World Stormrider 3 out : 2 maldivian zones

The 3rd volume of the World Stormrider Guide to be released next May 2009 will contain much promo about Maldives. Out of 80 zones worldwide, 2 will be in the Maldives : Central atolls and Southern atolls (Addu & Fuammullah).

www.lowpressure.co.uk















Central atolls double page spread















Addu double page spread















Maldivesurf double page ad


List of 80 zones throughout the world

Europe

161_Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland
162_Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland
163_Isle of Lewis, outer hebrides, Scotland
164_Lacanau, Gironde, France
165_Viana do Castelo, Minho Douro, Portugal
166_Terceira, Azores Islands
167_Roma, Lazio, Italy
168_Parga, Epirus, Greece
169_Sinop, Turkey, Black Sea
170_Alexandria, Al Diffa, Egypt
171_Bizerte area, Tunisia
172_Dakhla, Western Sahara, Morocco
173_Malta & Gozo

Africa

174_Robertsport, Cape Mount, Liberia
175_Cotonou, Benin & Togo
176_Porto Alegre, São Tomé & Principe
177_Pointe Noire, Kouilou, Congo
178_Skeleton Coast, Namibia
179_East London, Eastern Cape, ZAF
180_Scottsburgh, Kwazulu Natal South Coast, ZAF
181_Malindi, Swahili Coast, Kenya

Indian Islands

182_Anjouan, Comoros
183_Lavanono to Anakao, Madagascar
184_NE Yemen, Hadhramaut & Mahrah
185_Chabahar, Baluchestan, Iran
186_Kovallam, Kerala, SW India
187_Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India
188_Hithadhoo, Laamu&Thaa, Maldives
189_Gan, Addu & Fuamullah, Maldives
190_Arugam Bay, SE Sri Lanka

East Asia

191_Ngapali, Rakhine & Ayeyarwaddy, Myanmar
192_Phuket, Thailand
193_Cherating, Pahang & Terengganu, Malaysia
194_Lhok Nga, Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
195_Hu’u, Central Sumbawa, Indonesia
196_Pantai Marosi, Sumba, Indonesia
197_Sopi, North Maluku, Indonesia
198_Tandag, Surigao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines
199_Baler, Aurora, Luzon E, Philippines
200_Hong Kong & Guangdong Province, China
201_Hainan, China
202_Chialeshui, Kenting, Taiwan
203_Tanegashima, Ryu-Kyu Islands, Japan
204_Japan Sea, West Coast, Japan
205_Jungmun, Cheju Do, South Korea

Australia

206_Gnaraloo, North West WA, Australia
207_Ulladulla, South Coast NSW, Australia
208_The Entrance, Central Coast NSW, Australia
209_Lord Howe Island, NSW, Australia

Pacific Islands

210_Dunedin, SE Coast SI, New Zealand
211_Ahipara, Northland NI, New Zealand
212_Santa Isabel, Malaita & Makira, Solomon
213_Majuro, Ralik Chain, Marshall Islands
214_Pohnpei, Micronesia
215_Kiritimati & Tabuaeran, Line Islands, Kiribati
216_Waikiki, Oahu South & West shores, Hawaii

North America

217_Sitka, Gulf of Alaska, USA
218_Tofino, Vancouver Island, Canada
219_Humboldt, California, USA
220_Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA
221_Great Lakes, USA

Central America & Carribean

222_San Miguel, Northern Baja, Mexico
223_Salina Cruz, East Oaxaca, Mexico
224_Punta Mango, Oriente Salvaje, El Salvador
225_Dominical, South Coast, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
226_Yumuri, Guantanamo, Cuba
227_Yallah’s, Jamaica
228_Cap Haitien, Haiti
229_Antigua & Barbuda, Leeward
230_Mount Irvine, Trinidad & Tobago

South America

231_Caracas, Vargas Coast, Venezuela
232_Pradomar, Caribbean Colombia
233_Nuqui, Pacific Colombia
234_Bermejo, Ancash, Peru
235_Ilo, Moquega, Peru
236_Totorallilo, Atacama_Region 3&4, Chile
237_Buchupureo, BioBio_Region 7&8, Chile
238_La Paloma, Rocha & Maldonado, Uruguay
239_Torres, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
240_Arari, Maranhão, Pororoca, Brazil

SriLankan Airlines Pro

Dhiraagu signs on as official partner premier WQS event

ASP 6-Star Prime Mens WQS event

Chaaya Island Dhonveli, Maldive Islands
8 - 14 June 2009

The Association of Surfing Professionals Australasia (ASP) and SriLankan Airlines are proud to announce that Dhiraagu, the number one telecom service provider in Maldives, has signed on as an official partner for the 2009 SriLankan Airlines Pro – Maldives.

“We are excited to once again partner with the premier telecom provider in the Maldives and the support provided by Dhiraagu is vital to the success of the SriLankan Airlines Pro – Maldives and ensures that people all around the world will be able to access up-to-date information and watch the event live,” said ASP Australasia Tour Manager Dane Jordan.

