Tony Hinde Hussein’s Surf Tourism Legacy in the Maldives
Tony
Hinde Hussein’s Surf Tourism Legacy in the Maldives
by
Sam Bleakley
The Maldives sits atop huge underwater
coral mountains, their outer polyps alive and glowing with a phosphor that
every surfer is eager to see but not to feel. Coral scratches can ruin a
session. These coral polyps are tiny creatures that feed on plankton,
extracting calcium deposits from the water around them and excreting cup shaped
limestone skeletons. Built up over millions of years, they form rock islands,
known as ‘atolls’, with a living skin, a fizzing meniscus - treadmills for
perfect cylindrical waves. ‘Atoll’ is derived from ‘atholu’, the only Maldivian word to have found its way into the
English dictionary.
Once labelled by Arab traders as the ‘money
islands’ for the enormous quantity of cowry shells, by the 1900s the Maldives
had become so isolated and inaccessible that they were little known. In the
early 1970s two Australian surfers, Tony Hinde (from Maroubra, Sydney) and Mark
Scanlon, set off as crew aboard a ketch sailing from Sri Lanka to Africa. They
were shipwrecked in the northern Maldives. After months fixing the boat, south
swells arrived and they saw the staggering surfing potential. Not surprisingly,
the duo abandoned their planned voyage and instead set out to explore waves
throughout the atolls in a dhoni,
surfing and naming all the main breaks. Tony was so moved by the native people
and beauty he opted to stay for good in the Maldives. The government was
beginning to allow small-scale tourism, with resorts built on uninhabited
islands through a lucrative lease and bed tax. By the early 1980s an
international aid program, chiefly sponsored by Japan, bought nutrition,
technological change and the motorised dhoni,
which revolutionised life for the
locals. Tourism and tuna fishing became the mainstay of the economy. Although
the ruling government at the time was famously corrupt, Maldivian tourist
resorts rapidly became the personification of the Persian word ‘paradise’.
Tony lived on the island of Himmafushi and
became fluent in the national rapid-fire ‘divehi’
language. He married Zulfa, converted to Sunni Islam, added the traditional
‘Hussein’ to his name, became a Maldivian citizen and had two children. Tony
had a vision about opening up the Maldives for sensitive, surf eco-tourism.
Bringing other surfers also meant enjoying their company: “I ended up having to
teach the locals to surf so that I’d have someone to join me in the water,” he
said. He became acutely aware that luxury surf tourism was inevitable and felt
it had to be done responsibly, because everyone must queue, even in paradise.
Traditional Maldivian etiquette actually allows every village exclusive use of
their own island’s reefs for fishing. Using this blueprint, Tony formed Atoll
Adventures in 1989 next to consistent ‘Pasta Point’, by Tari village (now known
as Chaaya, Dhonveli). It marked a far-sighted, non-crowded surfing concept and
the resort became a great source of employment for locals. “Tony initiated
sustainable surf tourism, and was a pioneer in surf exploration,” says
Australian Glenn Best, a friend of Tony’s, and the long-time contest director
for all of the ASP’s (WSL’s) Maldivian events.
With the business model rolling at Chaaya,
Tony and his wife bought land in Ulladulla, New South Wales, as a retirement
plan. Zulfa tragically died from leukaemia in early 2008. In May the same year
Tony was surfing Pasta Point on his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary when he
suffered a fatal heart attack. He was buried next to Zulfa at Mollymook
cemetery, New South Wales. Today, Tony’s resort still runs like a Swiss watch,
overseen by locals and many others who were deeply inspired by the father of
surfing in the Maldives.
