Author: JJ Robinson

Amana Takaful seeking to “kick start” Maldives stock market with landmark IPO

Sharia-compliant insurance company Amana Takaful will issue 800,000 shares in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Maldives Stock Exchange (MSE).

In a first for the country, 20 percent of the shares will be made available to expatriates and 15 percent to overseas applicants. The remaining 65 percent will be offered to Maldivians.

The Sri Lanka-based company hopes to generate Rf16 million (US$1.4 million) in proceeds through the IPO, by selling shares at a low issue price of Rf20 (bundled in packages of 25).

Amana Takaful’s board of directors announced the IPO on Monday afternoon at the Nasandhura Palace Hotel.

CEO of Amana Takaful Maldives, Hareez Sulaiman, said the IPO would “change the way the Maldivian Stock Exchange operates as this will be the first time that Maldivians, expatriates and foreigners will be able to purchase securities in a Maldivian listed company.”

The decision to price the shares low “at a price affordable to any average Maldivian” also promised to “be a kick starter for an active stock market which may benefit the entire economy at large,” the company said in an accompanying statement.

The company expects the Sharia-compliant nature of its business to be a key attraction in the market, it noted in its prospectus, with the “growing religious awareness within the domestic market further reinforcing [Amana Takaful Maldives’] decision to embark on expanding its shareholder base in the Maldives.”

Globally, Director of Amana Takaful Osman Kassim, also chairman of the first licensed Islamic bank in Sri Lanka, Amana Bank, explained that Islamic finance was “a phenomenon worth 1.4 trillion and growing at a rate of 20 percent annually.”

It functioned, he explained, through the prohibition of riba, or interest.

“Taking a return without participating in the risk of the return is not allowed, be it 1 percent or 99 percent. Any additional revenue is riba,” he said. “Even if you give a loan and he gives a gift, and is not in the habit of giving a gift, that is also riba.”

Islamic finance in its current form emerged 40 years ago, Kassim explained, first in Egypt and the Arab Emirates.

“It promises to be a just system. Interest is oppression – the charging of something where nothing is due,” he said, noting that in the wake of the global financial crisis, “All major banks now have Islamic financing products, and the more adventurous have their own Sharia Councils.”

Certain terminology used in Islamic finance was now routinely used in normal banking, he said, also observing a rise in financial offerings that were all but labelled Sharia-compliant.

In its IPO prospectus, the company predicted strong potential growth on the back of a higher disposable income as the rufiya eased against the dollar, brought on by a “significant” decrease in the cost of imports.

The key areas of the Maldivian economy – fishing and tourism – had shown strong growth, the company noted. Tourist arrivals grew 18 percent in 2010, while bed nights grew 13 percent even as capacity grew by almost 3000 beds to roughly 24,000.

Fishing was a key area of interest to the company given the high number of insurables. The industry had registered a slight decline in productivity in recent months, the prospectus noted, but nonetheless annual fish purchases had increased 29 percent and fish exports by volume had risen fourfold. Higher prices had led to 77 percent increase in monthly earnings.

The company has set a target of 30-40 percent growth in the Maldives, identifying a key market as the local, atoll and city councils following the government’s policy of decentralistion.

“Considering the current trends in religious conciousness, it is generally believed that the level of awareness and preference for investing in Sharia- compliant investments would be greater at the grassroots level,” the company noted.

It also indicated its intention to offer a micro-insurance product in the Maldives targeting the expatriate market.

The IPO will open on September 20 and close on October 19. The company has pegged a minimum subscription of Rf 2.4 million (US$156,000) or 15 percent to proceed with the IPO.

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Solar-powered ‘clever bins’ to be installed in Male’

The Maldives is to install a series of high-tech, solar-powered ‘Clever Bins’ along the northern shoreline of Male’, the first public bins in the capital.

The bins, which were showcased on the popular UK television show Dragon’s Den, show display advertising on three sides of the contraption. The fourth side is a solar panel that charges a battery during the day, allowing the bins to illuminate the ads at night.

The bins will be situated along the shore from the area near President’s jetty to the area near the berth for the airport ferry, a strip where vessels commonly collect and deposit tourists from nearby resort islands.

The bins are already used in Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, and several cities in the UK. Advertisers include the UK’s National Health Service and Apple Inc.

