This is the first in what will become a monthly column on Swellnet: The Maldives Surf Report as presented by Liquid Destination. Louis from Liquid Destination is a long-time Maldives visitor and charter operator. He's arguably the most knowledgeable skipper in the archipelago, and he won't overstate the conditions. Let Louis give it to you straight.

First of all a big thanks to Swellnet for partnering up with us on the Maldives Surf Report. It's a great opportunity for us to show people photos of the type of waves we surf throughout the year. A few waves will be known to past visitors but a lot more probably won't. The Maldives is a big country and we access the whole region which makes us unique to the other operations over here. Hopefully, even seasoned Maldives veteran will be perplexed trying to guess where some of these waves are!

In summary, the start of the Maldives season has been quite tame, with one exception. In mid-February I was chasing a swell to a more remote area in the Maldives and was greeted with a day of glassy 8 foot plus walls. Some of the biggest waves I have ever seen came through that day, and I doubt there was another surf charter boat operating in the whole country.

We had the north-east trade wind blow right through till the end of March, which is not really the norm. It usually backs off in late February. This wind limits options and with every man and his dog sold a "down south" charter we hightailed back to the mid-season main zone and scored it pretty much empty.

The north-east wind finally relented and we got back to our turn of season conditions with light winds and glassy days. The swells were still coming but pretty small in the chest high range consistently. A nice swell rolled through in early April from a low that formed off South Africa and we scored the longest line up in the country to ourselves. I'm talking pointbreak style thigh burners here, it was epic.

Things are starting to liven up now in the ocean. With a fairly dormant early season over here's hoping for some real swells to fill in and some empty lineups to blow our guests away on what is possible in this country. //LOUIS HARRIS

Visit Liquid Destination to find out more about your next Maldives surf trip.