ATOLL ADDICTION

The word ‘atoll’ derives from the Maldivian word atolu.

There is no better place in our world to cruise a sea of picture-postcard perfect tropical atolls than the Maldives, nestled just above the Equator in the central northern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Taking a cruise onboard Four Seasons Explorer is to enter into a five-star class of surf travel probably unmatched anywhere else on the planet.

For a limited number of weeks each year during April to October, premium waves season in the Maldives, the big luxury catamaran (usually the domain of divers) is given over to a limited number of surfers.

This exclusive package was developed by Noosa-based Tropicsurf. It has some extra special features, including two onboard surf coaches who not only help lift your standard of surfing during the trip but also provide a unique bank of knowledge of a string of secret breaks across the southern atolls of the Maldives. This guarantees an incredible variety of great quality uncrowded waves.

There is an onboard video cameraman with his own edit suite who will present you with a fully-soundtracked, professionally produced DVD movie of your dream surf trip as a parting gift at the end of the week.  And that’s just one of a number of great surf gifts and surprises you’ll get on the trip as part of the tour package.

The luxurious features of the Four Seasons Explorer, coupled with the other services and activities available onboard, means this is also the one surf tour which will appeal to your partner. ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ has become a well-worn travel cliché but this trip more than fulfils that promise.

The type of people you’ll share this experience with will be varied, interesting and fun. longbreak’s tour group ranged in age from the mid 20s to early 50s and included: a mortgage broker from California; hedge fund trader from Sydney; lawyer from Birmingham, UK; financial adviser from Wollongong; printing company owner from Noosa; American investment banker from Tokyo and his wife, a model; a law graduate from San Francisco with his wife, a flight attendant; and a retired lawyer from Newport Beach, California whose family own a restaurant on Las Vegas’ famed strip.

Note: Shoes are banned onboard Four Seasons Explorer! With only washed teak outside decks, a polished teak floor in the dining room and deep-pile carpet elsewhere, it is amazing how a week sans footwear can max the de-stress/relaxation factors.
The boat and the service
Four Seasons Explorer is a remarkable sea craft. It was built in 2002 at Henderson, near Perth, now a leading world centre for the development and construction of large catamarans. The boat’s luxury interior was fitted out in Singapore.

Its primary specifications are impressive: length 39 metres (128 foot); beam 12 metres; maximum draft 1.709 metres; average cruising speed 15 knots; maximum speed 17 knots; maximum displacement 230 tonnes; fuel capacity 36,500 litres; fresh water capacity 5,000 litres (from its own desalination plant).

The Main Deck features ten stateroom cabins for 20 passengers, plus the aft diving and recreation equipment areas. The upper deck features the al fresco dining area with bar and outdoor spa/whirlpool, galley, swish indoor dining room and bar and a large, enticingly comfortable, lounge area, plus the Explorer Suite forward. Up one more level the top deck  has a sun deck with massage area, cabins for the Captain and a few senior crew, communications and AV room and the space-age bridge. The rest of the crew’s quarters are out of sight below the waterline in the catamaran’s two hulls.

Up to 22 passengers are accommodated onboard – looked after by 25 super friendly crew members.

The crew quota includes a fully qualified dive instructor, a marine biologist and a spa therapist.

The beautifully-appointed air-conditioned twin staterooms on the main deck have their own ensuite bathroom and toilet. Each bedroom features two big bay windows, a double settee, small writing desk, fully-stocked bar fridge and colour TV with DVD/CD player – in the main lounge, a large library of movies and music is available to borrow and play in your cabin. The bathroom features French toiletries, including moisturising after-sun skin balms.

Passengers are also greeted on arrival by an ice bucket in their cabins with two chilled bottles of home-made lemonade and orangeade. Unlimited bottled water is provided free of charge throughout the trip.

Fresh fruits available daily in cabins include such exotic varieties as sapodilla, mangosteen, rambutan and persimmon.

On the upper deck, the Explorer Suite accommodates two passengers in a super luxury cabin the size of a small city apartment. It features spectacular views of sunsets and passing atolls through eight large, raked windows looking forward.
This floating five-star hotel is under the control of former Royal Australian Navy Commander Chris Ellis, who helped design it and oversaw its construction and fit out. While passengers sleep the skipper maintains a 24/7 watch on the bridge, even when at anchor.

A feast of uncrowded waves
Travellers to the Maldives are always amazed by the water conditions.

The seas are sparkling and the water is stunningly crystal clear. With a year-round air temperature of about 30deg C, sea temperature of about 28deg C, and constant offshore Trade Winds from March-October, you can virtually surf all day, every day, in the surf months. This period is also the rainy season but any wind squalls or showers are generally irregular and tend to pass quickly.

Tides will not stop you surfing in the Maldives because reefs get too shallow – as happens in Indonesia. However, the full moon does bring strong currents for a few hours on some days which can cut surfing time.

