Heading to Maldives on 9-14 March with a few friends. The crew is mixed (intermediates, plus and a few beginnerish girls - 1yr experience)

Undecided about where to base ourselves. So far the best option seems like Cokes Surf Camp on Thulusdhoo for the 5 nights. Reasonable price and includes food.

- The actual Cokes break sounds advanced and shallow reef(?). Does it still make sense to base ourselves there if we're going to go for the more user friendly Chickens, Ninjas, Sultans and Honkeys?

- I'm guessing Thulusdhoo is boring if the surf isn't on. But the other resorts I've looked at (which have other stuff to do) seem expensive. If anyone knows a good one that's reasonable $$ ...

Basically just keen for any info or experience as I've never been to this part of the world...

good chance it will be onshore in the male atolls in march. not much else to do if it is.

outer atolls the go in feb /march but you need a boat or a very exxy resort island down south

go get your dive tickets if your locked into those dates...

Stay at jails, more choice
cokes can be pretty heavy

Thanks guys. Yeah ugh we are locked in for those dates and trying to change things with this group now is doing my head in so we'll probably just stay at cokes, even if it means we're boating out to different breaks (ninjas, etc) each day if cokes is heavy

Re: onshore winds, ok that's interesting. I hadn't heard that before - more the opposite so far... (cleaner winds but small swell).

Anyway I guess it's a risk we'll have to take and as you say. book some dive tickets!

March can be a real gamble, late March is renowned for glassy clean days and small to mid size swell, early March you will likely get some glassy days and a smallish swell,,, this is not overall a bad thing from what you are saying your group consists of, Coke's gets easy triple head through June July August, in March you can expect anything from knee to head height.
Cokes is a swell magnet so if you check magic seaweed and it says 1 foot to 2 foot it's likely you will have a few chest maybe head height days.
The real grave concern I have for you is your tiny window of five days, when it's windy especially early March it can be windy right up until about the time you leave , you may get lucky and score glass offs for a day or two,
If you are stuck with the dates you have maybe try and extend another 3-4 days.

Every Maldives trip I've done ( 4 ) have always been for a minimum of two weeks between April and October ........ 3 were three weeks and one being two, I have scored legit solid waves on 3 of the trips proper, and one trip which was last week of March and first two of April it was chest height and a few head+ days thrown in every single day and glassy total glassy for around 15 out of 21 of those........
Dont worry you will get waves I just think you need to seriously consider throwing another 2-3 days onto your trip at least if possible, you need a bigger window to score epic Maldives
I strongly suggest taking high volume boards especially if small, if you have a mal or a 40 litre plus fish you can still get 100-150 metre long shin burners if you don't get swell

Thanks Razz. Solid advice.

Sadly we're not able to change/extend :( so I'll pray for some clean days during the 9-14th March, and keep that in mind for a future trip, for sure!

And I'll take your advice re: high volume board.

I made my first trip to Maldives in late March this year, staying in front of Cokes for a week. Really enjoyed my time in the (29 degree) water over there, but might have got lucky with the swell (overhead sets on the biggest days). The winds were also really good the whole time I was there.

Cokes can get a decent current which keeps the crowd down, but also makes it difficult to stay in position. Chickens is a fun wave and costs US$10 to get a boat across from Thulusdhoo. They were building a 5-star resort on chickens island at the time so there could be some imminent changes to the crowd/access situation over there.

Agree it's worth taking a high-volume board as well as your standard shortboard, although i was able to have fun on my everyday 5'9, every day. Also recommend wearing booties if surfing Cokes often - i got away with it the first couple sessions but soon discovered there are large urchins aplenty on the reef there. Definitely worth packing a snorkel and flippers too. If you want to drink booze, you'll have to pay to stay at a private resort or get a ride to a 'bar boat' off one of the nearby islands . Better off giving the liver a rest i reckon, but each to their own.

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Queso said..
I made my first trip to Maldives in late March this year, staying in front of Cokes for a week. Really enjoyed my time in the (29 degree) water over there, but might have got lucky with the swell (overhead sets on the biggest days). The winds were also really good the whole time I was there.

Cokes can get a decent current which keeps the crowd down, but also makes it difficult to stay in position. Chickens is a fun wave and costs US$10 to get a boat across from Thulusdhoo. They were building a 5-star resort on chickens island at the time so there could be some imminent changes to the crowd/access situation over there.

Agree it's worth taking a high-volume board as well as your standard shortboard, although i was able to have fun on my everyday 5'9, every day. Also recommend wearing booties if surfing Cokes often - i got away with it the first couple sessions but soon discovered there are large urchins aplenty on the reef there. Definitely worth packing a snorkel and flippers too. If you want to drink booze, you'll have to pay to stay at a private resort or get a ride to a 'bar boat' off one of the nearby islands . Better off giving the liver a rest i reckon, but each to their own.

What sort of crowds are getting out and about in the Maldives lately.
Still a few really friendly Israelis who are into wave sharing??

Too many...all corners of the world represented, cannot believe the amount of learners sitting in line up...
I stayed on Pasta Point so we were protected from the kaos....
Pasta's well worth the money, Sultans in morning 5.30 to 7.00, once the boats turn up back to Pasta Point for the day...back to saultans at 4 when the boat leaves...
repeat......