The following report is by Richard Kotch / World Surfaris

After the funky winds of the first half of the season, August has been offshore every single day. The first two weeks were a consistent 3-4 foot of classic Maldivian, playful perfection! Then, just when guests thought it couldn't get any better, Huey kicked it up a gear mid-month delivering 4-6 foot of groomed lines at Lohis. After a quick session on the left, our World Surfaris guests jumped on the boats down to Jails and Sultans. In the past I have described Jails as a soft, warm water J'Bay, but for the majority of this season I've sounded like a kook! Finally it all came together to justify my call; the swell was hitting the reef just right and the offshore breeze held up the inside barrel section enough for it to be makeable all the way through. Our guests scored some of the best waves of their lives. Funny thing was that I had a group of South Africans with me and as one of them paddled back to the boat after a truly epic session, he announced to the boat, in his thick Africans accent: "It's just like a soft, warm water J'Bay, bru."

As it was such an exceptional day we had a really quick lunch, jumped on Moosa's dhoni, and cruised back down to the rights. The crew who had surfed Sultans in the morning were talking up the inside tube section so we thought we should have a look, arriving as a perfect empty wave barreled it's way across the inside reef. Any thoughts of having a little nap on the boat were instantly forgotten and the guests hit the water before the boat had even stopped moving! The first hour of that session was even better than the morning session at Jails. You'd take off, fade your bottom turn slightly before pulling into a tight little high-line almond shaped tube that would suddenly flare open into a legit square barrel as it hit the inside reef. Epic.

The next day was a slightly smaller version of the same, nothing too notable except for a magic, hour long barrel–fest just after low tide when Amy decided to miss lunch and trade the buffet for Lohis barrels by herself! That evening as guests surfed small but perfect Lohis and Chickens, it really seemed as if the swell was dropping, even though the charts were showing a longer period pulse from the S/SE. As so often happens here at Hudhuranfushi, an apparently fading swell means party time and many of the crew cut loose celebrating an epic week of waves.

At 3am on Friday the 16th the swell hit. From our room we always hear the ocean when there's a decent swell, but it's rare to feel it. This one was a "window rattler" so that was the end of sleep for me. I drank coffee and watched Lohis in the half-light of dawn. Initially it looked big and perfect but as the sky lightened the reality became clear. It was certainly big but it was ugly. Big lumps of chop were moving sideways up the face and the current was like a fast moving river racing down the point. It wasn't a tidal current, it was the sheer volume of water in each set pushing along the island. It was quite an impressive sight. A lone Brazilian attempted to paddle out but he was swept into the channel and then down to the harbour in record time, and that was that.

The forecast was showing a rapid decrease in swell height for the following day, so even though the majority of our guests had no real interest in surfing 6-8 foot, I still had a full boat down to Jails at 9:30. As soon as we pulled up it was clear that Jails was handling the swell much better than Lohis. It had quite a bit of south in it so Jails was slightly smaller and more lined up. It actually looked really good and there was not a soul out. After watching it for a while half the guys on the boat waxed up and paddled out to some of the better waves I've seen out here in the Maldives. Once again a few guests scored the waves of their lives and a few more took good beatings as a truly epic session went down on "Big Friday"!

The following ten days fluctuated between 3-5 foot with light offshore winds and beautiful weather. Crowds were spread out and every surfer in the region was smiling.

After an epic August, Huey can be forgiven for the last few days. From the 26th we have had very strong W/NW winds (up the face at Jails/Sultans), torrential rain squalls, small swell and very limited surf options. The best waves have been Cokes and Lohis but it has been very busy. Bring on September!

Cheers and see you soon, Rich / World Surfaris