Surfing Maldives, Maldives Surf Charter- Waterways Travel

Remember the three bears? This surf is too hard, this surf is too soft, this surf is just right? The Maldives are just right: “The glimmering turquoise-colored waves here rarely get over 10 feet and lack the power found in Indonesia or Tahiti,” Matt Warshaw wrote in the Encyclopedia of Surfing. “but are shapely, perfectly groomed, and often hollow.”

While that is true for the surf in the northern atolls around Male, new discoveries in the Southern/Outer Atoll are revealing faster, more powerful, more challenging waves on par with the Mentawai – but without the crowds.

Most of the surf spots are on the east face of the Maldivian atolls, which cover about 600 miles from north to south, beginning just below the equator and running to 7° north. The government of the Maldives carefully controls access to the surf, to encourage the flow of tourist dollars into the country while minimizing the well-known downsides of surf tourism.

The main surfing area in the Maldives is the North and South Male Atolls. These are islands immediately to the north and south of the capital city of Male. The North Male Atoll generally picks up more swell and this is where the more famous spots are – from north to south: Chickens is a left, Cokes is a right, Pasta Point is the left at Chaya Island  Dhonveli Resort, which also has easy access to the left at Honky's, and the right at Sultans.

Those are just a few of the dozen spots in the atolls north of Male and there are just as many in the atolls to the south: Lucky Joes, Guru Lefts, Kates, Foxys, Riptides. All coral reefs, right or lefts, whatever you want, or whatever the wind is doing.

And beyond that are several more spots in the southern/outer atoll of Gaafu Dhaalu – places that are restricted by the government and accessible only by permitted yachts.

The Maldives has surf for almost all levels of surfers, from the more advanced beginner to the more advanced expert!