Dhiraagu will provide all International roaming capabilities for the event along with vital internet connections to allow daily press and the live video webcast to be broadcast to the world. “We are proud to be associated with such a magnificent sporting event and the live webcast showcases Dhiraagu’s advanced telecommunication networks” said Mr John Murray, Head of Marketing for Dhiraagu.

“Not only does this high quality live webcast highlight the great surf in the Maldives it also presents the magnificent tropical location to hundreds of thousands of people around the world and promotes our island paradise to the world.”

The SriLankan Airlines Pro is a 6 Star PRIME World Qualifying Series event and will run from 8th – 14th June, on Chaaya Island Dhonveli home to the world famous wave of Pasta Point.

The event will attract over 100 of the worlds best surfers including numerous former World Champions and current ASP World Junior Champion Kai Barger (HAW). Competitors will come from 5 different continents and over 15 different countries.

The 2009 SriLankan Airlines Pro is proudly sponsored by SriLankan Airlines, Maldives Tourism and Promotions, Atoll Travel, Dhiraagu, Atoll Adventures and ASP Australasia.

Ibu 1st place in Hikkaduwa contest

Hussain Areef (Ibu) took first place in the invitational surfing competition held in Sri Lanka to commemorate the their National Day early February.

















Eight Maldivian surfers competed in the competition. In addition to Maldivians, altogether 30 surfers from Sri Lanka, India, Japan, South Africa, Italy, France and Australia took part in the competition. A Sri Lankan surfer also managed to secure equal points with Ibu and secure a joint win.
















Ibu, 29, who has been surfing for 15 years, said that it was a huge win for him after having represented Maldives on the invitation of the Sri Lankan Surfing Association. Ibu had earlier won first place in a competition held in Thailand.















The Maldivian National team that took part in the competition was sponsored by former Sports Minister Mohamed Waheed-din.

Survival Course for Maldivian surf guides

In the last week of February 2009, Budget Surfing Maldives has facilitated a 'surf survival course' in association with the Life Saving Association, Maldivian Surfing Association and the youth ministry.







A qualified instructor from New Zealand did this course, specifically geared towards surf guides. It involves first aid, CPR (on land and in water), rescue swimming, on board rescue, getting people in a boat and other stuff that is useful for surf guides in Maldives.




It's pretty much the beach life saver course without the big paddle boards and flag signals, stuff that surfguides won't need or use in Maldives. With an estimated 25-30 surfguides in the country,there is no denying that it requires some qualification to ensure the safety of foreign surfing guests, whether on boats or resorts.


It was a great success with 15 guys from Malé attending the 4 days course, only costing 300 Rfs. (25 USD. All guys got a diploma from the Ministry of Youth. Big thanks to Joel de Zwaan to organize and sponsor that course.



.


www.budgetsurfingmaldives.com

Malé Raalhugandu March,2

Small 1ft playful evening surf with the Malé locals. Guys having fun on all kinds of wave riding vehicles. Rifu , Fayani, Issey, Bilu , Fuku, Nahu, waveski... Where is Ibu ? Photos : YEP




It’s early afternoon in Malé and the local surfers start to sit near Toscaloosa restaurant, ex “Wipe-out Café” to smoke a cigarette and watch the waves. Unless it’s Friday or the swell really clean, noone bothers to show up in the surf before noon apart from a few expats or occasionnal bodyboarders. There is a reason for that : morning is front lit and looking at the sets when the sun glares in your eyes is a tough job while afternoon gets a beautiful back lighting.

So the 2^nd generation hardcore locals usually gather in front of the spot, chat and take 1 hour or 2 to jump in the surf, usually altogether. The fact that kids get out of school around 3 pm adds a small boost in the lineup right after the 3h30pm prayer. By 06pm prayer that you can clearly hear from the water, the lineup is usually stuffed until dark at 06h30. Since the break aka “Raalhugandu” (literally the surfspot”) or Lonuziyaarai, as the named of the street which gets there, better works at low tide, sometimes the tide shift can influence that usual 3 pm rush.

Before 1992, when the Japanese helped Malé to prevent coastal erosion by dumping more than 3000 Tetrapods around the city, the surfspot was totally epic in the city : sometimes long perfect barrelling rights reeling along the southern point. Now, it’s more of a beachbreak kind of wave with longer and more rights but some vicious barrelling lefts when the swell gets over 6ft. The weird thing is swell starts bending outside and breaks in deep water and would be an ideal longboard wave but noone bothers to paddle out that far !

Ahmed Shihaz aka Mike is one of the main locals who started surfing 10 years ago. This regular footer is 30 now and has been studying 4 years Marine Biology in Malaysia. Since he could not find a job according to his studies, he finally made it as a surfguide in Dhonveli after a few boat trips as surfguide on Atoll Adventures boats. Until 2008, now he's back in town. There he is talking with his good friend Nahu, a real skinny guy with an afro type of hair and a really laid-back attitude that earns him the nickname of “Machado”. If you take a boat trip on Flying Fish, you’d probably have him as a softspoken surfguide, with a very fluid style. Obviously, Issey sits there also, waiting for his right time to get wet. Sometimes, you wonder how a 100,000 people super urban city like Malé does not nurture more surfers !

