March is always fun in the far south of the Maldives. Long tropical days of sunny weather and light or no winds means that any swell that meets the south facing reefs is likely to produce glassy peeling waves. With the Indian Ocean Dipole system of 2022 fading to memory, along with the La Nina of the Pacific Ocean – normal programming has resumed – and that’s not a bad thing.

Typically March is a month where many different swell producing systems could contribute swell, from different directions at the same time – a combination of swells can result in playful wedges at different spots on the reefs. Firstly, there is usually a small to mid-range SE swells around 9-11 second period developed by trade winds and tropical low pressure systems south of the equator and West of Australia. Occasionally there is a South groundswell in the 14 – 18 second period from polar low pressures traversing the Southern Ocean between Australia and Antarctica. Our favourite swell is the SW groundswell when polar lows push under South Africa and send a solid pulse across the equator to the Maldives, wave periods can range from 14 up to 21 seconds and even smaller swells less than 1m will provide strong sets of 3 to 8 waves every 10 – 20 minutes.

Beacons lighting up with a pulse of SW groundswell, March 2023. Pic Madey

 

The March Southern Atolls Season started with a bang when Perfect Wave guests on board Surf Sojourn were faced with double to triple overhead bombs unloading at Beacons in first week of March. Legendary guides Madey and Martey were there, making sure the surfers got the waves they were after.

Chasing the strong SW swell to Kafena on the West Side of Gaafu Dhaalu they scored this fickle wave as good as it gets – see Insta post below for what that looks like 

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Perfect Wave (@perfectwavetravel)

 

Forecast Late March 2023

The remaining weeks of March 2023 look like it will be in the small to mid-range with combinations of swells providing plenty of fun, with a few pulses

20 – 25 March 2023

Expect chest to head high waves at all the exposed south facing reefs under glassy to light offshore breezes. A SE trade swell around 1 metre at 9 seconds will continue to push in, filling in the gaps with smaller waves between the sets. A long period SW groundswell fills in late on 20th March holding about 0.7m @ 14 seconds for the next 3 days. This means that occasional SW sets will combine with SE swell to create some wide runners in the head high range. The SW groundswell eases to background levels on 22nd march. A new stronger long period SSW groundswell around 1m @ 16 seconds will fill in to become dominant energy on 24th March and hang in there until 26th March. This should bring head high to just overhead sets at all the South facing breaks under optimal light northerly offshore breezes

26 – 31 March 2023

The SSW groundswells ease to background levels over 26 March but will still contribute moments of fun at different times and tides. The charts for end of march suggests that it will continue long period S – SSW pulses in between background S and SE swell but the forecast has seen an upgrade  so keep an eye on the charts for 30 – 31 March. At this stage we are looking at a long period (18 seconds) SSW groundswell starting to arrive late on 28 March 2023. Expect to see well overhead sets with multiple waves breaking wide at all the reefs. Buy 29th March the main swell will be there around 1.5m 16 seconds SSW, this could lead to a few double overhead sets at exposed breaks, but mainly well overhead. Winds are expected to swing light to moderate WNW which will favor Blue Bowls with direct offshore breezes. The swell hangs in and slowly eases to 13 seconds 1.2m SSW on 30th and then 12 seconds 1m SSW on 31st – so should be a few great days surfing across the southern atolls

For Southern Atolls Surf Guide see here

For Charter Schedules see here 

 

Will we see waves like this for the SSW groundswell around 30 March? Maybe not this big but it should be good, really good!

Written by:
Chris Buykx

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