Announcing the decision today, Managing Director of the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation, Simon Hawkins, explained that the government would only pay the costs to ship the five bins from Singapore.

“Clever Bins will receive 80 percent of the ad revenue for providing the bins and technology, while we will keep the rest and divide it between the relevant stakeholders,” he said.

“This is not a profit exercise – the Maldives has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2020, and we are receiving more visitors to Male’ than ever before. The market has also shifted in favour of Asian visitors, who seek cultural experiences – a trip to Male’ can be a highlight, but they find it very frustrating when there is nowhere to put rubbish.”

Hawkins described the bins as “robust and vandal proof” to “British hooligan” standards – “they have them in Manchester,” he noted, adding the they would be in well-lit and trafficked areas right outside Male’s main police station.

Male’ City Council will be responsible for clearing the bins and provide a staff member who will be trained in their maintenance and upkeep, with spare parts available via courier. Clever Bins had a vested interest in keeping the bins functional, Hawkins said, as their ad revenue depended on it.

The MMPRC would sign a contract this week and the bins would be delivered in six weeks, he said, adding that he believed the advertising spots would be of interest to companies keen to show off both their high tech and environmental credentials..

Director of local environmental NGO Bluepeace, Ahmed Ikram, said that even if the bins were gimmicky “we would welcome them as it will help raise awareness that littering is a problem”, and said he hoped the program would lead to bins being rolled out to the rest of Male’.

“Before the 1970s much of our rubbish was biodegradable [and] thrown onto the beach or into the sea,” he said. “Since then we have developed rapidly and acquired modern goods, but it is still ingrained in us that littering is not a problem,” he said.

Last week the Environment Protection Agency (EPA)  blamed a surge of garbage floating in Thilafushi lagoon on “impatient” trash boats, which had begun to float out into the sea, and announced its intention to investigate 10 culprits.

Minivan News recently interviewed a visiting French tourist, Mary Kivers, who had spent several days visiting Guraidhoo and observed that garbage was “everywhere”.

“It’s funny because we who live abroad think that Male’ will be an example for the world about pollution and everything, since global warming is important here. But when you see the inhabitants in the Maldives, they put anything into the sea. It was funny, on Guraidhoo one of the girls had a diaper, and I asked her where she was going. She said, ‘I am going to the bin,’ and she went and threw it in the sea.”

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World should rejoice that governments have forever lost the ability to control information, Nasheed tells UN

The chain of protests that rocked the Arab world this year have shown that governments have forever lost the ability to control information, President Mohamed Nasheed has said in a keynote address to the United Nations, including the 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council.

“Those of us who believe in individual liberties should rejoice at this fact because, quite simply, it changes the rules of the game,” he said.

Describing himself as a protester, “as someone who has spent much of his adult life speaking out against leaders who place their own interests over those of their people, leaders who seek power for power’s sake,” Nasheed observed that globalisation and the democratisation of information now meant that “governments simply have no option” but to listen to the demands of pro-democracy protesters.

“In a time of awakening, Muslims across the world are standing up, governments must see peaceful protests not as a threat but as an opportunity,” Nasheed said.

“It is a a moment when Muslims across the world are standing up as one to demand equality, human rights, democracy and the rule of law. These developments provide a fitting rebuttal to those, inside and outside of Islam, who claim that our religion is not compatible with democracy.”

Nasheed predicted that 2011 would come to be seen “as a tipping point for peaceful protests, as the moment when the balance of power swung, irreversibly, from the state to the streets.”

“In the past, when news and information were more malleable, governments had the option of suppressing protests in the hope of breaking them before news spread. Swift, decisive and often violent action at the outset could, in this sense, nip the problem in the bud. Life, especially for those in positions of power, could go on as normal,” he observed.

“In the past, facts and truths could be constructed and controlled by a few. Today they can be discovered and learned by everyone. The use of modern communication technology has allowed those with grievances to mobilise and spread their message. And, crucially, modern media also provides a lens through which the outside world can witness events unfold and learn the truth.”

As a result of globalisation and the communication revolution, “the more a government tries to control, the less control it actually has. The more those in power try to tighten their grip, the more power slips through their fingers,” Nasheed said.

