Thulusdhoo

Thulusdhoo is the surf island of Kaafu Atoll, and it wears that identity plainly. Two of the best-known breaks in the country sit within sight of the shore — Cokes, named after the Coca-Cola bottling plant on the island, and Chickens a little further along. On a good swell the line-up fills with people who came for nothing else.

The island itself is bigger and busier than most local islands, with a working harbour, a boatyard and the plant that gave the wave its name. That gives Thulusdhoo a different texture from the quieter guesthouse islands: it was a place with a job before it was a place with visitors, and it still is.

For a non-surfer the appeal is the same lagoon and the same reef at a fraction of resort money, with more going on than a village of four hundred people can offer. For a surfer the appeal is obvious, with the caveat that the breaks are reef breaks and the season matters more here than almost anywhere else in the Maldives.