Maldives - Day 6, land

Cokes

This morning for brekkie we had pancakes with lime and sugar, watermelon juice... and an omelette. I forget every morning after I've gorged myself on breakfast and fruit, that Gobi is bringing out eggs. Omelette, fried eggs, poached eggs, scrambled. I'm not used to a three course breakfast! 

Immi's birthday today. Leeann got to talk to her so she was a very happy girl. She got her longest ride ever today, so she's a doubly happy girl.

Mona, from high school phoned our guide today to talk to me! She tracked me down because she recognized the boat on facebook! Seems everyone involved in the tourist industry knows everyone. So with any luck I'll message her and be able to meet up with her at the airport on Saturday! It's been 14 years!

We did another island visit this morning. Had a rest after five hours of surfing yesterday. The break here is called Cokes. So huge and critical. Most people get smashed even on the ones they make! So we just watched nicely. Leeann and I are a bit over the gnarly. We will head back to ninjas later on so we are happy to wait. When we were south earlier on in the week, it was so maxed out here that no one was out.

Checking out Cokes... Maybe not.

View from the bow of the Haira

Clean up set

Cokes Surf Camp

The crew

Walking from town to the break

This group of girls are so much fun. We've had the worst conversations. This is the first all girls trip the guide has done so he's enjoyed all the silly things we talk about! So... there's a hose in the bathroom and on the second day we found out that you can't flush toilet paper on the boat, so we've been refining our spray technique along with a lot of coaching from the guide about hosing and then dabbing/drying with the toilet paper. Hahah. Of course this led to countless questions and toilet humour.

The break isn't particularly easy to get to once on the island

and includes crossing an inlet.

Colours of Cokes

Best seat in the house

Fast right, and urchin covered rocks.

All the doors are decorated

The harbour

Brave wahine out at Cokes

Maldives - Day 5

Where am I: North Male Atolls
Who am I with: Anna, who has joined the boat from another one, a pod of spinner dolphins and a fruit bat.

Anna and a lovely bunch of bananas

What we ate: French toast for breakfast!! Fish and chips for dinner and banana crepes for dessert. A good day!

What we did: Three surfs today! Told Tamara about the baby.

Funny Moments: Singing in the line up. Shakin' our tushie on the dinghy.

Surf Session #6
Spot: Jailbreaks
Conditions: smaller
I surfed my: 5'6
Best wave: I only caught one and fell off.
As it was smaller I thought that sitting on the inside a bit might have been a good idea to catch some of the smaller ones. Unfortunately, the bigger ones caught me instead. Got caught on the inside twice and got a bit panicky the second time thinking that I was also being pushed across to the peak as well as inside onto the reef.

They really pound you here. Suck you back when you dive under. Got a bit emotional, but I'm totally fine. Some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you. Glad we're moving onto ninjas, which is meant to be much gentler. The size of the waves has been fine, but the sets are just massive. Might just play it really safe and sit out on the elbow at the next place. We were talking about how we were sitting out on the little finger yesterday. So I joined Leeann and Anna out there before heading in.

Magic Moments: Three boats full of girls all wound up here, so we had about 16 girls in the lineup. One whole boat was from Dunsborough. It was great seeing other people get stoked on this wave.

Out on the fingernail = next to the boat

We collected Tamara off the reef on the way back to the boat as her leggie had snapped!

Surf Session #7

Spot: Ninjas

Conditions: Smallish and glassy.

I surfed my: longboard

This was such a great surf. Small enough that there wasn't the fear factor but the sets still felt decent. Only about two bigger waves in a set, which was more manageable.

Best wave: one of my first waves was so long! Nice and wall-y. I tried to tuck and get past this section. I wound up in line with where the Haira was anchored in the channel! So then I ended up standing around the side of the island, on the reef 'having a cuppa' for a few waves, before a lull to head back out. Took the GoPro out today. Caught loads of waves!! Tamara and I were in our element on the longboards. Leeann had some fun ones and felt much more in her comfort zone here.
Much more fun when you're trying to catch the set waves instead of the ones in between!

Magic Moments: 2 turtles, 2 pods of dolphins and turquoise fish.



Surf Session #8
Spot: Ninjas
Conditions: afternoon. Higher tide than the lunch surf. Fatter.
I surfed my: longboard

We had dolphins out with us for this one! It was crowded initially with quite a few learners out with two guides. I've been trying to flick off the back of the waves before they start to close out but haven't been having much luck. One of the guides saw me and told me I needed to be right on the tail to get this done. We shared a great moment of stoke when I managed to nail this on my next wave. There was fist pumping.

The Moment - Sharing the stoke

We all whooped and cheered for a lady who he was coaching. She caught this bomb and rode it to the bottom on her guts. Innocence is bliss. I wish I had that much fearlessness!

We then had the place to ourselves. So awesome to have sessions where you lose count of your waves. Got a few bombs too! Leeann was on fire this session and I was lucky enough to see two or three of her waves from the front where she was getting more angle and more speed. Two were really terrific, long waves, so she was absolutely stoked.