“Today, the only way to rule sustainably is to rule with the trust and consent of the governed.”

Protests in the Maldives began eight years ago, changing the course of the country’s history, Nasheed explained.

“At one level we were protesting against something – against an autocratic system of government which had monopolised power for thirty years. But we were also protesting for something – for a better, fairer system of government, for equality and for justice.

“Today, we have succeeded in sweeping away the old. In 2008 the previous government was peacefully removed from power in free and fair elections under a new Constitution.”

Nasheed emphasised that the country’s first democratic multi-party elections were just the beginning of true democratic reform. The present challenges faced by the Maldives – not just the strengthening of independent institutions but also confronting the past – would be mirrored in Tunisia and Egypt, he predicted.

“One challenge is to establish and strengthen independent institutions, to ensure that democracy and human rights are guaranteed regardless of who is in power. A second challenge relates to transitional justice and reconciliation – how to deal with the past without endangering the future,” he explained.

“There can be no doubt that serious human rights violations were committed in the Maldives and that the victims of those violations deserve justice. But we must draw a clear line between reconciliation and revenge. To move forward, the search for truth and justice must be placed within an overall framework of national reconciliation – we must look forward, not back.

“A third challenge is to rebuild the economic fabric of the country. People cannot properly enjoy democratic freedoms if their basic needs are left unfulfilled. Without socio-economic development, political transitions quickly unravel.

“These challenges are relevant not only for the Maldives. They are also relevant for other countries that have dismantled autocratic regimes.”

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“Don’t marginalise Sri Lanka”: Nasheed to Human Rights Council

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has submitted a report documenting alleged war crimes in the closing days of the Sri Lankan Civil War to the UN Human Rights Council.

The report accuses the Sri Lankan military of killing tens of thousands of civilians through shelling in the closing days of its war with Tamil separatists, and increases the likelihood that the Human Rights Council may be called on to vote for a full international, independent investigation.

Sri Lanka has meanwhile rejected the report’s findings and stated that it opposes an outside investigation. Instead, the government has appointed its own ‘Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ (LLRC), which is expected to publish its findings on November 15.

Central to the UN’s case is graphic footage of the execution of bound and gagged prisoners, which the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Christof Heyns, described as reflecting “crimes of the highest order — definitive war crimes.”

Heyns analysed the video in consultation with a forensic pathologist, firearms expert and two forensic video analysts, and concluded that the footage was authentic, however the Sri Lankan government has maintained that the video is fake.

It has also stated that civilian casualties were unavoidable during the final offensive, due to the Tamil Tigers’ use of 300,000 people as human shields.

As an outspoken member of the UN Human Rights Council and a vocal proponent of intervention during the Libyan uprising – and also Sri Lanka’s neighbour – the situation is likely to challenge the Maldives diplomatically.

Yesterday, as the international community was ratcheting up the pressure on Sri Lanka, President Mohamed Nasheed called for an “amicable solution”.

“As long as we argue about Sri Lanka, the government is increasingly marginalised and we are losing the government and the country outside the fold of the international community,” Nasheed warned.

“We must understand that a number of very, very bad things happened but we must be able to move forward,” he said.

Current Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem has previously described the UN report as “singularly counterproductive”, while during a recent interview with Minivan News, former Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said he felt the government’s position on Sri Lanka “has been misunderstood”, particularly its comparison with the government’s stance on Libya.

“But I think Naseem’s comments and the government’s position on Sri Lanka have been misunderstood. The Libyan situation is different from the current situation in Sri Lanka. Libya is ongoing – things are happening today on the ground, and we need to try to prevent further abuses tomorrow,” he said at the time.

“In Sri Lanka’s case these are post-conflict issues. What we say is that the most important thing in a post-conflict situation is to find a way forward and not live in the past. This does not mean we are condoning abuses, or saying such things are fine. But Sri Lanka needs to find common ground with the UN Human Rights Council in which both parties can move forward. The government of Sri Lanka needs to be able to enter into dialogue with the international community to achieve speedier reconciliation.

“You can’t have reconciliation and long-lasting peace unless you respect human rights and set up mechanisms to do so. But we should steer clear of politicisation, or the divisions that have kept the flame of terrorism alive in Sri Lanka for so long. We are saying let Sri Lanka find a way forward and achieve reconciliation – we are not saying we don’t care about the past,” Dr Shaheed said.

