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Atoll AdventuresAtoll Adventures Pvt Ltd (Maldives) is a registered tour operator and the first specialist surfing operator in the Maldives. Atoll Adventures was established in 1989 by Tony Hussein Hinde, the pioneer of Maldives surfing. His goal was to lead the responsible development of commercial surf travel in the country and provide the best possible surfing trips for his clients. |
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Atoll Adventures Surfing Trips Atoll Adventures is the most established operator of surfing trips in the Maldives. All our surfing holiday tours are planned and operated to the highest standards, with an in-depth understanding of the needs of international travelling surfers. Atoll Adventures staff, based at the Chaaya Dhonveli resort, are committed to our guests getting the most surfing value from their holiday. Our Operations Manager continuously monitors surf conditions and makes sure that boats are always available to take surfers to the breaks that are working best at the time. Our boats are equipped with modern radios and communicate with each other and the island, for the latest information on surf conditions and surfer numbers, and as a safety precaution. Atoll Adventures surf guides are bilingual Maldivian surfers who know the waves and the local conditions. They are also great company and a fascinating source of information about the Maldives and its people. |
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Ashley Hussein Hinde: CEO Raised in the Maldives, Ashley was educated in India and Australia. He deferred his studies at Sydney University after the death of his father in 2008, returning to the Maldives to take responsibility for the business side of Atoll Adventures. With an understanding of both Maldivian and Western cultures and a rediscovered passion for surfing, he is well placed to ensure that our clients will continue to enjoy the very best surf travel experience in the Maldives. |
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Dara: Operations Manager Dara has been surfing since he was a kid, and has worked with Atoll Adventures for more than 16 years. Only a few of the most experienced local surfers can match his intimate knowledge of the Maldives' surf breaks and conditions. Dara's other passion is photography, specialising in surf, underwater and island images. (Many of the photos on this website are from Dara's Oceanswell collection). |
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Madey: Surf Guide |
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Curran: Surf Guide The newest member of the Atoll Adventures team, Curran has been cutting up the Maldives surf since he was a kid growing up in Male. He's a cool guy who has developed over the past season into a very professional guide who really knows his way around the local waves. |
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Tony 'Honky' Hussein Hinde & the Atoll Adventures Story |
| Tony Hinde was born in
1953, one of nine children. He grew up in Maroubra, a southern Sydney
suburb, where he started surfing at an early age. After leaving
school he went travelling
in search of surf and adventure, and worked in mining areas of Western Australia. In 1973, with his mate Mark Scanlon, he hitched a lift on a private yacht sailing from Sri Lanka to South Africa. A few nights later, the yacht was wrecked on a reef in the Maldives, a little known, isolated and almost inaccessible island nation. Next morning, Tony and Scanno saw the crystal clear water washing over pristine coral reefs, and realised the potential for great surf. Following the months of salvage work, the southern swells arrived and they knew they had found a surfing paradise. They cruised the atolls in a tradional dhoni (Maldivian fishing boat), finding perfect waves and unspoiled beaches, and meeting local people who had never encountered a foreigner. |
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| Tony spent the next 15
years living on the island of Himmafushi, assimilating into the culture
and learning Divehi, the Maldivian language. He discovered, surfed
and named all the main breaks in North and South Male Atolls. The
long, left-hander on Thaburudhoo island is named Honky's,
after Tony's nickname. He also explored breaks in the southern atolls that are still only accessible to visitors on live-aboard boats. For over a decade the Maldives was the best kept secret in surfing and Tony had the waves to himself. He shared the secret with Scanno and a few tight-lipped mates who visited, and with the young Maldivians he introduced to surfing. In 1983, after many months of supervised courtship, Tony married Zulfa Ismail, a Maldivian lady from Male, the Maldives capital. He formally adopted the Muslim religion and added the traditional 'Hussein' to his name. They had two children, a son and a daughter, and the young family lived in Male. |
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| In the 1980s Tony began
to arrange private surf tours for those in the know. As Maldives tourism
expanded, he recognised that the development of commercial surf travel
was inevitable, and determined that it should be done in a responsible manner. In 1989 he established Atoll Adventures Pvt Ltd (Maldives) as a registered tour operator and the first specialist surfing operator in the Maldives. Atoll Adventures partnered with an Australian surf travel agent to offer Maldives surfing trips to the international market. Atoll Adventures became the sole operator of surfing at the (then) Thari Village resort, in the heart of the Maldives best surf zone. It was the perfect surf resort with a brilliantly consistent left hand wave breaking at "Pasta Point", on the southern tip of the island. It is a longstanding Maldivian convention that villages and resorts have exclusive access to their own island's reefs for fishing and diving. Atoll Adventures was able to apply this principle to the Pasta Point surf break, allowing Tony to operate a sustainable surf program without overcrowding. . |
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With word-of-mouth advertising and a
growing reputation for the professional operation of its tours,
Atoll Adventures catered to an ever increasing demand for resort-based
surfing at Pasta Point and boat-based surfaris. Zulfa took charge
of the administration and management of the business. For Tony,
it meant taking responsibility for increasing numbers of guests
from around the world, and training the guides who have always ensured the safety of visiting surfers. |
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| Tony continued to lead
an adventurous life, traveling regularly to Sri Lanka, India and Australia,
and surviving several crises - civil strife in Sri Lanka in 1983;
a coup attempt in Male in 1988; and the tsunami on the south coast
of Sri Lanka in 2004. He and Zulfa purchased property at Ulladulla, on the south coast of NSW as a long term retirement plan. In January 2008, Zulfa died there while under treatment for leukemia. This was a huge loss for Tony and for the Atoll Adventures company, but Tony returned to the Maldives to oversee operations for the 2008 surf season. On the afternoon of 27 May 2008, Tony was surfing at Pasta Point, finished a wave and did not surface, apparently after suffering a fatal heart attack. Seeing him face down in the water, other surfers and local surf guides pulled him out and performed CPR. The resort's doctor saw him within minutes, but was unable to save him. Last rites, in the Muslim tradition, were performed at Male’s ADK Clinic. |
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Tony's body was flown back to Australia, to be buried next to Zulfa
at Mollymook cemetery on the NSW south coast. A large group of family,
friends and surfing mates gathered at Mollymook Surf Club to remember
him. Surfers held Paddle Out ceremonies at south Mollymook Beach
and at Varunulaa Raalhugandu in Male. A final Paddle Out of local and professional surfers occurred the following week at the WQS contest at Pasta Point. |
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