The original video was posted on Avas Videos – Youtube, on 13th April 2017.
The following is a loose translation, with added context for more understanding on the subject matter:
We really do miss it. First thing in the morning without a wash or brush of teeth we would go dip in the water.
Think about it – Maldives being a hot humid tropical country, to escape that heat everyone wants to have a swim in the ocean. That was our usual way of having fun.
Then when we were no longer allowed to go into our Raalhugandu waters, it crushed me. I feel very down. I can’t even express how much it affects me – that is how sad I feel.
There is no easy way to go and surf nearby to Malé. We surfers won’t like to go to a place where there are no waves, just to go and swim in the ocean.
The Varunula Raalhugandu (Townies) waves are the only ones accessible from shore for local surfers based in Malé, the capital island city of the Maldives. The next nearest surf spot is Jailbreaks, located near Himmafushi island, a 30-40 minutes speedboat ride away.
We are not allowed to go in the Raalhugandu waters now. When we see beautiful waves it is torture to fight the urge to not go and ride it. We try really hard to resist going after them. We failed once and the consequences we faced then wasn’t good.
We are fun-loving boys and so we don’t like to be stuck in one place. But we stay clear from the Raalhugandu waters now. However, we are adamant and we will find a way to access the waves.
It didn’t bring any change to my love for surfing. The desire still remains. But, it did put a big wall on surfing for us. We can’t travel far to surf at the next surfing spot. But we won’t stop even if they build the bridge. Right now we are not even able to go in the waters to practice for upcoming international surfing tournaments. We are very used to going into the waters of Raalhugandu.
We are basically addicted to surfing. There won’t be any other sport for us. Because we grew up in this environment. We made friends through here. So we hold such great love for this place for those reasons. We won’t be able to forget that. There is a sentimental attachment to this surf spot for us Townie wave boys.
What we really want is for the ‘go sign’ from them to go into the waters. I eagerly wait for it. It really is miserable – every morning, after waking up we just wait here sitting like this. And it seems like the wait is forever. Yet we wait here patiently, optimistic and hopeful for one day, for them to get back to us on this plea from us. Which has ended in vain. Now on weekends, we go to Thanburudhoo or Himmafushi island’s surf spot. We can’t really do any amount of training now. We can only show now our top performance as before if we get to do 2 months of non-stop training.
The other query: looking at the current progress of the bridge, it doesn’t seem like it poses any danger to anyone to go into the water, especially done so at their own risk. We don’t go into the waters to obstruct the bridge work, but just to do our own thing – catch waves. So why are they still stopping us from going in? This is one major question we have. You can’t get nice waves all the time. So when there is a nice wave we need to go and seize it.
Eventually, we are the ones who already brought, and who are there to bring in good names to our country, even in the future. So by preventing us this, it is not a disadvantage just for us, but it affects the whole country.