China and Pakistan have also expressed support for Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s special envoy on human rights, has called for the international community to wait for the findings of Sri Lanka’s own commission in November.

“It is disconcerting to note the haste with which some have sought to usurp the government of Sri Lanka’s prerogative in deciding its domestic process,” Samarasinghe has previously told the Council.

“We firmly believe that our home-grown process is capable of addressing the nuances of our unique situation.”

However several international human rights organisations, including International Crisis Group (ICG), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Amnesty International (AI) have refused to appear before the LLRC claiming it fails to meet minimum international standards, noting that its members were appointed by the government, it had no mandate to investigate war crimes in the closing days of the conflict, and lacked any mechanism to protect witnesses.

“The LLRC’s mandate, its composition, its procedures, and the human rights environment in which it is operating all conspire to make a safe and satisfactory outcome for victims of human rights violations and their families extremely unlikely,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific region, Madhu Malhotra, in October 2010.

“Amnesty International is particularly concerned about the lack of any provisions for witness protection and the fact that former officials who have publicly defended the Sri Lankan government against allegations of war crimes serve on the commission.”

Warning: some readers may find the following footage disturbing

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Bodu beru dancers and water cannon salute welcome first scheduled flight from Seoul

Tourists on the first Mega Maldives flight arriving in Male’ direct from Seoul in South Korea this morning were greeted by bodu beru dancers and airport staff handing out coconuts.

As the plane taxied off the runway, two of the airport’s fire engines shot water cannon in an arc over the plane. The 158 bemused passengers were greeted at the top of the stairs by CEO of Mega Maldives George Weinmann, and accompanied through immigration by pilots and flight crew.

Speaking at a press conference of local and South Korean journalists later this morning, Weinmann observed that while the flight was not the first direct flight from Seoul, it was the first such scheduled service and the first for a Maldivian carrier.

All four of the airline’s routes launched this year, he observed, were to cities not previously served by direct flights including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and now Seoul.

“We believe this will increase the total demand for the Maldivian [tourism] product, and also create new opportunities for trade such as exports to Korea,” said Weinmann, a former rocket and satellite engineer with aerospace giant Boeing.

Weinmann said the decision to fly to Korea was influenced by the discovery that South Korea was operating five flights daily to Hawaii, such was the appeal of the iconic tropical destination to the Korean market.

“The flight time to Hawaii from Seoul is nine hours, similar to the flight time to Male’, and the total price of hotels is also similar,” he noted. “This will allow for the development of a lot of new business and trade.”

A water cannon salute greets Mega's first flight from Seoul

Korean arrivals to the Maldives increased 54 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year, from 16,000 to 24,000, suggesting that the country was a rapidly growing market for the Maldives. Weinmann has previously told Minivan News that Mega’s niche is to have flights from Asia that arrive during the day, thus avoiding the need for Asian visitors to overnight in Male’ or Hulhule’ while waiting for daytime transfers.

MD of the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), Simon Hawkins, acknowledged that the South Korean market had been neglected as far as tourism promotion was concerned, in favour of traditional markets such as Europe.

“We aim to remedy that, now that we have identified South Korea as an emerging market. We want to appeal not just to honeymooners, but also families and organisers of meetings, conferences and exhibitions,” he said.

Chief Commercial Officer of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Prasad Gopalan, meanwhile cited a report stating that South Korea was ranked third in rising numbers of millionaires, after India and China.

“We have done our research – South Korea is an emerging market for the Maldives,” he said.

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Wataniya launches Blackberry service in the Maldives, enabling secure private communications

Mobile operator Wataniya last night launched the Blackberry service in the Maldives, at a ‘black suit’ event held in the National Art Gallery.

Beyond just a range of smart-phones allowing for ‘push’ email connectivity, the Blackberry service is one of the world’s largest private networks with 67 million subscribers and 14.8 percent of the global smartphone market.

The device, produced by Canadian technology company Research in Motion (RIM), grew in popularity on the back of business and corporate users, attracted by its security features, reliability and strong encryption.

