Can newbie divers enjoy diving in the Maldives?

[Dan]

Flying all the way to Maldives and dive benign sites?
Why not!

You got a good point there. My 20-hour flight from Houston to Male costed as much as a week of liveaboard trip on Central Maldives route. LOL

 

[Darnold9999]

Something to factor in. My first trip to Raja Ampat was on a liveaboard that had 4 new divers. The boat made sure that most of the sites we dove on that trip were accessible for this group of new divers. I had a great time and was very happy with the trip. However my second trip to RA had no new divers. I recall that at roughly 500 dives I was the least experienced diver on the boat. A much different experience - even diving the same sites. If I had done the first trip after the second I would have been very disappointed that we were missing out much of the best diving to accommodate the new divers.

You don’t need 500 dives to do these destinations but if you want to do them as beginners then a resort is a better option IMHO.

I think your decision to dive Belize is an excellent choice. It won’t get you comfortable in current but it is a great place do get really comfortable diving so you can add more task loading. Like negative entries, currents, SMB deployment in the blue and reef hook deployment which you will need to be able to do comfortably to dive these more advanced locations.

You might consider the Red Sea after Belize and before Maldives and RA. Sort of the next stage on your journey.

The Red Sea is way better diving than the Caribbean and requires some of the same skills on some dives. I went there after RA and found it disappointing in comparison. Should have done it first. Would have found it spectacular in comparison to the Caribbean.

 

[Centrals]

I think that perhaps I will postpone our Maldives trip for now and go when we have a bit more experience and can fully take advantage of the opportunities there.
It seems like Belize would be a good alternative. Lots of reef to explore and opportunities for shallower dives. Plenty of shore activities for non-diving days. Closer to home so we're not travelling 2 days to get there. January seems like a good time to go to Belize, so it fits our schedule well.

Enjoy your trips and when you are ready you will return to SE Asia again and again.
The "Coral Triangle".

 

[Russjstewart]

No negative entries ever?

I'm not questioning your candor. I'm merely surprised.

I actually learned to really enjoy negative entries which is one of the reasons that I said that my diving had changed so much after experiencing Maldives.

No negative entries, we had a couple of dives where lingering on the surface was not a good idea. I do not know if it was a case of dumb luck or the Dive Ops local knowledge had us in the right spot. Good Manta experiences though

 

[NootFish]

My recent Real Time Review of Maldives Deep South trip may provide you some impression whether you are ready or not to dive in Maldives: Carpe Vita Real Time Review: March 7-18, 2021 Trip to Maldives Deep South

At Nilandhoo Kandu (channel), hence, a channel diving, where we had to use reef hook, the current was so stiff and varied (pulling me side to side) causing my coil wire of the reef hook to over stretch, fatigue and broke. I got blown away. Luckily I went underneath DM, who was behind me, and he was able to grab on my BCD shoulder strap. I also was able to grab on a pocket on the rock underneath him. That was happening around 93 feet depth. After our NDL reached close to zero (26 minutes bottom time), he crawled up against the current to retrieve my reef hook and then we drifted to the shallow.

The lesson learnt on that dive is don’t get a coil-wire reef hook. Get yourself a rope (preferably rock climbing rope) that can stretch and take the force at least twice of your body weight.

Also you need to learn how to use the reef hook and when to hook it. Before jumping into the water you need to have the reef hook set up & tied on your BCD.

To tie on the reef hook onto your BCD, we typically loop the tail end of the rope around BCD left & right waist D-rings and clip the tail end clip back on to the rope. So when the force exerted on the rope, your body would be pulled evenly at the center of your body, i.e., you’ll be facing squarely against the current, not side way. We secure the reef hook end by tucking it in between the wetsuit & BCD belly strap or wherever it would be easier for you to grab & pull with one hand. I have another clip on my reef hook end so I can clip the reef hook to my chest D-ring.

How and when to hook in would also require some training. We typically start to descend in the blue water, away from the Kandu, where the current is mild. You would go deeper than the reef ledge. As you are approaching the ledge, you grab the reef hook end and hold it on your hand. I’m lefty, so I hold the reef hook with my left hand. My right hand would be busy anyway for holding my camera rig. As you are ascending and approaching the reef ledge, you can start noticing that the current starts to pick up. As you pass the ledge within an arm length away, you need to quickly find a rock crevice to hook on and hook it as soon as you can. Then you can let go the reef hook off your hand. Put a little bit of air into your BCD to put some tension on the rope if the current is mild. Don’t put too much air into your BCD where you might jeopardizing yourself of shooting up to the surface if the reef hook came undone. You won’t need much air in the BCD when the current is stiff.

