I had some wicked rides and a nice barrel at the famous break. I also managed to get Jails working well at 3 to 4ft and offshore. Although the trip we had to Sultans was very poor, swimming with the Manta rays definitely made up for the poor surf. I also saw a big shark which was a little off putting... well, for at least 5 minutes! We also saw loads of turtles - some will swim under you and because the water is so clear you can just hop off your board, open your eyes underwater and follow them across the reef!
You've got a few options to try in the Maldives...One is staying in a resort with surf taxis. The other would be to stay with a surf charter. Some of the charters look absolutely awesome, unfortunately though it is getting very crowded there now. At the time we visited there were approx 30-35 surfers staying at Lohis with about 9 charter boats full to capacity. When you consider that there are going to be about 120 surfers looking to surf four or five breaks, you can understand how crowded it's going to be! And that's not considering the local surfer population.
The charters are definitely the best option - don't get me wrong, Lohis is an excellent resort and I'll definitely go back there.
By staying on the charter boats however, you can anchor up right next to the break. You can literally stay there all week, picking off the times you want to surf and have it less crowded.
There's also plenty to do on the boats e.g. fishing, snorkelling and scuba diving and most of the boats have sun lounges and decks for chilling out on! Since the resort boats head out there for between two to three times per day for two hour stints, charters offer the chance to surf the reefs when the resort guests have all left.
Chartering a boat to the South Ari Atoll could also be a better option since this area is not as commercialised (yet) and offers crowd less waves...so it's definite food for thought. 
It isn't that expensive either! Anyone wanting more info, just contact me via the message board.
I hope you like the pics - I wanted to get a few more action shots but was too busy surfing, snorkelling and drinking cocktails. If you are going though, don't forget the UV shield as us Brits do not agree with the sun that much, now do we?!
Click on the Slide Show for more shots from this trip.