The event last night opened with a dance by a man in a glow-in-the-dark jumpsuit, and a band playing the Beatles tune ‘All you need is love’.

Vice President of the Maldives Dr Mohamed Waheed remarked that RIM’s decision to enter the market in the Maldives “is a vote of confidence in the business environment of our country, and for that we are grateful.”

Dr Waheed also noted that the introduction of consumer and business-grade secure communications in the Maldives was “an indication of how our country has matured”, and “an indication that our country is comfortable with the freedoms that we have; particularly the freedoms of expression and democracy.”

“This is an important step towards the improvement of commerce and business in the Maldives,” Dr Waheed said, adding that the country’s “dynamic, highly literate and IT savvy youth” would ensure “a bright future” for Blackberry in the Maldives.

Chief Operating Officer of Wataniya Stephen Smith said the company was proud to enter in partnership with RIM, “to provide the highly anticipated service to customers in the Maldives for the first time. Blackberry provides a meaningful and secure connection to enterprise email and other important systems, and we’re glad to be able to provide this capability to our customers.”

Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Bruce Levy, meanwhile observed that without their Blackberries, the Canadian government “would shut down overnight.”

“The first thing I saw when I landed in the Maldives was a fleet of twin otter seaplanes, many of which are piloted by Canadians. The delegation tonight is staying at Four Seasons, an eminient Canadian hotel chain, and the President is off to the Toronto International Film festival this weekend,” Levy said.

“It is a great time to be Canadian in the Maldives.”

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Marine current energy could help Maldives meet 2020 carbon neutral ambition

A team of researchers from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen have recommended that the Maldives seriously consider marine current energy as part of meeting its ambition to become carbon neutral by 2020.

The team visited the country in April and met with assorted energy stakeholders, interviewed divers, fishermen and boat captains, and hired a vessel to conduct current measurements.

According to the pre-feasibility report, “marine current energy in particular might provide a potential resource to add to the national energy mix.”

“Marine renewable energy has the distinct advantage of being very scalable, being to small mini-grid applications in communities, as well as larger scale installations for areas of high demand such as Male’. Furthermore, it is the only renewable energy that can have no visual footprint, an important consideration in a tourist dependent country such as Maldives,” the report stated.

The researchers noted that existing investigations of renewable resources, such as solar, wind and biogas, each had particular limitations in the Maldivian context.

“Solar shows the best resource potential of these but its implementations is restricted due to space restraints,” the report noted, while “despite numerous proposed wind projects, NREL (the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) indicates that the Maldives wind resource is ‘poor to marginal’.”

Biogas was more promising, the scientists said, particularly plans for a 3-5 megawatt waste energy plant near Male’, but this represented only a fraction of the current 38.76 megawatt installed capacity of STELCO’s existing fossil fuel setup.

The team investigated the potential for marine current and ocean thermal generation.

Marine current

The team modelled a number of channels to determine the power resource that would be technologically and economically exploitable, and found a significant variation depending on which direction the current was flowing.

The difference in total extractable resource was significant: when the current flowed east to west, the extractable power of all channels modelled was 106 MW, but only 28 MW when the flow was reversed.

The largest resources for east to west currents were found at Dhiffushi Kandu (31 MW), Gaadhoo Koa (25 MW), Thilafushi (14 MW), Emboodhoo Kandu (13 MW) and Gulhi Falhu (12 MW), while few of the channels provided much resource when the flow was reversed: just Kandu (15 MW) and East of Vadoo Island (9 MW). Gulhi Falhu and Emboodhoo Kandu, as marine protected areas, were unable to be developed as marine energy installations due to existing legislation, the report found.

“The reduced power available when the current flow in the west to east direction is partly due to the lower mean current speed in this direction, and partly due to the position of North Ari Atoll to the west of Male’ and South Male’. When the flow is from west to east it is slowed by North Ari Atoll before it reaches the Male’ and South Male’ Atolls,” the researchers noted.

They did however note that the monsoonal current model used for the calculations “did not take into account the effect of the other factors that affect the overall current speeds, such as tidal currents.”

The researchers suggested that the most applicable technologies for developing marine renewable resources in these channels would be “those designed for slower current speeds and shallow water sites”, but advised the government to remain “technology agnostic” until a detailed study of flows was completed over a longer period, “ideally a year”.

