Consider sandy beaches, beautiful clear blue water and personal watercraft. Yes readers, paradise does exist.

Karim Nemouchi reports.

Photos: Jet News Magazine

About the Maldives

The scenery is a tropical paradise: turquoise lagoons, with crystal clear, tepid water, populated by thousands of multi-coloured tropical fish.

Immaculate beaches border each island, each with a corolla of coral dust. You will find no cars or pollution on the islands, only the light winds, which stir the coconut palms above the hammocks where we swing gently.

But those who imagine living on a desert island like Robinson Crusoe may be disappointed. Since the first holiday resorts opened in 1972, the Maldivians have embraced tourism. Today about a hundred resort islands welcome close to half a million of holidaymakers. The early village type structures have become luxury hotel complexes. The last atolls to be opened up for tourists in 1998 give you a chance to escape the masses and to explore authentic islands. In 2004 the government, who own the entirety of the islands, put up eleven of these for auction in order to develop encourage tourism in the most remote locations.

With less than one percent land and over 99 percent sea, the weather obviously plays a significant role in day-to-day life. The Maldives has a tropical climate with warm temperatures all year round and a great deal of sunshine. The hottest month on average is April and the coolest, December. The weather is determined largely by the monsoons.

There is a significant variation in the monthly rainfall levels. February is the driest with January to April being relatively dry, and May and October records the highest average monthly rainfall. The southwest monsoon or hulhangu from May to September is the wet season. Rough seas and strong winds are common during this period.

The Maldives is in the equatorial belt and therefore severe storms and cyclones are extremely rare and the average temperature is around 29 - 32 degrees Celsius.

1,190 coral islands form an archipelago of 26 major atolls. The islands stretch 820 kilometres north to south and 120 kilometres east to west. 202 are inhabited, 87 are exclusive resort islands.

The islands have been populated for over 3,000 years and early settlers were travellers on the silk route and from the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Dhivehi is the language spoken in all parts of the Maldives, however, English is widely spoken by the locals and visitors can easily make themselves understood getting around the capital island.

The capital Malé is the seat of government and business centre and is located in the middle of the atoll chain, a small island buzzing with the sounds and activities of about 75,000 people which is about one third of the total population. Today, a hundred islands accommodate nearly half a million holidaymakers.

Now to the business of freestyling…

After a tour of the islands, we start to chill out with some old friends and some clients I’ve been looking after for some years now. We are waiting for a couple of passionate Russian freestylers, Max Finsky and Micahel Ershov. I first introduced them to freeride and freestyle many years ago. We have arrived a few days before them in order to be able to start preparing the craft a few days before the trip.

Besides me, and part of my dream team, are Fredo Lavocat and Michel Antoine of Saint Martin’s, along with Max Baxter and André Cosson of the US and Christian Pepin and Jonathan Gendron of Canada, and finally Max Baroero from France.

To add to the story, we are joined by two Russian billionaires (the fortieth richest in the world) who are passionate about the sport. Their yacht, a truly luxurious floating hotel, arrived on site.

We get set up and go to collect Max and Micahel from the local airport - they travel exclusively by private jet.