Surfing in Maldives - Overview

7/30/2019 Surfing in Maldives - Overview

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MALDIVES SURFING ASSOCIATION 2013

MSA & SURFING IN MALDIVES

SURFING IN MALDIVESOVERVIEWBY MALDIVES SURFING ASSOCIATION



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Surng is reedom - A majority o surers chose the surng liestyle to getaway rom the daily grind and the routines o “civilization”. In Hawaii, thebirthplace o surng, it was considered the sport o kings. The king (or chie )would have the biggest surboard as a symbol o his status. But everyonesured. When the waves came, everyone would take a break rom their dailywork and take to the ocean to ride waves and have un. Men, women andchildren. It would be a estival o wave riding, good ood, music, dancing andsinging. And the Hawaiians enjoyed this in an open, ree spirited way. Modernsurngevolved rom this and many modern surers adopted the ree spirited liestyleo the ancient Polynesians; who considered playing and having un just asimportantas working; who depended on the sea or survival (like Maldivians);and who were very much in tune with nature, (like Maldivians once were).

The sport/liestyle o surng is very connected to the rhythms o nature andsurers have to be adaptable, patient and in tune with nature. Surers’ lives arecontrolled by the earth’s revolutions around the sun. And the moon’s orbitingo the earth. Not by the man made cycles o the 24 hour clock. Surers dependon the sun heating up the earth and the consequential movement o wind,churning up storms that make the waves. Then the moon brings the righttides to make those waves sur-able. Unless nature gives us waves, we can’t

sur. Even then, or the perect wave to orm, other actors such as the sea-oor, localwinds and currents all have to come together just the right way.

People have been surng in the Maldives or ages. Earlier, Maldivian surers wereregarded as lazy, immoral and useless people (sort o like the “Vakarugey kudhin” inMale’. And, more recently, as a bunch o drug addicts) who wasted their time playing

in the ocean instead o spending their time trying to secure materialistic wealth (Onedoes not need to have much to sur. At its most basic orm, the only things a surerneeds to have is a breaking wave and the ability to swim to catch waves using his/her body as a surboard). While most o “civilized society” dream o having expensivehouses, cars, iphones, or holidaying in lavish hotels close to shopping malls... etc,mostsurers dream o riding perect waves and barrels. And we, Maldivian surers, don’teven have to go anywhere else to nd these treasures. These barrelsand perect waves are right in our “backyards”.

Surng was only taken seriously in the Maldives when people started realizing thatthere was money to be made rom it: When Tony Hussain Hinde introduced the idea

o sur tourism. Even then it was not seen as a great sport or a healthy way to live, butas a way to charge some more dollars rom tourists.

Not including sur tourism (which is becoming bigger in the Maldives: a large part o our national income is rom tourism) but simply considering who we are: a peopleliving at the mercy o the sea, on tiny islands that are barely above sea-level, one cansee how important and useul surng can be to us, because surng teaches oceansaety and how to care or this type o natural habitat.Furthermore, surng in the Maldives is growing as a competitive sport. Our surersare already proving themselves to be ormidable competitors and skillul athletes,by winning medals and trophies in various international surng competitions in theregion.

Surng is part o our culture and traditions. It is a very pure, ree and natural sport.Even dolphins sur. Wave riding is a very graceully act; tapping into nature’s energy,gliding and owing with the pulses o the ocean. In this sense, surng ismore an art or a dance orm than a sport. It is a way o living and a way o thinking.You can throweverything and jump into the sea, naked, without a board, and i there are wavesbreaking, you will be able to sur it. Just like a dolphin.

“WAVES ARE

TOYS FROMGOD”



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IS SURFINGimportant

TO MALDIVES?

F ccy vg h :

Nature’s Git

Traditional Sport / Activity

Surfng contributes a good sum directly to te economy ( SeedaaRaiyitu meeaa jeeba dollaru)

Teaces one about our environment: te ocean, te sea lie, te seasons,rees, winds, tides, currents... etc.

Creates more awareness to te canging climate.

It prepares us or surviving in te ocean. (Our main mode o travel is byboat. We sail in roug seas over treacerous rees. Accidents appen.)

It eeps one ft: surers ave to be pysically ft and ave to be goodswimmers.