The first generation surfers like Naseem, Hunda (Abdullah Salim), Booga, Amin Didi or Big Mo have started surfing in the early 80’s in the direct wake of late Tony Hussein. Actually, most of those guys are from Kudafari in Noonu atoll and learn stand up surfing there when Tony Hussein was living on the island. Those early surfers don’t have the time to surf now and the 2^nd generation of surfers of the mid-90’s like the Areef family (Iboo has 5 brothers who surf named Fuku, Ibrey…), Ajey, Amu, Bilu, Faya, Adam, Sharum, Shani…and even a handful of girls. Out of the 100 members of MSA (Maldivian Surfing Association), there are about 80 from Malé who run a contest every year in June to decide the wildcards for the WQ

S. Among the best surfers, there is also Pelé, not taller than 5’3”, the natural footer who works at the Seasport shop, who went to China last year for the contest with Iboo and Fuku. Pelé loves backand barrels and surfs on a 5’4”. Actually, his colleague, Motta, is also a good surfer, but surfs less now that he’s older. The 3^rd generation are about half bodyboarders like Iman, Kunda Aya and when Malé is big, a good share of the lineup are bodyaboarders. Malé can be tricky to surf when big and stormy and can snap boards like chopsticks. A new board costs 800 USD in the shop, bodyboards don’t break… When it’s that big, there are other spots to surf like Rats shallow rights, near the main harbour or Vilingili super shallow rights but surf seems to be so consistent that most of the locals surf Raalhugandu and don’t charter a dhoni to North Malé legendary breaks so often. Some of those guys work as surfguide on the surf safari boats so they’re not surf-starved.

Generally, the ocean is not as wild as in the Pacific for example and Maldivians have been used to stay on land whenever the sea is too rough to navigate for example. Because of more sunshine and the traditionnal lack of food (malnutrition has been endemic up to the 60’s), lack of water, seamen can’t be daredevils like in Hawaii or French Polynesia and the result is that Maldivians are not big chargers, they feel more like skinny stylish surfers than heavy surf challengers.

Don’t get me wrong, Maldivians love surfing but because they’ve been secluded for so many centuries, they also enjoy now the modern world getting to their islands like mobile phones, satellite TV, trendy clothing so they really like to hang around the surf, chatting with friends and having fun at crazy wipe-outs while gazing at the glittering surf.

Crazy fuel prices and Euro / USD in 2008

Safari boat operating costs are strongly linked to the fuel price and can reach 25% of whole bills for those safari boats cruising a lot with high cruising speed. In 2008, fuel prices have gone crazy. Before the Olympics in China, it seemed that fuel reserves were dying and world fuel price went from 95usd for a barrel to 145usd in early July. It seemed that the overall world rising demand, along the higher needs from India and especially China, made the oil price hit the roof and sparkle some immediate inflation through all goods linked with transport : i.e food, everyday products, almost anything went up.

2008 - World oil price in USD

After the Chinese Olympics, the world financial crisis started to slow down the economy and the trend went so fast over the fall, that late December the fuel went down below 40usd, which is more a 300% decrease in 6 months ! It took a while for the fuel in Malé to decrease. After the last increase in June 2008 where a liter of fuel was 17.75 Rfs, it decreased 10 times over the second half of 2008. According to STO, it went down to 7.4 Rfs on November25.If the fuel price has decreased much, it seems that everyday goods have kept progressing and food is now more expensive in maldives despite the fuel price decrease. How come ?

2008 - Euro / USD rate

Another main factory for the Maldivian tourism economy based on 65% of european tourism is the euro rate. And it's been a year of yo-yo ! The Euro started in 2008 around 1.45 / 1.50 and made a quick ascent in spring, reaching 1.60usd late May and again in mid-august. Then, the financial and economical crisis through the european economy made the euro lose a lot of power against the dollar. It looks like investors have been playing with currencies so they can get the benefits they don't get anymore on companies, which have been losing a lot of their values. The lowest was hit late October and late December at 1.23usd. Since early December, the euro has gained power again and the main feature has been the almost parity of euro and british pound (now it's back to 1 euro = 0.90 pound). On Mid-December, the euro hit a peak at 1.47usd and went back early January in the 1.35 / 1.40 range, which will according to experts, should be the average rate for 2009. But as the same experts point out, fragility will be high and ups and downs will be significantly dramatic. So for those who have to pay their bills in Euros or dollars, you'd better keep an eye on that exchange rate.

www.stomaldives.com/news.html

Fewer surfers in the Maldives in 2009

According to World Surfaris, It is highly likely in 2009 that there will be fewer surfers in the Maldives than the last few years.

Worldsurfaris have teamed up with Singapore Airlines and all our Maldives operators to offer the best prices for 2009 to help combat the global economic downturn. Click on the banner below for a summary of the newly discounted Air inclusive packages to the Maldives.

www.worldsurfaris.com/cheapmaldives/