Diving in Rasdhoo Atoll

Madivaru Corner is the dive a Rasdhoo trip is built around. It is a horseshoe of outer reef beside Madivaru island: the reef top lies at 15 to 22 m, overhangs and promontories cut in below it, and a large sand patch opens at 26 m. When the current runs, grey reef sharks school along it with dogtooth tuna, eagle rays and mobulas, trevally and jacks and a barracuda school, and whitetips settle on the bottom. Recent visitors describe tons of reef sharks, and the operators grade the current medium to strong, sometimes very strong.

Two channels give the atoll its second and third dives. The Rasdhoo Channel runs between Kuramathi and Rasdhoo island, and its big thilas top out at 22 to 27 m on one operator's numbers and 20 to 25 m on the other's, a deep crossing that one operator calls a great dive on nitrox. North Channel is the gentle one, rarely deeper than 20 m, built around a large coral block where mantas are cleaned. Two operators put manta season there at November to April.

Around those sit the quieter dives. Rasdhoo island has its own wall to the south, Veligandu North stacks an easy reef top over a steeper wall and has the moray reputation, and two swim-through caves and large overhangs lie west of Kuramathi. About three mornings a week a pre-sunrise dive drops from the shark point, eight minutes from Kuramathi, to around 30 m in open blue water; the operator that runs it calls it a dive for Advanced divers and says hammerheads are only occasional. Reef sharks, eagle rays and tuna are the dependable cast, and a few scalloped hammerheads or a lone great hammerhead are a very occasional extra.

Two kinds of base dive the same water. Rasdhoo island is the budget end, a local island of guesthouses with a backpacker feel, and Kuramathi and Veligandu are resorts on the rim. Operators on both sides put the average boat ride to a site at about 15 minutes, so a day of two or three dives stays unhurried, and the resort centres also run half-day and full-day trips across to North Ari. Madivaru lies inside a registered ecologically significant marine area, which appears to carry no permit or park fee for divers1.

Level decides the menu. Competent Open Water divers can dive North Channel and the shallower reefs; the Rasdhoo Channel crossing, the caves and the dawn dive are sold to Advanced divers, and Madivaru runs in current, so give the centre your real experience when you book. Operators choose the day's site to match conditions, which is why a trip can change shape on the boat; name the dives you most want when you enquire.

November to April brings mantas to North Channel, while the south-west monsoon cuts visibility and June is reported murky. Fly into Malé; speedboats are reported to take about an hour and a half to Rasdhoo, and the public ferry is slower and runs on set days, so confirm the schedule with your operator before you book flights.