Got Talent

WhY



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COMPETITION LOCAL / INTERNATIONAL

ATHLETES

PROTECT & PRESERVE SURF BREAKS

TRAINING

RESORT

LIVE ABOARD

GUEST HOUSE

SURFING

IN MALDIVES

MSA &

TOURISM

FREE SURFING

COMPETIVE SURFING

ENVIRONMENT

BREAKDOWN

WAVES

SURFING IN MALDIVES

A LIMITED

RESOURCENeeds To Be Regulated

Looked After

Passed On



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problems- Unplanned dredging and excavation is destroying the rees,altering the sea oor and ocean currents, which greatly reduce thequality o the waves and sur breaks.

- Since the sur breaks are not monitored and maintained properly,boats damage the rees by anchoring and because o rubbishbeing thrown overboard. (Plus, the breaks become over-crowded.)

ThE

ENVIRONMENT- Maldives is blessed with rees that orm perect surng waves. These reesare very ragile and ull o lie and they need to be preserved and protectedi surng is to be sustained (both as a way o earning a living via tourism, andas a sport). These rees also attract another large group o tourists: divers.

- The seas o Maldives are very clean and clear. It is important to keep theoceans clean i we want to sur in it saely. In many parts o the world, oceanpollution is keeping surers out o the water due to diseases and inections. I we pollute our oceans we will lose tourism.

- Limited Resource

solutions- list breaks to be protected and preserved / national or worldheritage.

- Enorce developers to do proper and detailed “environmentimpact” studies and act according to the best way to protect theenvironment and maintain the quality o the waves.

- Have a proper buoy system that the boats can use instead o anchors and orbid the use o anchors at sur breaks. This willprotect the rees rom anchor damage and it can limit the number

o boats that can sur at any given sur break (preventing over-crowding).

- Needs a monitoring system



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- COMPETITIVE- Maldives has the perect training grounds or competitive surng. Our

waves are long and perectly shaped to train or and to host top levelsurng competitions.

- We do not have to spend to build training grounds and stadiums or the

sport o surng. Nature has gited us with very high quality “stadiums”.

problems- Resorts claim exclusive rights to sur breaks. Waves are a limitedresource and accessible, good quality sur breaks are very ew. Allo these sur breaks should, rightly, be accessible to all local surers(especially i they are to become skillul enough to compete in thehighest level o surng and become proessional surers).

- Coaches, judges, event organizers... etc, are sorely lacking.

- Sur boards and surng accessories are expensive and hard to nd.

- FREE - Keep “the kids of the streets”.

- Healthy, active sport.

- Teaches to respect the environment

SURFINGsolutions- Make all the sur breaks accessible to all surers. Additionally, some o these rees should be “public spaces” (which are sorely lacking in theMaldives) and protected (recreational) areas that are open to everyone.

- Create programs to train coaches, judges, event organizers... etc.

- Teach locals to shape boards.



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- The waves o Maldives attract surers because o their perect shape andlength and because o our pristine oceans. (Tourists also want to come herebecause they have been inormed, by alse advertisements, that our wavesare not crowded with surers.)

- Sur tourism is a way or many o us to earn a living. It creates jobs: inresorts, saari boats, guests houses, git shops... etc.

problems- Over-crowding: waves and sur breaks are limited and can only handle acertain number o surers on any given day. Right now, there is no limit/capto the number o surers (tourists) on any island, sur break or guest house.Currently, the over-crowding situation is getting out o hand. Nobody likes tosur in crowds and, as a result, Maldives is rapidlåy losing its appeal as a greatsurng destination.

- Foreigners taking jobs that should rightully belong to Maldivians: Somesurers come to Maldives on tourist visas but actually work (and get paid) assur guides on boats, resorts and guest houses. There are local surers betterqualied to work as sur-guides but they do not get these jobs because o illegal, oreign sur guides. Even the locals who are employed as sur-guides getsalaries that are considerably less than the oreign sur-guides (or doing thesame job). Furthermore, the money being paid to oreign sur guides is moneythat goes out o the country.

- Exclusive Sur breaks in resorts: Surer numbers keeps increasing but thenumber o reely accessible sur breaks are decreasing. As new resorts are beingbuilt, they all claim “exclusive rights” to the waves of o their island rees. Whichmeans that only the surers who are staying on those resorts can sur thosesur breaks. Fair enough? But the surers on those resorts are ree to go to anyother “public” sur break and crowd that place. In a lot o cases this means thatlocal surers, surers on saari boats and surers rom guest houses, all have tocompete with the surers coming rom “exclusive” resorts to get waves. But noneo these other surers (locals, saari boats, guest houses) can go to the resort andsur “their” waves. Not air to the locals, the saari boats and guest houses.

solutions- The government has to make rules that put a limit on the number surers inany island/guest house/ saari boats... etc (limiting the number o surers inthe line up). This will prevent the places rom over-crowding which in turn willkeep the value o Maldives as a prime surng location.