“Partnering too early with specific technology providers could result in a scenario whereby the Government of the Maldives is obliged to use technology that is not suited to the particular channel and current characteristics, and will not deliver maximum energy at the most economical cost,” the researchers warned.

Ocean thermal

The researchers also examined the potential for ocean thermal in the Maldives, a technology that converts thermal energy into kinetic energy by taking in deep cold water at depths of up to 1000 metres.

However a small 40 megawatt commercial facility requires a large displacement of water and can have a large environmental impact on the immediate area, due to noise and changing water temperatures, the scientists noted.

Moreover, the technology is exceedingly expensive with even a small 5-10 megawatt demonstration plant costing upwards of US$200 million.

“[Ocean thermal] was conceived over a century ago, yet there are still no operational commercial plants, and only one operational pilot plant (Hawaii). This is despite numerous feasibility studies and investigations by both countries and private enterprises, none of which have resulted in an actual installation,” the researchers noted.

“One of the main reasons that commercial OTEC power plants have not been built to date is their unfavourable economics in comparison to fossil fuel. Thus the challenge is to finance a capital intensive technology that does not have an operational record. The plant would need to be >50MW to be cost competitive in terms of $/kWh,” the report said, suggesting that this would price out the Maldives.

A small-scale water cooling system working on the same principle was trialed at Soneva Fushi resort, the report noted, whereby the cold water was to be used for air-conditioning and thus reduce the resort’s electricity consumption by 25 percent.

“Cold water (11-12°C) was pumped through a pipe from the 300m shelf approximately 3 km southeast of Soneva Fushi Resort. From the pump station, it was distributed to guest rooms and offices via an insulated underground piping system,” the report explained.

“Non-corrosive fan units in each room enabled the heat exchange between water and the surrounding air to bring the temperature down to comfortable levels. Unfortunately the project had some design flaws that resulted in it not delivering on cooling requirements as anticipated and it was thus decommissioned by Soneva in 2009.

“One of the problems encountered was that the pipeline wasn’t weighted down sufficiently, as with all the weights on it was still floating. Because the anticipated depth wasn’t reached, the water that was pumped in from the deep water intake pipe was not cold enough,” the researchers noted.

The report observed that while the current installed fossil fuel plants met Maldivian needs, “a very ambitious transition towards a renewable energy portfolio is needed to deliver on the ambition to become carbon neutral in 2020.”

“The Maldives is blessed with abundant renewable energy resources, but the ongoing energy programs in the Maldives until recently have had a substantial focus on electricity generation through diesel-run generators,” the researchers observed, “and little attention was given to promoting renewable energy production in remote islands to meet their energy needs.”

“There was a glut of proposed renewable energy projects announced subsequent to the declaration of the Maldives’ carbon neutral ambitions. Numerous MOU’s were signed, however, the absence of progress in these projects is causing concern,” they concluded.

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President awards Mark ‘Occy’ Occhilupo Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy

World Champion Surfer Mark Occhilupo has won all three divisions of the inaugural Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy, defeating longboard champion Josh Constable in the final and taking home US$19,000 in prize money.

President Mohamed Nasheed presented the trophy to Occy on board the Four Seasons Explorer, a luxury three-storey catamaran anchored near the Sultans surf break.

“We are people of the sea. We grow up with the elements around us, and the sea is never very far away. We are taught to swim from a tender age,” Nasheed said.

“44 percent of our workforce are fishermen, who spend more than half their lives on the sea, and many Maldivians looked up to famous surfers while growing up,” he said.

Nasheed dancing Bodu Beru with the surf champions

The relative seclusion of the country’s surf breaks compared to more famous surfing destinations such as Hawaii and Indonesia was not necessarily a bad thing, Nasheed said, “because we are not always clear about how to manage our resources. We have to use them wisely to benefit everyone.”

Nasheed told Occy that the Maldivian cabinet was not unfamiliar with the water, having conducted a cabinet meeting underwater in 2009. Occy asked if that was “the same as a cone of silence”.

Occy dedicated the champion’s trophy to Tony Hussain Hinde, the Australian-born surfer who pioneered modern surfing in the Maldives after becoming shipwrecked in the country, and who died in 2008.

