Maldives Trip Report

Just got back from 8 days in the Maldives. This was our honeymoon, so I didn't surf as much as I could have, but I was in the water enough to be satisfied.
In Short, it was absolutely amazing.

It was pricier than my other trips (Bali, Africa, etc), but it was a honeymoon, so I had no issue spending some extra cash. I will say this; working with Wavehunters sucked. They were not responsive & messed up the room reservation, which caused some headaches upon arrival. I'm awaiting a refund from them, which I'll probably be lucky to see.

Wave quality & consistency was the best I've seen anywhere - 8 days of Head High or Better, with clean conditions 75% of the time. The other 25% had sideshore winds and were still very much surfable, but with some chop. I did not see onshore winds as any point during the trip. Tides did not seem to affect the breaks as much as other places.

Everything we surfed was reef breaks, although the reefs lacked the sharp cutting edges found in Bali / Indo.

A few years ago, a friend and I considered the Maldives for a surf trip, but ended up going to Bali instead; at the time, we figured Maldives would be mostly honeymooners and couples. If your looking for single, promiscuous women, happy endings, drugs, and raging nightlife, the Maldives is not your place. But I personally wouldn't hesitate to make a guys trip out of it if you going to surf, drink, and relax.

I'm not an expert on the place, but if you have any questions, I can offer my advice, just shoot me a PM.

 

a few more details:

The resort we stayed at was Hudhuran Fushi, which has Lohi's left out front. It was the most economical, while still being nice enough for the honeymoon. All food and drink was included in the package.

Crowds - Lohi's is exclusive to Hudhuran Fushi resort, and they limit the amount of wristbands they sell to 45/day (pay to surf). So there is a max of 45 guys at the break at a time - The most I counted was around 20, and the lineup is pretty well regulated. A few drop ins here and there, but again, everyone surfing there is staying on the small island, so no one was agro or confrontational.

They ran a boat trip at 9 AM and 3 PM each day, which usually went to a right hand break since Lohi's is a left - Jails, Sultans, Ninjas, or Cokes. These breaks don't have a limit, and can get crowded since the island resorts/camps and other boats (including the charters) may be there as well. The most crowded had about 30 guys on it, but you could still grab plenty of waves if you were in the right position. We scored Sultans with a total of 8 guys.

Sometimes they'd have 2-3 boats leave the island, which would leave Lohi's nearly empty; plenty of times when Lohis was firing and less than 5 guys out.

 

The flights sorta sucked:

Left JFK at 4 PM for a ~12 hour flight to Dubai - 12 hour layover in Dubai, so we went out in the city for the afternoon/evening. We have been there already, so had a few places we wanted to go and a decent dinner. Dubai definitely isn't my thing, but it was something to do instead of sitting in the airport.
Flight from Dubai to Male put us in the Maldives at 8 AM, which was perfect - we adjusted immediately to the time difference, and would try to get there in the morning if I did the trip again.

We were able to book one flight with credit card points, the other in cash. Flew Emirates, which has NO board bag fees