All’s swell in the Maldives

MY IDEA OF BEACH HEAVEN

is the Maldives, that low-lying country of 1190 small islands set in clear, pale turquoise water and rimmed by powdery sands and barrier reefs teeming with fish and turtles. There are many superb resorts in the Maldives – and superb surf too, but little of it breaks anywhere near the resorts due to the reefs. This makes me happy because I’m terrified of waves. (Even the ripples in a spa bath give me pause.) Mr. Amos, on the other hand, likes nothing better than gliding through a crystal tube on a heavy two-metre wave in the middle of nowhere, with few other surfers around. He’d be miserable stuck on a spit of sand knowing there was a pumping wave somewhere ‘out there.’

Fortunately for both of us, there’s a destination that has it all. Six Senses Laamu, the third and newest of the Six Senses resorts in the Maldives, boasts one of the Maldives’ most famous breaks, Yin Yang, just outside its reef, which is accessed by a five-minute boat trip from the jetty. There’s also a decent beach break in season called ‘Backyard’, named by the resort’s surfing Japanese chef Norio Idei, and reached by paddling out from a jetty at the southern tip of the island. When Yin Yang is ‘going off’ it’s a serious but fickle wave that can push you onto a dangerous reef, and is best negotiated by experienced surfers. It’s so legendary that ‘surfaris’ (boatloads of surfers cruising from break to break) seek it out, but mostly it’s a very local wave, and very remote, lying 150 km north of the equator, and therefore uncrowded, surfed by a few Six Senses staff members and the occasional guest.

It takes some commitment to get to it. We flew from Sydney to Singapore, then Singapore to the capital of the Maldives, Malé, and then on to Kadhoo, in the Laamu Atoll, a 45 minute-long flight with Maldivian Airlines, followed by an exhilarating twenty-minute speedboat ride in the dark. We arrived at 2 a.m. local time, shattered. Amazing, though, how any tiredness is dispelled the minute you fall asleep to the heaving of the ocean and awake to a sparkling Maldivian dawn in a beach villa set in green jungle populated by chattering fruit bats and frisky chameleons.

Six Senses Laamu has been at near full occupancy since its opening in April 2011. Like other Maldivian resorts, it’s popular with Chinese and Japanese honeymoon couples. But there’s also a large contingent of sophisticated northern Europeans, especially Scandinavians, escaping the cruel winters. They are enticed by the exceptional natural beauty of the Laamu Atoll, the most southerly atoll in the central Maldives. Then there’s the charming rusticity of the 97 beach and lagoon villas, with their silvered untreated timbers and rough-hewed design aesthetic, and witty details such as ragged ropes serving as door handles; the multitude of eating opportunities, from the rarified cuisine of Leaf to the casual chic of Chill bar and restaurant, where you can lounge on hammocks hanging over the lagoon; the impressive wine cellar ; and, perhaps most memorable of all, the impeccable spa treatments delivered in beautiful bird’s nest-like pods on the beach or on stilts in the jungle.   Best of all, the Six Senses renowned innovation in environmental sustainability, creating as lightweight a footprint on the delicate Maldivian ecosystem as possible, means both sybarite and surfer alike can enjoy all the sensuality on offer without guilt.

Our arrival at Six Senses Laamu coincided with the conclusion of the inaugural Six Senses Water/wo/men fundraising event. This gathering of water sport icons, conservationists, filmmakers, performers and interested citizens was an initiative of Sonu Shivdasani, Six Senses founder and CEO. Over seven days, participants took part in dialogues and debates on the most pressing marine and drinking water issues facing the planet today. They also did a little surfing. I was sorry we’d missed it. But some participants had stayed on. Layne Beachley and Kirk Pengelly were a noisily exuberant presence. I spotted model-slash-photographer Helena Christensen, the French actress Melanie Laurent and Hollywood star Kate Bosworth. Two villas along from ours, the wonderful English performer Beth Orton could be heard playing her guitar and composing songs. With a new baby in tow, she told me she’d been incredibly productive in the nurturing Six Senses environment. We ran into dreadlocked pro windsurfer Pascal Bronnimann devouring coconut sorbet in the icecream parlour. There had been a ‘great vibe’ all week, he said.

