I have an opportunity to dive in Kuredu in October. Has anyone got any thoughts, views or advice?
Thanks
Thanks
Maldives - Kuredu Diving?
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pelan-pelan
Contributor
Try searching the web. I've found lots of information on the Maldives there. I don't know which dive outfit runs the dive centre there but I would check out their web-site and ask. We have dived with Pro-Divers on Vakarufalhi and I know they have dive operations on other islands. If it's them I can say that they gave a cheerful, efficient, professional service and tried hard to ensure that divers of all levels had a good experience.
OP
Thanks Phelan
I've had a look at a lot of the web stuff but I was just looking for some personal experiences to back it up.
Cheers
I've had a look at a lot of the web stuff but I was just looking for some personal experiences to back it up.
Cheers
I have been once at Kuredu and once at Komando (island almost next to Kuredu). Kuredu in November 2002, Komando in November 2003. Dive op on both islands is operated by Pro Divers (http://www.prodivers.com/. Link to the site of the island: http://www.kuredu.com/
On the island: Kuredu is (I think) the largest resort island in the Maldives. This results in both good and bad things. How bad depends also on what you are looking for.
If I remember correctly all the bungalows have a reasonable distance between them. Some of them are fairly old, while we were the first to stay in new ones build just before we arived (on the map which is on their site: #5 are the new bungalows, #14 the old ones). All facilities (incl. restaurant and dive op) are in the middle of the island, considering the size, it may take some time to walk there if you are unlucky (my guess: 10 min max). Although this does not sound like a lot, if you have to do it a couple of times a day (breakie, lunch, diner and 2 dives) you get fed up with it pretty quickly. Especially if you just before the dive boat leaves realise you left something in the bungalow. Island is car free. In fact, you can take of your shoes when you arrive and only put them back on when you leave.
The number of guests on the island results in the dining halls (there are 2 of them) being huge, although it didn't impact the quality of the food. It also makes that there is some night-life (at some of the smaller islands not much is happening after 10pm) and a-la carte restaurants.
Kuredu is also one of the cheaper islands in the Maldive (as far as you can call any island in the Maldives cheap), which shows in the people visiting (this makes me sound like a snob, but I hope you understand what I mean). Visitors are mainly from UK/Germany/Scandanavia.
I prefer Komando, which is much smaller, resulting in a different feel (but without the night-life and choice in restaurants, both of which I don't care about).
On the diving:
Pro Divers is well organised. Looking at their site, it looks like most of the key persons are still around. They do a dive each morning and afternoon. Every now and then there are early morning/night dives and double tank/all day trips (visiting the more remote dive sites). They have nitrox (without extra charge if I remember correctly).
All boat diving is done from a Doni (local type of boat) and are drift dives. Doni is there when you surface, you hand up your fins and climb on board. There is a lot of space to leave your gear on the deck (although it is not really organised, all sets are just put next to each other). Average boat trip is 20 min. Shortest is 5 min, going up to 45 min. Front of Doni can be used as makeshift sundeck (don't forget a beach towel), while back is covered to create some shade. At the time I was there, no specific tables for cameras existed, although there was enough space at the back of the boat where you could leave them with minimal risk of damage (and considering the increase in people with cameras, it would not suprise me if this has changed). No heads on board, but a quick swim after the dives sorts that problem for almost everybody. Water is 28 degrees Celsius (sorry, am European, don't have a clue what that is in Fahrenheit), so jumping back in after taking off your wetsuit is not really an issue.
The number of guests on the island means that most mornings/afternoons more than 1 boat is used (I think they had 4 or 5 donis at the time I was there).
You can do a dive on the house reef on Kuredu, is a nice dive, but not what you come to the Maldives for. House reef even has its own 'wreck'. It does however mean that you can do a bit of snorkeling, if you want, directly from the beach. Can be surprisling good (have seen eagle rays and sharks while snorkeling)
Diving is 'normal' Maldivian diving. A number of thillas (bommies) in the middle of the atol, wall dives on the outside of the atol and dives at the corners where there are channels into the atol. There are only three resort islands in the atol and a large number of dive sites, which means that dive sites are not crowded. I have in 40 dives never seen two donis at the same site.
