\u201cI was 17 when I first saw people riding waves standing up,\u201d Hussain Areef tells me as we stroll along the timber boardwalk on Kuda Huraa island. \u201cIt was intriguing \u2013 I wanted to try it out too.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not really surprising that surfing was such a revelation since at that time the rest of the world was still struggling to accept even the vague possibility that there might be waves in Maldives.<\/p>\n
After all, this archipelago of 1,200 islands was primarily famous for its smooth, crystal-clear waters and kaleidoscopic reefs. When the first photos began to appear in international surf magazines, surfers all over the world assumed that there had been a typo or a hoax.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve just left our grandly luxurious stilted villas and as we walk along the boardwalk a small blacktip reef shark prowls lithely through the shallows. But this is Maldives and in the manicured version of a tropical paradise that is Four Seasons Kuda Huraa even the grinning sharks seem welcoming.<\/p>\n
Hussain Areef \u2013 who goes by the nickname Iboo \u2013 also has a smile on his face and a glint in his eye. He\u2019s famous throughout the islands as a multiple-winner of the Maldives Surfing Championships and today he feels that he\u2019s finally seeing his country take its rightful place as a respected surf destination.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re heading up to the little jetty on the private island to catch a boat for what is certainly the most high-profile event in the history of Maldivian surfing. This is the final day of the Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy, an exclusive invitation-only surf contest featuring local hero Iboo and five of the sport\u2019s legendary names.<\/p>\n
During the last few days dreadlocked \u2018drifter\u2019 Rob Machado has been battling it out for mastery of Maldives\u2019s finest surf-spot against fellow-Americans Ross Williams and Taylor Knox and legendary Hawaiian big-wave charger Shane Dorian. I\u2019d been invited along to cover the event for an American magazine and had already landed at Velana International Airport and caught the Four Seasons speedboat up to the resort on North Mal\u00e9 Atoll when I was told that a final competitor had been confirmed for the event. Kelly Slater \u2013 who has surely travelled to most of the world\u2019s greatest surf venues during the course of a career that saw an unprecedented 11 world championship wins \u2013 was flying in to get his first taste of Maldivian waves.<\/p>\n
The plan was that later in the week the five pros would have a chance to set off on an exclusive seaplane surfari to explore some of Maldives\u2019 lesser-known surf-spots. It\u2019s astounding that an archipelago that was believed to be entirely free of waves two decades ago should now have at least 40 well-known and well-documented surf-spots.<\/p>\n
The king of the Maldivian breaks is said to be the spot known as Sultans, where waves wrap around the southern end of palm-tree-covered Thanburudhoo Island. And a handful of the world\u2019s best surfers had flown here to battle for the crown of Sultans.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 1995 some friends and I went on a surf trip on a dhoni [a local fishing boat] to surf perfect overhead waves at Sultans,\u201d Iboo told me as we motored out to the reef with our boards stacked in the Four Seasons boat. \u201cI was hooked. I\u2019d never seen a wave that long.\u201d<\/p>\n
The charging right-hand walls often stretch for 200 metres. Even Australian surfer James Cotton had been impressed by Sultans he told me when we chatted over cocktails at the Four Seasons pool the evening before: it was praise indeed because Cotton holds the Guinness World Record for the longest wave ever surfed (a ride of 17.2 kilometres on the Bono River tidal bore in Sumatra in 2016).<\/p>\n
Clearly Maldives was attracting more than its share of surfing legends these days but it was not just the star-studded line-up that made the contest unique. The five pro surfers were being challenged to surf on boards that represented much of the evolution of surfing. They would be tackling the waves on single-fins (icons of the 1960s), twin-fins (with which Mark Richards revolutionised surfing in the 1970s) as well as the modern thrusters (3-fin setup \u2018invented\u2019 by Simon Anderson) in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
(These were clearly forward-thinking and open-minded surfers but the thruster has remained virtually unchanged for the last 40 years. Perhaps surfing would have a more innovative outlook if more surfers \u2013 especially veteran wave-warriors who have little left to prove \u2013 were invited to test their skills from time to time on more revolutionary shapes. Perhaps even downright bizarre designs or the super-fast new parabolic boards<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, Slater \u2013 who\u2019s known as the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) \u2013 won the event overall but even for him the battle was often a tough one. After the twin-fin heat I was standing at the back of the Four Seasons Explorer surf-charter boat when Shane Dorian came aboard: \u201cI beat The Goat man!\u201d he called with a big smile. \u201cI’ll take that!\u201d<\/p>\n Slater was smiling too \u2013 the pair surfed their first competition together as groms 38 years ago and he had officially credited Dorian as one of his major influences.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Maldives is an incredible region to come surf,\u201d Dorian said during cocktail hour at the resort bar. \u201cI have been coming here since I was about 20 years old, and the wave quality and water clarity and vibe is amazing. And Sultans is incredibly reliable, consistent and super high-performance \u2013 it\u2019s the perfect venue for a surf competition. It\u2019s just so cool to be here with our little group of friends, and to be here with Iboo as well, surfing with and against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the fact that the wave breaks onto an entirely uninhabited island (as many as a thousand of Maldives\u2019s islands remain uninhabited) Sultans can sometimes get crowded with surfers arriving on boats from various resorts. I surfed every afternoon with the expert surf-guides from Tropicsurf and one afternoon I found myself in the blissful state of absolute solitude. It was the end of a long and perfect session and my guide had paddled off to hail a boat back to the resort. I had time to catch three perfectly peeling head-high breakers that ripped across the mottled reef. It was the first time I\u2019d surfed in Maldives and it was enough to make me curse the years I\u2019d spent assuming that these picturesque coral atolls could not also harbour perfect waves.<\/p>\n On the other side of the peak lay the lefthand wave known as Honky\u2019s. The story of how two Australian surfers \u2013 Tony \u2018Honky\u2019 Hinde and Mark \u2018Scanno\u2019 Scanlon \u2013 were shipwrecked here when the yacht they were on (sailing from Sri Lanka to South Africa) hit a reef is part of surfing lore. For a decade or so Maldives remained surfing\u2019s best-kept secret and Hinde fell in love and married a Maldivian lady.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a kid people viewed surfers as bums,\u201d Iboo told me after the contest was over. \u201cWe used to sneak out of the house to go surfing. Even went to the length of dressing in normal clothes and changing to surf clothes stored at friends’ houses near the beach. We\u2019d go out for a surf then return home like nothing happened. People are more aware of the sport and the benefits it has for the country. Attitudes have changed.\u201d<\/p>\n It seemed that many attitudes had changed during the last week too: \u201cI\u2019m really surprised there\u2019s not a World Tour event here,\u201d said Kelly Slater after he won the contest. \u201cThe waves are beautiful, they\u2019re playful but it\u2019s really high-performance surf. It\u2019s one of those places that I want to come back to year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n