Up until relatively recent times, the mantra had been that North Malé atoll featured the only high quality waves in the Maldives. But the growing reputation of this area has seen increasing crowds from the local island surf resorts and an expanding number of surf tour boats operating in this area.

The Four Seasons Explorer trip will give you a few sessions first-up in these exceptional spots such as Sultans, Jails, Cola’s, Honkeys and Chickens – rights and lefts which hold shape from shoulder height to challenging double overhead, or sometimes even bigger. Nearby, too, is Ninja’s, if you want to start your holiday with an easy take-off, head-high, long-walling, ideal Malibu wave.

A live-aboard boat journey gives you the flexibility to sample more breaks – mechanically peeling waves over contoured reefs far away from any crowds.

Another aspect which makes the Four Seasons Explorer experience so unique is that, every few nights after dinner, the skipper weighs anchor and motors further south while the passengers sleep. In the morning you wake up somewhere completely new with great waves and nobody else in sight.

Each morning the surf guides take a high-speed rubber ducky out to reconnoitre the nearby locations of the uncrowded southern atoll areas which Tropicsurf has identified. Some spots work on different swell sizes and swell directions.

After the passengers have enjoyed breakfast, the surf guides return and offer a selection of two spots every morning: different breaks suitable for longboarders and shortboarders; rights and lefts; some small-to-moderate in terms of size; others bigger with more challenging take-offs and sections.

The biggest was a Sunset-like right peak with some double-overhead sets – thrilling drops on the take-off and fast sections, but not with the body-threatening ferocity or savage reefs of places like Indonesia.

Other days included: sessions at an offshore reef which jacked up to just above head high and pitched a fun-barrelling right with cover ups and cutbacks for both Mal riders and shortboarders; and then, at another location, a super fast, peeling left. There were also long, walling, down-the-line classic longboard waves, ranging from shoulder height to overhead and pumping. Friendly take-offs, carving bottom turns, high turns, nose-riding performance and fun. Tropicsurf also took some soft-top boards along for lessons for inexperienced surfers – ideal at these locations.

With 14 surfers onboard our trip (including the two surf guides) and the group usually split between two spots each session – with some locations having two take-off positions – our ‘crowd’ was usually spread out and thinned out. Waves were shared. If you missed out on a set, another would be along soon. With at least two sessions each day of up to three hours each, everybody got their full waves quota.

Getting to and from the surf locations was by two rubber duckies, a small whaler or a larger wooden dhoni. A surf guide always accompanies each group in the water and at least one boat stays with each group at all times. Chilled bottled water is available at all times – including while you surf.

The Dhoni is the main means of transport for the people of the Maldives. Hand-built locally of painted timber, almost flat bottomed with a shallow draft, a few feet of freeboard, wide deck, broad flat roof for shade and storage and with a low-powered  diesel engine.

But the Dhoni built for Four Seasons Explorer is in a class of its own. Specially fitted out for carrying surfboards, diving gear and fishing equipment, it is bigger than the usual local craft and features beautifully crafted, high-quality polished timbers. It has a GPS navigation system, echo sounder, state-of-the-art two-way radio communications, coffee-making machine, ice boxes and a toilet. Climbing back onboard the Dhoni after a session, surfers are offered cut fresh fruit and cold water and can relax on the roof on rubber mattresses for the gentle trip back to the mother ship. It’s just another unique element on this week in surf paradise.

Arriving back onboard Four Seasons Explorer, deck crew handle the transfer of boards while weary surfers enjoy hot showers from hand-held hoses on the aft deck landing. Rashies and boardshorts are draped on hangers in their own rack to dry in the open air. Booties, wax, wax combs, legropes and any other gear is stowed in boxes under benches and marked with the individual surfer’s name.

Then it is upstairs to the outside bar to make a selection from the range of cold, imported beers before dinner.
This is not too hard to take as a daily regimen!

Oh, and if you happen to come back from a surf with a ding in your board, tell the crew and the damage will be repaired by the following morning!

Other things to do
The Maldives tourism industry is mainly centred on its world-renowned diving.

Some 800 tropical reef fish species can be seen while diving off its atolls. Giant manta rays and huge sea turtles abound. While small reef sharks teem in these waters, large sharks are relatively rare and there has never been an attack in the Maldives.

Four Seasons Explorer features a full PADI dive centre, with all equipment provided – even underwater cameras for hire.

Scuba diving lessons and both day and night dives are available with the dive instructor. The marine biologist delivers onboard lectures and accompanies divers to help point out species and special underwater features.

Accompanied snorkelling expeditions are provided free.

In March 1998, the waters of the Maldives experienced a temporary rise in temperature associated with an El Nino occurrence for a period of about two weeks. This caused mass coral bleaching, leaving the reefs dull grey or brown. Some scientists believe this environmentally destructive phenomenon is related to the Greenhouse Effect. While some reefs have now started to recover, it is feared it could take decades before the once spectacular blaze of underwater colours returns to all the Maldives’ coral reefs.