Looking over the list of dive sites and my log brought back some good memories. Some of the top sites:
Kuredu express: one of the best dives you can do, almost next to the island. Dive is corner of out reef where channel into atol cuts in. Always a lot of current, which attracts grey reef sharks. Drop in at the inside (negative entry), go down to 20-30m, enjoy the action while holding on to some large stones. After a couple of minutes, let go, drift around the corner and have a great wall dive with a lot of smaller stuff. Back on the island in 10 minutes after everybody is back on board.
Kuredu caves: wall dive, turtles guaranteed.
Fushivaru Thila: manta cleaning station (although they are never there when I am). Still a good dive.
On most of my dives I have seen napeleons (Maori wrasse), morays, eagly/sting rays, sweetlips, etc. Maldives is not really soft-coral country (I was suprised what I saw in Fiji), but hard coral is good. There has been bleaching, but you could already see a lot of coral growth between 2002 and 2003, so I would expect a bit more by now.
Let me know if you have other specific questions.
Regards,
Deur
PS make sure you take a waterplane flight to the island, you dont' want to spend 2 days on a boat getting to and from the island.
On the island: Kuredu is (I think) the largest resort island in the Maldives. This results in both good and bad things. How bad depends also on what you are looking for.
If I remember correctly all the bungalows have a reasonable distance between them. Some of them are fairly old, while we were the first to stay in new ones build just before we arived (on the map which is on their site: #5 are the new bungalows, #14 the old ones). All facilities (incl. restaurant and dive op) are in the middle of the island, considering the size, it may take some time to walk there if you are unlucky (my guess: 10 min max). Although this does not sound like a lot, if you have to do it a couple of times a day (breakie, lunch, diner and 2 dives) you get fed up with it pretty quickly. Especially if you just before the dive boat leaves realise you left something in the bungalow. Island is car free. In fact, you can take of your shoes when you arrive and only put them back on when you leave.
The number of guests on the island results in the dining halls (there are 2 of them) being huge, although it didn't impact the quality of the food. It also makes that there is some night-life (at some of the smaller islands not much is happening after 10pm) and a-la carte restaurants.
Kuredu is also one of the cheaper islands in the Maldive (as far as you can call any island in the Maldives cheap), which shows in the people visiting (this makes me sound like a snob, but I hope you understand what I mean). Visitors are mainly from UK/Germany/Scandanavia.
I prefer Komando, which is much smaller, resulting in a different feel (but without the night-life and choice in restaurants, both of which I don't care about).
On the diving:
Pro Divers is well organised. Looking at their site, it looks like most of the key persons are still around. They do a dive each morning and afternoon. Every now and then there are early morning/night dives and double tank/all day trips (visiting the more remote dive sites). They have nitrox (without extra charge if I remember correctly).
All boat diving is done from a Doni (local type of boat) and are drift dives. Doni is there when you surface, you hand up your fins and climb on board. There is a lot of space to leave your gear on the deck (although it is not really organised, all sets are just put next to each other). Average boat trip is 20 min. Shortest is 5 min, going up to 45 min. Front of Doni can be used as makeshift sundeck (don't forget a beach towel), while back is covered to create some shade. At the time I was there, no specific tables for cameras existed, although there was enough space at the back of the boat where you could leave them with minimal risk of damage (and considering the increase in people with cameras, it would not suprise me if this has changed). No heads on board, but a quick swim after the dives sorts that problem for almost everybody. Water is 28 degrees Celsius (sorry, am European, don't have a clue what that is in Fahrenheit), so jumping back in after taking off your wetsuit is not really an issue.
The number of guests on the island means that most mornings/afternoons more than 1 boat is used (I think they had 4 or 5 donis at the time I was there).
You can do a dive on the house reef on Kuredu, is a nice dive, but not what you come to the Maldives for. House reef even has its own 'wreck'. It does however mean that you can do a bit of snorkeling, if you want, directly from the beach. Can be surprisling good (have seen eagle rays and sharks while snorkeling)
Diving is 'normal' Maldivian diving. A number of thillas (bommies) in the middle of the atol, wall dives on the outside of the atol and dives at the corners where there are channels into the atol. There are only three resort islands in the atol and a large number of dive sites, which means that dive sites are not crowded. I have in 40 dives never seen two donis at the same site.
