Can newbie divers enjoy diving in the Maldives?

[scubaozy]

What would be minimum requirements re. diver's experience to be able to take every dive Maldives have to offer? From tourist point of view.

Hard to answer that but I guess minimum 5 yes answers to below, you can enjoy with supervision with 10 you can truly enjoy and dive without the guide.

I have more than 50 dives
I feel confident that I can do a negative entry into the current and am able to swim down quickly to the Thila without loosing contact with the Thila, my buddy and rest of the people you are diving with.
I know what to do if I am caught in a washing machine as well as down/up current
I know how to adjust my speed by flaring in a drift
I know how to use a reef hook in the current
I usually see the current strength and direction before getting into it
I know how to use topology to shelter from current
I can comfortably deploy dsmb in the blue with current and complete my safety/decompression stop
I am good at managing my NDL and gas
I am Nitrox certified

 

[chillyinCanada]

Omg yes this too ^^^

 

[stiebs]

We were diving at "Banana Reef" just outside Male. It was brutal and at the end of the dive the dive boat had a hard time to pick up 14 divers scattered everywhere on the surface!!! The only time in my diving adventure that the current simply peeled me off the rock that I was holding with both hands!

Banana Reef rang a bell, so I just looked up my dive log for the Maldives, and this is what I wrote for Banana Reef:

Strong current straight from the start, about the same as Port Philip drift. At one point a huge down draft moved as along even faster and shot us around a large coral outcrop, after which the current dropped to almost nothing. After signalling to ascend when I hit 50 bar, someone came to me looking for air. After sharing on the safety stop, I surfaced with less than 20 bar.

For context, I'm a Melbourne (Australia) local, and our Port Philip Bay has strong ebb and flood currents. A drift often runs between 5-8 knots. Obviously one of the other divers wasn't quite as comfortable as I was in the current, and was either exerting themselves too much or was breathing heavily due to discomfort or anxiety, and on top of that wasn't watching their gas consumption.

I'll also add that our local boat dives often see 2m swells as well as current and surge. And the water gets to 19ºC (65ºF) in the summer. I learned to dive in these conditions. Diving in the Maldives was a breeze. If you've learned to dive in more forgiving timid waters, I can see that it would be advantageous to have more dives under your belt.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Banana Reef rang a bell, so I just looked up my dive log for the Maldives, and this is what I wrote for Banana Reef:


For context, I'm a Melbourne (Australia) local, and our Port Philip Bay has strong ebb and flood currents. A drift often runs between 5-8 knots. Obviously one of the other divers wasn't quite as comfortable as I was in the current, and was either exerting themselves too much or was breathing heavily due to discomfort or anxiety, and on top of that wasn't watching their gas consumption.

I'll also add that our local boat dives often see 2m swells as well as current and surge. And the water gets to 19ºC (65ºF) in the summer. I learned to dive in these conditions. Diving in the Maldives was a breeze. If you've learned to dive in more forgiving timid waters, I can see that it would be advantageous to have more dives under your belt.

No question. The current diving is something else! You certainly won't experience it in Jamaica and may get some current spice experience in Cozumel but that doesn’t mean that you'll be ready for the Maldives.

 

[Russjstewart]

For what it is worth, we did a trip in Jan 2018 to an Island in the South Ari Atoll, staying on a local island. The area may have lacked some of the wow factor other people here talk about, but we found it very enjoyable. No negative entries, no excessive current. No whale sharks Small groups. Talk to the operators in the area you want to go to. I am sure you can find good diving to suit your experience level.

 

[chillyinCanada]

For what it is worth, we did a trip in Jan 2018 to an Island in the South Ari Atoll, staying on a local island. The area may have lacked some of the wow factor other people here talk about, but we found it very enjoyable. No negative entries, no excessive current. No whale sharks Small groups. Talk to the operators in the area you want to go to. I am sure you can find good diving to suit your experience level.

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.

 

[ssssnake529]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice.

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.

 

[Dan]

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.

 

[Hippocampus01]

Those that are telling you that you don’t have the experience for the Maldives are wrong. We learned to dive there. We were both very comfortable in the water, and within a couple of weeks had been in reasonable current, mastered negative entries etc. We have, now, done over 500 dives there, mostly in the early days.
You will be fine in a resort. They will assess your comfort level, and lead you on dives accordingly. Many of the dives are along long reefs, so even if there is a current, they will pick you up wherever you end up and know exactly where to find you. The top of many of these reefs are within 5m of the surface, so safety stops are easy, you can hang on to a piece of bare rock whatever the conditions. Some of the thila tops are deeper, but the boat crews will still know where to pick you up even if you get swept off the top with a blue water safety stop.
If there is any doubt about current, the dive master will do a current check before the dive, and you will be dropped in at a point where you will get down to the reef, and they will tell you whether to do a negative entry and swim down.
Liveaboards are another matter. Most divers that go on them want big fish action, and each dive can be deep and with current in the channels. Even so, if you are not confident with that, they will accommodate you at your comfort level and experience. Most the resorts will have close access to a big fish place or two, so a resort can be a good starting point to experience that without feeling pressured.
Go for it!

 

[Centrals]

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