Maldives Forecast

Actually, we've had it configured in the backend since the new website went live but just haven't got around to pushing it to the public website yet (along with a thousand-odd locations across North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia etc). We're hoping to get around to this in the next few weeks.

FP, what part of the Maldives are you going to and when? I'll do up a forecast for ya if ya want?

Ummmmm, June 15 is over a month away mate. Come back and see me in 2-3 weeks time and I'll have a better idea. And Kandooma only picks up SE swell, which means the fetch is between the Maldives and the west coast of Aus, so travel times are less than for other locations in the Indian Ocean, hence even 16 day forecasts aren't overly reliable.

I have just got back from Kandooma and the day that I got there, Magicseaweed were forecasting 1-2 foot swell with a 2 foot wave and Natives was actually WELL overhead. The rest of the time their forecasts were just as bad so an accurate forecast would be fantastic for future trips.

donweather is more accurate than magic seaweed - he was pretty much spot on when i was there season before last.....

Cheers Maddog. Kandooma area is a little out of my expertise though as I've never surfed that area hence I don't know how much swell gets in there. But I'll still give it a shot.

The coming two weeks are looking great FP with a couple of good S'ly groundswells and then a solid SE trade-swell, but the ridge creating the trade-swell looks to break down around the 14th and this will result in a steady drop in swell as you arrive. Bit too hard to go any further than this at this stage.

FP at a very quick glance it looks like you should have some good 3-4ft+ SE swell for the first few days you arrive, waning slowly throughout your first week, but this is still some time away (partic for the end of your first week) so likely to change around a bit as the models tighten up there forecasts over the coming week.

I'm not sure what direction Craig is referring too when he's talking about the S'ly swell but my understanding is that anything south and west of south doesn't get into kandooma. You want swells east of south.

Winds look stupendously strong offshore based on current forecasts too so that could make conditions a little challenging.

Also just checked the latest long range GFS charts and you should be praying for the rare S/SE fetch that appears on the SW flank of the low pressure system progged to deepen in the SE Indian Ocean around Tues 17th June.

http://www.swellnet.com/reports/indonesia/sumatra/simeulue-island/wams

Of course this is a mile off in terms of chart reliability so it ain't ever gonna happen!!! ;)

I was referring to the Southern Atolls re S'ly groundswell sorry. And looking again, that ridge looks to strengthen just on the periphery of the Maldvies swell window. So side-band S/SE energy is on the cards, although that front pushing up from the south-southeast early next week should generate a better pulse for the weekend just before you arrive.

Does the Male region pick up this trade-swell fairly well Don?

Male region ONLY picks up the S/SE tradeswell Craig. My understanding (again I've not much experience in this area) is Kandooma needs more SE swell than say the North Male atolls in order to get good waves due to the atolls to it's south (south of Kandooma).

Have a look at that hook shaped atoll to the SE of Kandooma. Blocks any real south swell.