Two villas along from ours, the wonderful English performer Beth Orton could be heard playing her guitar and composing songs.

Abram  Le Cerf, originally from NSW’s Central Coast, is the resort’s Social and Environment manager. An earnest young man with the zeal of a missionary, he outlined to me the impressive sustainability projects underway at Laamu. These include rainwater capture, renewable energy projects and a comprehensive waste facility that turns everything from plastics to food scraps into useable resources.  There’s a profound obligation to meet the needs of the local communities and Six Senses has been active in educating the residents of neighbouring islands in conservation methods. Rising sea levels are the critical issue for a country where 85% of the land doesn’t rise above 1.5 metres. It’s one of the most precarious aquatic eco-systems in the world. Even the Six Senses resort is feeling the brunt of natural erosion. Abaya-clad women from a neighbouring island sweep the sands and collect dead corals, presumably for land reclamation.

The Six Senses SLOW LIFE (sustainable-local-organic-wholesome learning-inspiring-fun-experiences) philosophy extends to the cultivation of an organic garden to supply produce to the resort’s four restaurants, a delicious (but rather pricey) Zero Carbon meal on offer at both the Leaf and Longitude restaurants and complimentary bicycles to get yourself between restaurant, spa and villa. The spa uses products that are 100% organic. One of the truly extraordinary treatments available is the Laamu Bliss, where you are massaged and then wrapped in a paste of locally-sourced spices such as clove and nutmeg, which heat up your body, and then cooled down with an application of resort-grown crushed cucumber pulp.

While I’m being marinated like a Maldivian curry, the surfer is looking for a way to get to the wave. Water sports are operated by Ocean Dimensions, owned by Marc Zaalberg and Petra Hellmann, who have been in the Maldives for 15 years. Apart from surfboards and windsurfers for hire, activities include waterskiing, wake boards, catamaran sailing, kayaking, and kite surfing. The Dive Shop offers a tantalising variety of scuba diving and deepsea diving options, including certification. Use of snorkels, masks and flippers are free. You can scuba dive right off the steps at the resort’s central bar and restaurant, Chill, which operates like an outdoor living room with day beds and hammocks.

Surfers need to hire a boat to take them the short distance to Yin Yang. If the surfer is alone, hiring a Zodiac for the same price of $65 per head is an alternative. My surfer befriends Food and Beverage Manager Jordi Arguelles and chef Norio and they commandeer the boat one afternoon. Unfortunately, the swell has dropped out, so no monster barrels are forthcoming. There’s a surf season in the Maldives, which runs roughly from May to October, and we’ve just on the end of it. But here’s the thing – the surf season coincides with the rainy season. We have missed the swell this week but the upside (for me) is we have perfect blue skies the whole five days. Still, Laamu is the driest atoll and it mostly rains in bursts. ‘In several years in the Maldives I’ve never seen it rain continually for 24 hours,’ says resort manager Marteyne van Well.

While he surfs, I learn to cook Sri Lankan and Maldivian food, sample wines in the cool Altitude wine cellar, take a sunset yoga class on a deck overlooking the water, swim in the lagoon alone, visit the spa and the immaculate gym, snaffle books from the excellent library to read on a sun lounge by the sea.  At night, there’s star gazing on the beach, where we can spot Jupiter’s rings with the help of an enormous portable telescope, the Jungle outdoor cinema twice a week and the Tuesday night cocktail party on the beach.  Marteyne van Well says Six Senses Laamu is ‘more clubbable’ than the other Six Senses resorts, meaning that there’s more opportunity for social interaction, although it’s possible to be perfectly private if you so desire.

The most unforgettable experience is the morning the speedboat drops us on a deserted sand bar, which has been furnished with two sun lounges, an umbrella and an Esky. I swim with the fishes and beach-comb to my heart’s delight. My hair is salty, my toes are sandy and there’s the faint blush of sunburn across my nose. I have to wave my sarong furiously to call the speedboat back to collect us. It’s real Robinson Crusoe stuff, if you forget there’s a Sri Lankan mojito waiting in a bar five minutes away.

As for the surfer, he has heard the locals talk about another break, ‘Machines’, that’s a 45- minute boat ride away beyond the reef. He’s intrigued by this elusive, possibly mythical wave. It’s an excuse to return.

As if we needed one.

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