After this morning I was saying that some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you. It was a bit of both today, but I'm pretty sure I got roast bear this afternoon!

Mikala shot photos from the boat during our afternoon session

Waiting for waves

All photos are copyright Hannah Katarski except those reproduced with the permission of Mikala Wilbow Photography. 

Maldives - Day 4

Day 4

Coffee and a surf check

Surf Session #4
We surfed Riptides again in the morning. Much smaller than yesterday with long waits in between. We didn't stay out for long before hopping back on the boat and motoring our way north.

We passed through Male. It was fascinating seeing the built up island - all the high rise and different types of boats. 'Maldives Aggressor' was perhaps the most interestingly named. We dropped the cook off at the hospital - basically pulled the Haira up next to the hospital - as he hasn't been well.

Male

It is so so beautiful here. Being on the boat has been so magical. Beats staying at a resort. We sit and watch the world go by as we motor to the next harbour. We're always on the go. Plenty of room too. Pretty funky showering off the back of the boat after a session as we motor to harbour for the night!

Jailbreaks

Surf Session #5

Now in the North Male Atolls, we anchored near Jailbreaks. It looked really fun when I first got in but should have watched it for longer I guess. I went for one and didn't catch it, then was suddenly in the inside for about eight waves. My longboard was like a kite dragging me in. Hayley was stuck inside too. I just remember trying to make some headway and getting nowhere, but seeing Mikala with her flippers and camera covering all this ground heading back out while we were stuck. Was probably 5' on the back of the waves. This baby is going to be such an adrenalin junky - lucky - so she can keep up with Immi!

Mikala sharing some board time and getting up out of the water for a bit

Leeann, Steph and I went onto the island for a wander around. It's Ramadan at the moment so I felt a bit funny about walking around the village when all the women seemed to be inside and people are fasting. We tried to dress respectfully. When we hopped of the launch, there were a few men sitting around, enjoying the breeze near the coast, and that was it. We walked off to try and watch the break from the shore, and wound up at the jail. See, I was thinking that the break was called Jailbreaks because of the tendency to trap people on the inside. Certainly turned out this way for me! But no, there is a jail on the island, end of story.

We weren't really up for shopping, but one owner talked us into visiting 'mango shop' because it was 'the most beautiful shop on the island'. He wasn't wrong! Looked like nothing from the outside, then once you stepped in, it went back for acres, complete with a pond and bridge!

I got to drive the dinghy back to the boat and got us all wet surfing the swell with it.
Tonight we lay on the roof enjoying the trade winds and watching the stars.

Michael in my hat

All photos are copyright Hannah Katarski except those reproduced with the permission of Mikala Wilbow Photography. 

Maldives - Day 3

Day 3
Where I am: In the ocean.
Who I met: Brian, our guide kinda reminds me of a cross between Grey and Uncle Bill. Steph has been sick for a few days so has spent a lot of time sleeping. Hayley is like my sister from another mother. Yesterday she said 'Buh bow!' and then in the line up she said 'uh oh spaghetti-o'. I wonder if her mother is a teacher too...

What we did:

The Left

We slept in til about 7. We watched Brian and Alanna go out at a hollow left. She charges. We were taking photos of this fast, unrideable-looking wave, and then realised it was where they were actually surfing. We had breakfast, then went out at Riptides.

Looking hollow

Boat Jumps

Surf Session #3
Spot surfed: Riptides...it has that name for a reason. Spent the whole time paddling. It is a bit of shallower reef in between two smallish islands, so taking your bearings was a bit interesting. The guys in the line up were on a luxury boat with flat screens in each room and a masseuse on board. They were great sports and very sharing with the waves when we turned up.

I surfed my: mini simmons 5'6

Riptides

Memorable Moments: After going for a drift that we didn't realise had occurred, we spent about 15 minutes paddling back to the line up.

My best wave: no great waves for me today. It was hard to be in the right spot. I had about three rides, the last being ok

What I learnt: Paddling for position for an entire session sucks. Needed my weight further back on my 5'6.


After lunch we visited a resort for the afternoon. Hung out in the pool, walked around the island. There's a fast hollow right that breaks right in front of the surf villas here that dad would have loved.

Boat transfer to the resort - Leeann, myself, Tamara.

Nice right, right in front of the bungalows.

A funny thing that happened was: We played with an inflatable croc and a li-lo thinking it belonged to the hotel. We were considering taking them out to the beach before the owner came and asked for them back...

Rockin it.

Stacks on: Me, Leeann and Tamara

Steph, myself and Leeann

Appropriate thongs for the Maldives.

What we ate: Nicest paw paw I've ever had. Crepes with coconut and tuna filling. Food has been great! Crepes in the morning, toast, fruit etc. Eggs - scrambled, fried, omelettes...something different each morning. Curries for lunch, or garlic spaghetti. Fish and chips last night with coleslaw. It's all been nice and not too oily or heavy.

Ok. Time to watch the world go by for a bit.

All photos are copyright Hannah Katarski except those reproduced with the permission of Mikala Wilbow Photography.