- Immigration and tourism ministry need to enorce legality. Foreigners who

work here without the proper permissions need to be penalized. A minimumwage has to be acquired and locals should be given priority or these jobs.

- Enorce rules that ensure that sur-guides are properly trained and certied.

- Make all sur breaks accessible to everyone. OR i the resorts want to keeptheir breaks exclusive to their in house guests, then withhold their right to sur at any other sur break apart rom their “own”. This seems air or all the guesthouses and saari boats who otherwise have to deal with surersrom these “exclusive” resorts coming to “their” waves andovercrowding the place.

TOURISM



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TRUThFULLY, A WAVE DOES NOT BELONG TO ANYONE.

YOU CAN’T hOLD IT IN YOUR hANDS, YOU CAN’T PUT

A FENCE AROUND IT, YOU CAN’T CAGE IT... IT DOESN’T

EVEN LAST LONGER ThAN A FEW SECONDS. IT’S hERE

ONE SECOND AND GONE ThE NExT.

WAVES ShOULD BE FREE, LIkE ThE SPIRIT

OF SURFING. BECAUSE WAVES ARE ThE

TOYS FROM GOD.



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Dear Bongo,

You are doing an awesome job with this mate and I applaud your passion or this issue. I am very happy or you to provide my statistics provided (basiscally this shows that these days nearly 50% o the saa ri

boats in the Maldives try to turn their hand to Sur charters business in the previous of season rom May-Oct. So many o these boats were previously sitting around Hulamale beore however they now have

the opportunity or 12 months work combining the Dive season (Oct-Apr) & Sur Season (Apr-Oct).

Please use my name and contact details on the presentation:

I have put together the ollowing data also to assist your cause:

i 2012 Wd sf cd f kg fw:

¥ oc Dc (70% cccy) 176 x @ vg y f u$2000 f 7 gh (x. us$352K)

¥ m Ch (70% cccy) 155 x @ y f us$1500 f 7 gh (x. us$233K)

¥ Hdh-Fh ch (92% cccy) 210x @ y f us$950 f 7 gh (x us$200k)

¥ Hdh ch (80% cccy) 110 x @ y f us$2100 f 11 gh (x us$231k)

ax d y Wd sf 2012 f 651 x f nh m f ch f my oc (6 h) 2012 = $1,016,000

In 2013 season we had budgeted or a 10% increase in this HOWEVER i Sur breaks o Sultans & Honkies at Thamburdhoo are deemed out o bounds to boat charter guests then I envisage at lease 50% o

these guests will cancel. This will cause great harm to the economy and the livelihood o these boat owners, their crew, the provision stores etc.

World Suraris is just one o numerous international Sur Travel agencies promoting sur charters in the Maldives and we only operate 4 boats out o a vast number o boats marketing towards surers.

The economic impact will be great and many surers will look urther abroad or trips.

Already there is worldwide outrage in the international surng community as seen on major sur orums such as http://www.swellnet.com.au/news/3144-maldives-close-out-sultans-and-honkys-to-become-

exclusive-resort-waves with comments to the efect: “Well there’s only one logical truth coming rom this thread...The trip we’ve been planning to the Maldives, at considerable expense, will not produce the

uncrowded, great waves we anticipated. So we’ll look elsewhere. We’d heard it had become crowded rom a ew sources, but this thread really conrms it. And the spin rom the industry that boat charters

get you to remote, uncrowded spots appears to be unlikely in the Maldives.”

At this rate the Maldives will become the laughing stock o the international surng community and MANY surers worldwide will BOYCOTT a nation that allows control to big business over god’s own Ocean.

The only logical solution is to protect this CROWN LAND o Thamburudhoo or the good o the nation.

I am available or discussion at any time regarding this issue.

Best Regards

Shaun Levings

Managing Director

World Suraris

[email protected] +61408691025AN EMAIIL FROM A CONCERNED BOAT OPERATOR

Documents

Surfing in Maldives - Overview