’5” to 6’0
Fav move : Air 180° frontside
Fav surfer : Taj Burrow
Fav’ food : Roshi mashuni (grated fish, coconut and onion), orange juice
Best result : 2003 Maldives champion
It seemed to me that every time I’d go surf the break in Malé, Issey would be there busting some real airs on the rights. Being quite a low profile guy like most of his peers, I did not interact much with him apart from a few smiles in the water. I just knew he was considered as the 2nd best surfer after Iboo.
Then, on one of my trips in the Central atolls, I suddenly saw Issey cruising out of the blue on a small fishing boat. He had injured his knee on an air in Malé and had decided to go home in his native village, he had never been back for 20 years ! For years, he’s been working at the Quiksilver shop in Malé, with a small sponsoring deal and taking advantage of his 25 days vacation a year to go elsewhere. Like he travelled to Australia to compete in a Pro Junior at Narrabeen in 2000. He only stayed there 5 days as travelling there was a huge gap in his budget. He went to Sri Lanka to do a contest in Hikkaduwa and also in Phuket, Thailand for a Quiksilver event.
He started surfing in Malé really young at 8years old, riding local bellyboard first, then bodyboard before Tony Hussein gave him his first surfboard. When he was 10, he got knocked out really bad in the head, consequently leaving a deep fin cut. He had a narrow escape and since then, he admits not being super comfortable in big surf. “Malé can be really powerful and shallow on the lefts, I’ve seen some near-death experiences there”.
It took him 12hours by dhoni to go from Malé to his original village and now he finds out that a really wave breaks next to it “ I’ll come back more often” and teach some village kid to improve their surfing skills, still low because noone was there to show the tricks. Now, they have a master to follow. You might meet Issey as a surfguide on Voyages Maldives boat trips.
Oct 29, 2008
Mohamed Nasheed (Anni) new President in Maldives after 30 years of Gayoom
The provisional results of the second round of the presidential elections held in Male’ showed that the MDP Alliance’s candidate, Mohamed Nasheed (Anni), had emerged as the clear winner of the election.
Announcing the provisional results of the runoff elections, the President of the Elections Commission, Mohamed Ibrahim, said that 86.58 percent of those eligible to vote had taken part in the voting. A total of 181,204 people voted in the second round of the first-ever multiparty presidential election held in Maldives.
Incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom managed to win 82,121 votes; 45.79 percent of the total votes and a slight increase from the percentage he won in the first round of the elections.
Mohamed Nasheed won 54.21% of the votes, a total of 97,222 votes. The total number of valid votes was 179,343 while 1,861 votes were deemed invalid. The total number of people who were eligible to vote in the runoff election was 209,294.
www.haveeru.com.mv/english/?page=details&id=24885
Sep 29, 2008
Island Aviations gets a 50-seat plane
Last 18 September2008, Island Aviation Services’ airline division newly rebranded Maldivian, has procured a new Dash-8 50-seat plane for their services.
www.airports.com.mv
The new “Maldivian” airplane took off from Cairns, Australia with four Maldivians onboard on 11 October and arrived in Maldives last Tuesday afternoon. According to the company, the new plane, purchased from Germany’s Aircraft Asset Management for US$110 million, is the only plane in their fleet that is emblazoned with the company’s rebranded “Maldivian” company name logo and art decal.
www.airports.com.mv
Sep 26, 2008
Maldives September Central atolls report
A group of 8 italian surfers just came back from a trip and send me a report. Some surfers might be interested to know that there are less surfers in fall than summer and spring. It's easy to understand why. Most travelling surfers in Maldives are from Europe, which is increasingly true as the Euro gets stronger against the dollar. And fall in Europe is the best surfing time so a majority of surfers is keen to travel around Europe. Another point is that September in Maldives was ramazan time (10 days ahead next year) and local surfers, who usually surf in the late afternoon, can't really fasten and surf at the same time. That's why local surfers have been away from some lineups like Malé or Muli that month.
Check out this :
Sept13: short session at Malè break, heavy left 1.5 mt,3 locals.
Sept14: Last Stop glassy 1.5/2 mt and few waves at Foxy 1.5 mt sets, tubes shallow inside. (Just 3 other surfers at Foxy))
Sept15 and 4: Muli outside ,1.5 /2 mt perfect and long walls ,light wind, no people.
Sept16 : Hadigilla morning session 1 mt /1.5, almost glassy, few long waves but fun.