If you miss the hook in, then there goes the Kandu diving. You’ll be blown away to the shallow and end up doing a drift dive. This is when you need to deploy your DSMB at depth so the boat can track you down before getting lost at sea. So, you will need to learn how to deploy DSMB at depth. The deeper you deploy it, the less air you need to blow into it and the quicker the boat to spot where you are.

After reading your stories about reef hooks in the madlives, I assembled my own for my trip. A durable steel double hook that would not break and 4 feet of paracord (rainbow, for pride!) and a clip-biner on the other end.

 

[Dan]

After reading your stories about reef hooks in the madlives, I assembled my own for my trip. A durable steel double hook that would not break and 4 feet of paracord (rainbow, for pride!) and a clip-biner on the other end.

I have 3 reef hooks, as shown, below, from left to right, worst, better, best.

The Worst one
The metal coil would eventually fatigue at the crimped end, as mentioned in my earlier post. The small double reef hooks is limited to a big crevice that fits both hooks. If you hook one of them on a small crevice, the point of contact would be at an angle < 180 degrees. I had experience of the hook actually bent and came unhooked and I got blown away when I was in Magic Mountain, Misool, Raja Ampat. You can see the hooks are flared out in the picture.

The Better one
I bought it while I was in Komodo diving with Mermaid1. It works OK. The hook doesn’t curve into quite 180 degrees and no clip on the hook end to mount it at chest D-ring. So you need to tuck the hook in your BCD tummy strap.

The Best one
This hook curves around to 180 degrees. So it fits to any crevices, big or small. The point of contact will be the same direction (streamlined) with the current. It has clips on both ends. I use 6-foot rock climbing rope, as you see in the second picture (each tile floor section is a foot square).

All those reef hooks have 6-foot long rope / wire.

Here is a good video about reef hook:

 

[NootFish]

I have 3 reef hooks, as shown, below, from left to right, worst, better, best.

The Worst one
The metal coil would eventually fatigue at the crimped end, as mentioned in my earlier post. The small double reef hooks is limited to a big crevice that fits both hooks. If you hook one of them on a small crevice, the point of contact would be at an angle < 180 degrees. I had experience of the hook actually bent and came unhooked and I got blown away when I was in Magic Mountain, Misool, Raja Ampat. You can see the hooks are flared out in the picture.

The Better one
I bought it while I was in Komodo diving with Mermaid1. It works OK. The hook doesn’t curve into quite 180 degrees and no clip on the hook end to mount it at chest D-ring. So you need to tuck the hook in your BCD tummy strap.

The Best one
This hook curves around to 180 degrees. So it fits to any crevices, big or small. The point of contact will be the same direction (streamlined) with the current. It has clips on both ends. I use 6-foot rock climbing rope, as you see in the second picture (each tile floor section is a foot square).

All those reef hooks have 6-foot long rope / wire.

View attachment 663158 View attachment 663159

Here is a good video about reef hook:

I miss Magic Mountain!!!!! And Mermaid I. And Raja Ampat.

Very happy that diving in the Maldives is an option, but I think I left a part of my heart in Indonesia.

 

[Dan]

I miss Magic Mountain!!!!! And Mermaid I. And Raja Ampat.

Very happy that diving in the Mal
dives is an option, but I think I left a part of my heart in Indonesia.

Me too. I was there in end of Jan 2020, before all hell broke loose.

We have booked a trip back to Raja Ampat (for the 9th time) on Blue Manta in February 2022. Hopefully Indonesia will be open by then.

 

[Scuba Client]

I'm looking for a trip to book in January.

My wife and I are newly certified divers.

We've already booked a week in Jamaica, and 2 weeks in Cozumel this summer and fall.

I'm trying to decide on a trip for us in January. The Maldives looks like a beautiful spot. Considering staying at a dive-centric resort for a week or so.

I mentioned the Maldives to a guy with a fair amount of scuba experience (who has never been to the Maldives.)

He was of the opinion that the Maldives is not a newbie friendly location and it would be borderline dangerous for us to try to dive there. He said we should go to Grand Cayman instead.

Is this true? Is the Maldives for expert divers only?

I travel to many hotspots around the world and am not perturbed. A well-seasoned traveler gave me some expert advice. Victim mentality victim reality. What it means: if you act like a rabbit you will be hunted. Act like a wolf.

 

[Dan]

I travel to many hotspots around the world and am not perturbed. A well-seasoned traveler gave me some expert advice. Victim mentality victim reality. What it means: if you act like a rabbit you will be hunted. Act like a wolf.

True, but you should ease into it. You don’t ski on the Black Diamond route at first. You start with the Green, then Blue before getting to the Black Diamond route.

Same with diving. I started with Caribbean for 5 years before venturing to Red Sea, Maldives then ultimately to Indonesia.