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Tony Hussein at Pasta Point
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
"SURFING in Sindbad's shadow" was how Tony Hussein Hinde described his life. In 1973, the Sydneysider and his surfing buddy Mark Scanlon were shipwrecked in the Maldives when the yacht they were crewing across the Indian Ocean ran aground.
At that time, the islands were so cut off that there was not even a bank and few Maldivians had seen a foreigner. Realising that at age 21 he had already found his version of paradise, Hinde sent a postcard announcing, "I am 1000 colours from home." He stayed on to lead a life that, as they say, you couldn't make up.
Thirty-five years later, in late May 2008, he paddled out to surf the barrelling waves that wrap around Pasta Point, 14km north of the Maldivian capital, Male. In the decades since his first ecstatic rides across the virgin reefs of the Maldives, Hinde had seen the country go from having almost no visitors, other than castaways, to becoming an international destination that hosts almost a million tourists a year.
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While he had discovered, surfed and named almost every significant surf spot in the Maldives for 20 years, Pasta Point had been Hinde's backyard, his home break -- and his office. He had even come up with its nickname, in honour of an Italian resort's restaurant that once stood on the island.
The waves on that May day were not dangerous and he had surfed them thousands of times. After a good session, Hinde surfed his last wave in, pulled out safely, and died. Having lived the surfer's dream, at 55 he passed away, probably of a heart attack, doing what he loved best.
Pasta Point, my favourite surf spot in the Maldives, if not the world, belongs to tiny Kanuhuraa Island, home to Chaaya Island Dhonveli resort. For surfers it holds a double attraction. The reef-break wave, 100m offshore, is a perfect left that pivots almost mechanically around the point.
Moreover, the island legally owns the reef and only the resort's registered surfer guests may ride there; there are never more than 30 at any one time.
By the late 1980s, word had leaked out about the brilliant, uncrowded breaks to be found in these islands. Hinde, by then a Maldivian resident fluent in the local Dhivehi language and a convert to Islam, was married to a Maldivian woman and had a young family. He had to decide whether to watch other, perhaps less sympathetic, travel operators exploit this new territory or try to introduce ethical surf tourism in a way that benefited Maldivians.
He chose the latter and with his wife Zulfa, plus an agent in Australia, his friend Ian Lyon, set up a small travel company, Atoll Adventures. The first guests arrived in 1992.
The waters here are a confederacy of improbable blues around 1192 coral islands scattered along 750km of the Indian Ocean. Marco Polo called the Maldives' 26 atoll clusters "the flower of the Indies" -- and he saw them only from sea level. Look down from a floatplane as you skim towards the more distant atolls and you see what the explorer missed: tiny, reef-ringed islands that bloom like flowers on a cobalt sea. Fittingly, some scholars believe the name Maldives comes from a Sanskrit term meaning garland of islands.
Hinde is often referred to as the father of Maldives surfing. I think of him as its Johnny Appleseed, having planted his fins in virtually all the breaks now ridden annually by about 3000 surfing tourists and a growing number of Maldivians.
You won't find his Pasta Point on any map. Typical of surfing's eccentric, unofficial cartography, surf spots with names such as Colas, Chickens, Jailbreaks and Sultans bear witness to their discovery by Hinde and his friends.
He searched for and found surf hundreds of kilometres from Male. The formidable right-hand wave that he dubbed Yin-Yang breaks just across the channel from the luxurious Six Senses Laamu resort in far southern Haddhunmathi Atoll. Surfing it is an option the property highlights in its promotions; luxury and surfing are terms that once were never seen in the same sentence.
When Hinde and Scanlon went on their first surfari to Addu, the Maldives' southernmost atoll, in 1974, they did so in a 14m sailing dhoni crowded with 60 locals, and lived for weeks on fish and rice.
These days numerous surf charter boats with freshwater showers, airconditioned cabins, internet, bar, chef, Jet Skis and surf guides trawl the outer atolls for the best surf on any given day. At the top of the range, a seven-day Maldives surfari on a luxury vessel in the company of a celeb surfer can cost $10,000 or more.
"Hardly a sunrise goes by that I don't thank Allah for that shipwreck," Hinde often said. He was genial and gentle, a born raconteur, respectful of his adopted culture, a wit and a family man. Although living in an apparent surfer's paradise, his life was not beyond the shadow of misfortune.
He and Zulfa were preparing to retire to the NSW south coast. While there in late 2007, Zulfa was diagnosed with leukaemia and died soon after. They are buried together by the sea at Mollymook near Ulladulla.
The couple is survived by their son Ashley, 26, and daughter Mishal, 18. Along with a team of talented Maldivian surf guides, Ashley now manages the Atoll Adventures operation at Chaaya Island Dhonveli; the old resort where his father first hosted a handful of visiting surfers 21 years ago has been buffed up and expanded by subsequent owners to a comfortable honeymoon-dive-spa-surf property. Its original 24 rooms have grown to 149, including overwater bungalows.
The tariff, too, is now multiples of what it was when I first stayed there about 15 years ago. The 30 surfer guests from across the world are better-heeled than their budget predecessors, but still we sit for hours beneath the shade trees of Pasta Point, scanning the endless waves and the rides, and every now and then swapping tales of Tony Hussein Hinde.
- Story by John Borthwick Checklist
The peak season, December to March, is dry; low season, May to October, is generally wetter. March to November is best for Male Atoll surf; outer atoll swell seasons are March to May and August to November. Singapore Airlines flies from Australian ports to Male via Singapore. More: www.atolltravel.com
Nine years ago in PLB Vol 5#4, we ran a mega 6000 word article with some classic pics on Tony and Mark's crazy journey across the Indian Ocean in the hands of a heroin-addicted skipper and his pet monkey, and their shipwreck and subsequent discovery of surf in the atolls.
Check out "Back Issues" in The PLB Shop if you'd like a copy.
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| The pioneer, Tony Hussein Hinde |
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| Mixed rack at Pasta Point, Chaaya Island Donveli resort. Photos:John Borthwick |
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| PLB Vol 5#4, with the definitive 6000 word article and historical pics on Tony and Mark's shipwreck discovery of surf in the atolls |
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