Other water sports available to passengers are kayaking, windsurfing, wake-boarding, water skiing and fun-tubing.

Expeditions for handline or rod fishing, or even deep sea game fishing, can be arranged too.

There are also shore excursions to nearby island fishing villages to experience the local culture and people. Or just to set foot on the white beach of an uninhabited island with nobody else in sight can be quite a buzz.

Alternatively, passengers can just kick back, relax in the upper deck lounge and watch Hollywood features or surf movie DVDs on the big plasma screen, or look through the large collection of books and magazines. Then there are massages in a screened area of the top deck – Indian healing, diver relaxation or island dreaming, plus hair and feet. treatments.
A culinary adventure
A journey on Four Seasons Explorer is also a culinary adventure. German chef Vitali Gebel came to Four Seasons from the celebrated London kitchens of Britain’s Gordon Ramsay – the only chef to ever earn seven Michelin stars.

The first night onboard and the Captain’s Dinner began with complimentary French Taittinger champagne and hors d’oeuvre as we stood on the upper deck at sunset chatting and getting to know our surf shipmates for the next week. We were then seated at tables on the outside al fresco dining area for the meal which was accompanied by a selection of fine French and Australian wines … and what a meal.

Any doubts about whether Vitali could maintain this sort of standard for the week were dispelled with lunch the next day and a yum-level which was to be maintained for the whole week.

Every lunch menu was new and different. Other dinners featured Indian, Thai, Italian and BBQ grill menus. They were all sensational.

Breakfast began each day with a selection from the superb buffet bar in the inside dining area and with the choice of eating al fresco watching the rising sun or staying cool in the air conditioning. The kitchen also prepares eggs to order in any way that take your fancy and fresh-cooked strawberry or banana pancakes.

Lunch was taken inside in the dining room in the heat of the day – starting with salads and other delights from the buffet and then selecting from superb multi-choice menus which changed daily.

Restaurant manager, Arief, and his two stewards ensured great service, like providing hot and refreshing lime-infused face towels just before serving lunch and dinner, or making up fresh-brewed espresso coffee or teas to order.

Each afternoon between lunch and dinner, chef Vitali also produced a series of cakes which can only be described as either spectacular or just plain splendid.


How to get there
Getting to the Maldives from Australia is best on Singapore Airlines, connecting through Singapore. The airline provides direct flights from all Australian capitals to Singapore. The 2,111km night-time flight from Singapore to Malé takes between 4hrs 25mins and 4hrs 45mins, depending on weather conditions. Return flights leave Male’ late at night and arrive in Singapore early next morning. You can book flights direct with Singapore Airlines, your own agent or through Tropicsurf Travel.

Island transit stopover
Travellers to the Maldives from Australia face a long journey connecting through Singapore and a late night arrival at Malé International Airport. A great soloution for the overnight stay is the Hulhule Island Hotel situated less than five few minutes’ drive from the airport passenger terminal exit. The hotel provides a free pick up for passengers, surfboards and luggage.

Opened in 2000, the Hulhule is four-star standard and affiliated to the Singapore Airlines network. The 88-room hotel is located right on the water with spacious gardens and a large lap pool. It has a good quality 24 hour restaurant and the best-equipped new gymnasium in the Maldives – a great way to unwind while you wait for the early afternoon pick-up to be transported to the Four Seasons Explorer. The hotel also provides a regular free ferry shuttle for the ten-minute crossing of the harbour to the adjacent bustling capital city of Malé, if you want to soak up some local colour and culture.

Your week-long Four Seasons Explorer holiday will end with a mid morning disembarkation from the boat. That will still leave the rest of the final day to fill before a late evening flight out of Malé – for those headed back to Australia via Singapore. Flights out to other countries depart earlier in the day.

The five-star resort, Four Seasons Maldives at Kuda Huraa in North Malé, sustained severe damage as a result of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Reconstruction will be completed and the resort will reopen in early 2006. Tropicsurf tour members will be able to spend the balance of the final day at this world-class resort, relaxing and enjoying its amenities.


MALDIVES SIDE BAR STORY _ FACTS
Maldives Facts

Australians tend to pronounce it: ‘Mal – Dives’ … but the correct local pronunciation is:
‘Moll – Deeves’.
The country has a population of about 250,000 people. Malé, with some 65,000 people jammed onto this one small island, is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
The country officially comprises 1,192 coral islands (of which only some 200 are inhabited)  – none of them are more than a couple of kilometres across, with the biggest being 8km long.  (The number of islands could be doubled but the many small sand shoals with no vegetation are not counted as being islands.)

The country has a total land area of 298 sq km. The islands start from about 600 km south-west of Sri Lanka and its 26 atolls stretch almost due south 754 km long and 118 km across down to the Equator.

The Maldives are listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s flattest country with no natural land higher than 2.4 metres above sea level.