Sept17: check Mikado no waves we arrive 16.00 pm at the Machine ,small and a little windy, short session
Sept18 : Machine N wind 1 mt swell getting better
Sept19: Machine 1.5 mt glassy morning and bigger in the afternoon
Sept20 : Machine 1.5 morning and 2.mt sets in the afternoon,big tubes, great session
Sept21 ; Machine perfect morning (four hours session) 1.5 /2mt sets glassy,1,5 in the afternoon
Sept22: Machine last session , glassy 1.5 mt sets.
Rifu was a good guide, giving the right advice on spots and current, the food was very good , the Cook has talent and made cakes too, the crew was ok and the guys on the Dony too.
Just one thing : we had to tell the captain to wake up earlier in the morning because he moved the boat around 7/7.30 to go to the spots,we realised he had many beers those nights cause of ramadam!, but then he was ok, Rifu tolld him to move earlier.
Anyway best trip in Maldives , good waves, no other people around that's the most important thing to keep.
Photos : Giuseppe Arioni - ©Risky Point surf team
Jul 30, 2008
Paradise island : the 3rd surf resort in North Malé
It took about 6 month for Lohifushi to turn into Huduranfushi resort over the summer 2006 and in the meantime, Paradise Island set up a surfing service to the nearest breaks. Of course, you can not surf on Paradise Island but Jails / Sultans / Honky’s only stands a 20 minute dhoni ride way. While Chaaya Dhonveli and Huduranfushi now enforce strict exclusivity access over their home left-handers, Paradise now plays third fiddle in the surf resorts without surf but good service to travel to nearby breaks. 
Paradise Island is an idyllic setting for surfers who desire access to 5-star facilities.
Line up surf the Maldives offers a Dhoni (20 minutes) service twice daily to famous local breaks such as Jailbreaks, Honky’s, Sultans and Full Moon. These leave at 8am and 2pm each day and return by lunch and sunset respectively. Regular trips to Cokes and Chickens are also arranged as well as to breaks on South Male Atoll. A qualified surf instructor/surf guide accompanies each session and coordinates all surf activities from
Lineup
Jul 28, 2008
Magic Seaweed top forecasts
For long, Maldives has been blank on the usual global surf forecasts like Surfline (now there is a detailed forecast). Mainly because there is a very low surf population and because there are no main surf destinations nearby (Sri Lanka does not attract enough surfers). For 3 years, British magicseaweed has been releasing a free 7days forecasts with as many informations as you need (including tides) for an increasing number of spots : Beacons, Honky's, Jails, Lohi's, Malé, Pasta Point, Sultans in North Malé and Tiger Stripes in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll. Although one could expect a more widespread selection of spots (especially in South malé), that range of infos is probably the widest you can ever find on the web.
The 7 day forecast with swell, period and winds is really convenient to watch. Maldives has very consistent medium size surf and Central Maldives is never flat from March to November. More than swell& tides, your enemy is the wind although there is alwats a corner of the reefpass with side offshore winds. December-March is sunny & dry (Iruvai season, NE monsoon) while May-October is rather windy and humid (Hulhangu seaosn, SW monsoon), April and November being the transition months. If you refer clean crisp conditions with eays cruising, come between late-march to mid-may but those are the most requested weeks. The SW monsson starts with 3 or more straight days of rainfall and heavy WSW winds then good weather comes back. For months, there will be an alternance of thunderstorms and sunny spells. While skies are often overcast, it’s rarely too windy (average 10-15 knotsd dominant WSW winds) like the trade-winds belt. Even in June-July, the heart of the SW monsoon, there are still a good number of clean days. Rains are mostly heavy showers, don’t leave your boardbags wipe open ! April is the warmest month and heat remains high (30°c) but not desert-like suffocating. Water remains in the 27-30°c so don’t even think of neoprene unless you expect some protection from reef or sun.
The rating system makes it fairly comprehensive to know how good the week ahead will be.Links :http://magicseaweed.com/Pasta-Point-Surf-Report/572/
Other key forecast websites :
Windguru (7 days- Malé) : www.windguru.cz/fr/index.php?sc=4158
Surfline (Chicken's) : http://www.surfline.com/surf-report/chickens-maldives_6154/
Buoyweather (3 days free, 7 days paying ; nearest virtual buoy SW Sri Lanka) : www.buoyweather.com
Stormsurf Indian Ocean : www.stormsurf.com/page2/links/indiwam.shtml
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