Following the prize presentations, the six surfing legends, together with the President, Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair, cabinet ministers and several MPs of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) erupted into a spontaneous traditional Bodu Beru dance.

Final day of the competition

The six surfers, including two-time world champion Damien Hardman, four-time world champion Mark Richards, world longboard champion Josh Constable, 1966 world champion Nat Young and seven times female world champion Layne Beachley competed in one-, two- and three- fin divisions over the three days.

On the last day the Sultans reef break served up consistent four-foot right hand waves. During the final event, Occy required an 8.10 score to reclaim his lead, and waited patiently for a wave on which he delivered a 9 with full rail-to-rail maneuvers.

“I made a couple of mistakes, including losing priority, and I had to tell myself to just calm down,” Occy said of his performance.

“So I cleared my head and moved up the point where I needed to be and then a gem of a wave came through and I surfed it as good as I could and got that nine. I didn’t have one heat where I felt I was not under pressure. All those memories of being on tour came back and I had to rely on my instincts to win this event and now that I have, I am over the moon.”

Constable praised Occy as a “solid competitor”.

Reehan surfing with Layne Beachley

“I just couldn’t get him. He was on his game all week. I felt solid in the final and I had a good score but couldn’t get that back up so hats off to Occy.”

Sole female competitor Layne Beachley came close to taking the single fin division title from Occy in the final of the first day, and was only narrowly defeated.

“It’s been surreal competing against five male world champions and being a contender,” said Beachley, noting that such match-ups were rare in the surfing world due to the anatomical disadvantages women faced: “our hips get in the way.”

“I knew it was always going to be challenging but I stepped it up and gave them a run for their money,” she said.

Four-time world champion Mark Richards was forced to withdraw from the final day of the competition after suffering a hamstring injury, opening the way for Maldivian surfer Ali Reehan Mohamed to take to the water as a wildcard entry.

Grinning, the 18 year-old described that surf as “the best experience of my life.”

Confessing to an attack of nerves at being out among the world champions, Reehan said “I did my best to show them something.”

"Best experience of my life" - wildcard entry Reehan

“It was very friendly, we were sharing waves,” he said.

Reehan has been surfing for two years, after upgrading from “fighting the white water on a body board”. He has since made his hobby into his work, freelancing as a professional surf guide.

“I stopped my last trip just to come here – I gave it to someone else,” he said.

General Manager of the Kuda Huraa Four Seasons Resort, Sanjiv Hulugalle, said the HSBC, Billabong, Wataniya, Surfing World and Singapore Airlines-sponsored event would return next year.

“The aim was to showcase the Maldives as a world-class surfing destination,” Hulugalle said, “and the international media has broadcast it all over the world.”

Reehan agreed: “With the media here, Maldives surfing is only going to get bigger,” he said.

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Six surfing legends compete for trophy in inaugural Maldives comp

Australian surf legend Mark ‘Occy’ Occhilupo narrowly defeated seven-times female world champion Layne Beachley yesterday in the single fin division of the Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy.

Beachley knocked out two-time world champion Damien Hardman in the semi-final, while Occy defeated world longboard champion Josh Constable to go on to face Beachley.

The first day of the invitational event saw the six surf legends – Occy, Beachley, Constable, and Hardman, as well as four-time world champion Mark Richards and Nat Young, compete at the Sultans break near Four Season’s Kuda Huraa resort.

“This morning I surfed with Mark Richards and I kept on falling off in front of him and he said ‘I’m hexing you’, but it was the pressure of competing against my idol,” said Occy, following his win.

Speaking to Minivan News between heats, Beachley explained that it was unusual for female surfers to compete against men at such an elite level of the sport.

“The ability and depth of skill has really improved in women’s surfing and has helped bridge the gap in performance [at the professional level], but it’s not really fair to pit a lightweight boxer against a heavyweight,” she said. “One big difference is that our hips get in the way when we turn – it’s an anatomical disadvantage. It’s not a worry for recreational surfers but it matters at a professional level because women can never have the technical finesse of the top guys.”

Despite the camaraderie between the champions there was, Beachley noted, a very strong competitive undercurrent.

“When you’re surrounded by world champions there is a mutual respect because we know what it takes, but when we’re paddling out no one’s there to lose,” she said.

