“Later on we went to Little Cove and hung out there. I would just try and surf whenever I could on holidays. Then I moved up here and finished my chef’s apprenticeship when I was 21, have been here ever since and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. So now I just surf as much as possible.” From these warmer waters of the Sunshine Coast, Alyson has travelled a fair bit already and ticked a few must-surf destinations off her list, including Pipeline in Hawaii. “I surfed Pipeline at around 3 to 4 foot. It was still scary as hell, but I just wanted to say I’d surfed it,” she says modestly. With the travel bug’s bite not going away anytime soon, the decision to surf in the Maldives was an easy one and lived up to every expectation. “It looked beautiful and the surf is cruisy, not too heavy or gnarly - which I don’t mind - but for a holiday you want to enjoy yourself regardless. It was consistently 2-3 foot, clean waves a nice crew and good people. “I had my own room – probably one of the better ones - so privacy was never an issue and there was always space to just chill out and get away from everyone.
“We also stopped off and went to a resort a few nights for dinner, which was amazing. It was like, ten stars, if that’s even possible.” Not content with just dinner, Alyson even ended up getting stitches from the friendly folk at the island resort after a little argument with the reef. (See the tough-girl duct tape in the photos) “But yes, going to the islands really broke the trip up well,” Alyson says. Having experienced the islands, Alyson can also now say that she’s set foot in the ‘lowest country in the world.” At it’s highest elevation, the Maldives reaches up to 2.4m above sea level. With 80% of the islands being less than 1m above sea level, it’s no wonder the country was named third most endangered in list of Island nations at highest risk of flooding due to climate change by a recent UK university study. While climate-change-influenced flooding wouldn’t be top of mind while relaxing on a luxury surf boat, Alyson had a couple of floatation devices handy anyway… “I had my 6’4” Josh Dowling and a standard 6’0” Shotgun thruster. I actually didn’t damage my boards at all. I got a tiny little ding on the Dowling on the way home. No-one else had any injuries or breaks or anything … 34
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