Diary:

Day 1

Lock n load. The crew all turn up reasonably on time and depart Tiki for Heathrow. We’re missing Sophie, who’s just stepped off a plane from Morocco and will meet us at the airport and Joel who’ll fly direct from Sydney to the Maldives to make our group 10. Within 4 hrs it’s 9 people with 25 boards navigating Terminal 4. Huge thanks to Sri Lankan Airlines for accommodating our ridiculous surfboard excess and straight to the bar.

Day 2

Overnight flight. Good curry and no sleep. Around lunch time we fly down over our first Atolls. Hard to believe such a place exists, it’s literally unreal. Land, boat taxi to Male, off load in the hotel and straight out front to some onshore three footers. The surf’s crap and there’s urchins on the bottom, but damn, its sooo warm!

Day 3

Up at 4am. Our flight’s not til 3pm, so time for a quick dawnie in the North Atolls. We commandeer a dhoni and follow the flying fish an hour north to Honky’s. 4ft sets peel around a postcard tropical island with white sand and palm trees. Bit of an eye opener to some of the group who find the coral being so clearly visible a bit unnerving. But everyone returns unscathed.
Meet Joel, head for the plane and fly south, onto another boat and finally 24 hrs after leaving Tiki we board the Handhu, the 90ft Surf charter that will be home for the next 12 nights. Beer, sweet sweet beer!