A big thanks to Richard Kotch who again provided us with monthly surf reports from Lohis this season. Below is the last surf report of the Maldives season and Richard has been kind enough to breakdown the season month by month for us. If you are planning your 2018 visit, and not sure when you might want to come, this could be the article for you.
The seasons are so predictable here in the North Male region of the Maldives that I could probably just copy & paste the end of season surf summary that I wrote last year! You really can guarantee that late March/April will have small but beautiful surf every day. The water will be pristine and the crowds light. The weather will be stunning. This year was no different. Next year will be the same. It really is a magic time to be here. This year we had the Billabong girls on island for a couple weeks mid March and if 3-4ft glassy, perfect lefts and sunny skies were what they were looking for, then it’s safe to say they scored!
Mid-April saw our first bigger swell of the season (as usual) and the inside section at Sultans had some nice tubes, while Jails was slightly smaller but oh-so-fun. Owen Wright and Wilko came to stay and after one session our ideas about how to surf Lohis had been changed forever!
This year, May stayed glassy for longer than usual, with some absolutely pristine days out the front, but then the wind picked up and it didn’t really improve until June.
June is a fun month, plenty of swell, in fact we had waves every day for the entire month, some days were better than others of course, especially if the wind was up, but then we would still find good waves either just up or down the coast from Lohis. Adriano De Souza came for a few days, ended up staying for ten and absolutely loved the place, “Sure I have surfed bigger better waves but this was a sick trip, so relaxed, so stok-ked” he said.
July was very similar to June in that we had waves every day, and the winds were generally very favorable. Some days saw such good quality waves that long time surf travelers were making comparisons to Indo, just without the arduous travel. Filipe Toledo turned up, stayed for ten days, and minds were blown. Everyone knows what he did at J-Bay the week after he was here, and he directly attributed his performance to how relaxed and happy he was going into the event.
August is such a good month that for a couple weeks 90% of our surfers were repeat guests – these are guys who know what they like in a surfing holiday and their repeat patronage is the biggest compliment. This year we had six weeks straight of really good waves. Oh and Gabriel Medina came to the party. The waves were a good size and crowd non-existent, but rather than sit on the usual (easy) take off, he sat way down the point and surfed the closeout section, affectionately known as ‘Dump Trucks’ by the WA boys. Of course he proceeded to thread deep tubes and launch airs over dry reef, before dinner and dance moves later that evening at Lohis.
Come September there’s a palpable shift in the intensity. Yes there were still waves every day and we were busy with plenty of guests but there are less frothers in the house, it’s more of a chilled crew who aren’t so worried if they don’t score a 6ft swell, in fact many of them openly hope that it’s more like 3-4ft for the duration of their stay. This year September wasn’t quite as good as usual – the winds were a bit funky and the swells were too small or too south to spread the charter boat crowds out. Not the end of the world as Lohis still had fun waves every day, but the report card reads “could have done better”
October reminds me of April. There’s always one good size swell and then it’s 2-4ft every day for the rest of the month. This year the bigger swell came around the 17th and it stayed good until the end of the month.
November started with Mick Fanning, Wilko and Connor Coffin calling in for a couple days of small but rip-able Lohis with zero crowds. It’s now the 20th Nov and we have had 2-4ft glassy surf for 17days of the month so far!
Cheers and see you next year.
Rich