Looking over the list of dive sites and my log brought back some good memories. Some of the top sites:
Kuredu express: one of the best dives you can do, almost next to the island. Dive is corner of out reef where channel into atol cuts in. Always a lot of current, which attracts grey reef sharks. Drop in at the inside (negative entry), go down to 20-30m, enjoy the action while holding on to some large stones. After a couple of minutes, let go, drift around the corner and have a great wall dive with a lot of smaller stuff. Back on the island in 10 minutes after everybody is back on board.
Kuredu caves: wall dive, turtles guaranteed.
Fushivaru Thila: manta cleaning station (although they are never there when I am). Still a good dive.
On most of my dives I have seen napeleons (Maori wrasse), morays, eagly/sting rays, sweetlips, etc. Maldives is not really soft-coral country (I was suprised what I saw in Fiji), but hard coral is good. There has been bleaching, but you could already see a lot of coral growth between 2002 and 2003, so I would expect a bit more by now.
Let me know if you have other specific questions.
Regards,
Deur
PS make sure you take a waterplane flight to the island, you dont' want to spend 2 days on a boat getting to and from the island.
OP
That's really great Deur. Thanks so much for the comprehensive experience.
I will definitely take heed of the advice.
Cheers
I will definitely take heed of the advice.
Cheers
http://www.geocities.com/finchbee/Home.html
Hi. My wife and I went on our honeymoon to Kuredu. We had the most fantastic two weeks we loved the island, the staff etc !!
Website shows some of the pictures
We did our Open Water there and the Dive Centre and staff where surperb. Very friendly and helpful. Mueen was a top bloke who taught our Open Water. My wife was so keen to dive but she struggled with letting water in to her mask. He helped so much and she got through it am memory I will always cherish
On our first open water dive we paused the training because we spotted a White Tip which when then pursued. The house reef was good. We saw a leopard shark ! Other dives we did we saw Turtles. 3 Morays in cave which is rare. Grey reef sharks and loads more.
The standard of the boats and equipment were brilliant.
The final word on it was we came back from Egypt in April and were so disapppointed because the experience we had in Kuredu was so good.
Hi. My wife and I went on our honeymoon to Kuredu. We had the most fantastic two weeks we loved the island, the staff etc !!
Website shows some of the pictures
We did our Open Water there and the Dive Centre and staff where surperb. Very friendly and helpful. Mueen was a top bloke who taught our Open Water. My wife was so keen to dive but she struggled with letting water in to her mask. He helped so much and she got through it am memory I will always cherish
On our first open water dive we paused the training because we spotted a White Tip which when then pursued. The house reef was good. We saw a leopard shark ! Other dives we did we saw Turtles. 3 Morays in cave which is rare. Grey reef sharks and loads more.
The standard of the boats and equipment were brilliant.
The final word on it was we came back from Egypt in April and were so disapppointed because the experience we had in Kuredu was so good.
OP
Thanks Finchbee
Very helpful and it sounds like you were very spoiled on you OW course. Many people have to put up with a muddy pond in Leicestershire!
Cheers
Very helpful and it sounds like you were very spoiled on you OW course. Many people have to put up with a muddy pond in Leicestershire!
Cheers
pelan-pelan
Contributor
Oh no, not the muddy pond in Leicestershire. Bad, bad, bad memories. So much neoprene, borrowed fins that were excessively buoyant. Much rock and roll and I ain't talking Elvis.
Interesting posts on the Maldives. I can confirm that nitrox is free on Vakarufalhi with ProDivers, presume the same throughout their operations. Note - ProDivers do discounts and freebies for returning divers, so do your maths with pre-booked packages or choose to pay when there. They give swift, helpful response to emails - so you can always get the information you need.
Interesting posts on the Maldives. I can confirm that nitrox is free on Vakarufalhi with ProDivers, presume the same throughout their operations. Note - ProDivers do discounts and freebies for returning divers, so do your maths with pre-booked packages or choose to pay when there. They give swift, helpful response to emails - so you can always get the information you need.
OP
Thanks Phelan - I will probably email them nearer the time as you suggest.
Cheers
Cheers
OP
Just bringing this post back to the top as I leave in 3 weeks time.
Does anyone know if this is a good time for mantas at the cleaning station(s) around Kuredu?
Thanks
Does anyone know if this is a good time for mantas at the cleaning station(s) around Kuredu?
Thanks
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