“It’s very competitive. No guy wants to lose to a girl. The boys are amped. Their pumped up, even if they’re pretending to play it down.”

Female professional surfers, Beachley observed, tended to take not just the sport but also their responsibility as role models for other female surfers very seriously, and most were “well-spoken ambassadors.”

Beachley herself was on a board at Manly beach in Sydney Australia by age four, competing in mens heats at 15 and turning professional just a year later. By the age of 20 she was ranked sixth in the world, and in 1998 went on to win the world championship for six consecutive years.

“I always took pride in training harder than anyone else. I would be doing boxing, swimming, dune running, weights and yoga. I had a very strict cross-training regime,” she told Minivan News.

Beachley's husband, INXS sax/guitarist Kirk Pengilly, gives his wife a quick massage between waves

Asked about developing the female surfing scene in the Maldives, Beachley suggested that female surfers should “band together, and make sure the guys understand that girls have as much right to be in the water as them. Then work your way up the food chain. Don’t cry victim, it’s not the best way to get respect. Instead show tenacity and confidence and let the guys know it.”

Beginner surfers, she noted, faced not just the technical challenges of learning the sport but also the unspoken etiquette and rules that could only be passed on by other surfers.

“Beginner surfers really need to utilise a surf school,” Beachley said, “not only to because they teach the fundamentals but also the unspoken etiquette. One of the problems with surfing is that the rules are unspoken.”

In contrast to many famously territorial surf destinations, Beachley said the Maldives had a reputation for hospitality and the breaks for being “playful, fun, user friendly, more relaxing and peaceful than places like Indonesia and Tahiti.”

The country’s reef breaks, she said, were more predictable than beach breaks in that they followed a certain shape, and were easier to read.

“With beaches you have to quickly adapt to changes. The advantage to a beach break is that a sandy bottom is softer to land on,” she laughed.

Local surfer ‘Bongo’ was on hand during the Four Seasons competition to help out with conditions.

“Sultans is a right-hander, a very good wave for beginners and intermediate surfers. It has an easy takeoff and a slow first section, with time for 1-2 turns, and a nice barrel inside. On a big day it’s still a challenge. I like hollow right-handers, because I’m a natural footer,” he said.

The day saw offshore winds and 2-3 foot waves, “clean and glassy”, according to Bongo.

The competition, he predicted, would be “good for tourism” given the international publicity the big names would generate.

“Apart from that, we’re lucky to be out here seeing the legends of surfing ripping,” he said.

The Maldives has “2-3 guys like Ibu and Issay who might be able to bust a few aerial maneuvers and maybe challenge these guys, but Occy is tough competition,” he said.

“There’s also the matter of the handicap in the scoring system – older guys get more time in the heats, so I reckon the younger surfers stand no chance.”

He acknowledged that the Maldives had few female surfers dedicated to the sport, “which is really sad.”

“We’ve had a few girls try out, and some of them did very well. The problem is that it’s not easy for them to be out surfing every day, and you take a lot of bumps in a shallow reef break. All surf breaks in the Maldives are reef breaks, which makes it difficult for beginners.”

Despite the laid-back reputation of the sport, surfing remains largely a male-dominated sport with a reputation for being fiercely territorial and hostile for beginners. This was less of a problem in the Maldives given the seclusion of most breaks and the country’s dependence on tourism, he suggested.

“The locals are much more laid back than other places like Hawaii or South Africa, you don’t see scenes like the Hui or Black Shorts here. It’s mainly because all these breaks are secluded and the country is dependent on tourism – everyone is really friendly,” Bongo said.

Dhonveli’s Pasta Point and Huduranfushi’s breaks were exclusive for tourists, he said, “although if we want to surf them we just need to give the resorts a ring and ask. There’s no problem for local surfers.”

Modern surfing was famously introduced to the Maldives by Australian national Tony Hussain Hind, who was shipwrecked in the country but on his departure saw so many perfect surf breaks that he turned around and made the Maldives his home.

“He introduced modern surfing, but before that locals would body surf using planks of wood,” Bongo said. “Really, the full history of surfing in the Maldives is unknown.”

The Four Seasons Maldives Surfing Champions Trophy continues over the next few days with the double fin and triple fin events.

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