Once again the exotic and magnificent Maldives island’s will host one of the worlds best and most anticipated surf events – the ASP 5 Star Prime rated Maldives presents SriLankan Airlines Pro, running from June 3 through to June 9.

Renowned world wide and attracting the very best surfers from right across the globe, The Sri Lankan Airlines Pro delivers the true essence of the sport to the world with perfect surf, amazing weather and possibly the warmest surfing waters in the world – All this on a paradise island setting where the problems of the world disappear and the sport of surfing takes over!

Elite World Qualifying Series competitor Hira Terinatoofa (Tahiti) commented on the SriLankan Airlines Pro saying “Simply awesome! It’s my favorite event on the world tour. Everybody has fun enjoying fantastic surf and it’s just a wonderful experience. It’s just like my home in Tahiti – surf, sun and fun. A great event for surfing!”

The Maldives Islands is open to the entire Indian Ocean swell window and while great surf is consistent throughout the year, the monsoonal June winds have regularly delivered powerful and excellent surf to this event. Last year’s event saw Pasta Point on the Dhonveli Beach & Spa Resort Island add even more quality to the options of excellent surf available and Pasta Point will again be the events base with options to surf other quality surf breaks like Lohifushi, Cokes and Jails!

Just how important this event is to these surfers was highlighted last year when Australia’s Luke Munro won the event and then went on to qualify for the ASP Fosters World Tour. There’s a high degree of prestige attached to winning this event because the waves are so good. It’s the perfect testing ground to highlight surfings best and you’ll only win here if you’re truly a champion of the sport.

This years event sees multiple partners joining forces to ensure the best possible promotion which will include a fully serviced (vision, audio and live scores) live webcast along with an international television production crew who will produce a feature show for the world along with daily news feeds to the world and web highlight packages.

ASP Australasia Tour Manager Glenn Best commented on the event saying “The 2007 SriLankan Airlines Pro event is going to be a fantastic event thanks to the support of our key sponsors in SriLankan Airlines, Maldives Tourism & Promotions Board and John Keels Resorts who have all solidified their commitment in 2007. The Maldives is without question one of the most superb surfing event locations, and each year it continually gives up some of the best WQS waves on the globe, we are so fortunate to be holding the event in such a fantastic surfing location – With the event’s 5 Star Prime Rating bringing the best ASP ranked surfers into the Maldives it creates an explosive surfing event, and it’s all set in an idyllic tropical location. The 2007 SriLankan Airlines Pro event will have daily live vision web cast from the event site at ‘Pasta Point’ on the luxurious Dhonveli Beach & Spa Resort, – put simply, very few other WQS events offer such outstanding surf conditions and all set in 5 Star surroundings”

Just some of the quality surfers already on the entry list include Roy Powers (Hawaii), Leonardo Neves (Brazil), Kai Otton (Australia), David Weare (South Africa), Tim Boal (France), Enecko Acero (Spain), Tiago Pires (Portugal), Abdul El Harem (Morocco), Teppi Tajima (Japan), Brian Toth (Puerto Rico), Alex Grey (USA) and many more for what is possibly the worlds biggest elite representation at an ASP Professional event.

The SriLankan Airlines Pro, sitting right in the middle of the grueling ASP World Qualifying Series Season and almost right in the middle of surfing’s global community which will ensure a super quality event in an amazing location.

The countdown to early June is now on as everyone eagerly plans their pathway on SriLankan Airlines to the magnificent Maldives.

The 2007 Maldives presents the SriLankan Airlines Pro event is proudly supported by SriLankan Airlines, Maldives Tourism & Promotions Board, John Keels Resorts and Atoll Travel.

Watch all the event action live from the beautiful Maldives from 3 – 9 June on www.surfingaustralia.com

Steve Robertson
ASP Australasia, Surfing Australia Media Manager
ASP Int. Digital Photographer

SriLankan Airlines and Maldives tourism board gave Mumbai a taste of a night at the islands..

SriLankan Airlines ties up with Maldives to promote tourism August 31, 2006: SriLankan Airlines(UL) and the Maldivian Tourism Board (MTPB) hosted a night that witnessed the cultural grandeur of the two gorgeous islands Sri Lanka and the Malidves at the J W Marriott.

Mr. Barry Brown – Head of Commercial UL and Chandana Desilva, Head of Communication UL, along with Mr. Mahmood Shaugee from MTPB were seen playing the gracious hosts to the evening.

Maldives is a world renowned holiday destination with pristine beaches and exotic natural beauty that will be more accessible through SriLankan Airlines which the largest foreign carrier flying 15 times a week.

By: Kkomal Seth & Gautam Seth

BANDOS ISLAND, The government of the Maldives has called on the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) for assistance in gaining access to this year’s FIFA World Cup for broadcast on TV Maldives, the only free-to-air network in the small island nation.

The Maldives’ Minister of Information and Arts, Mohamed Nasheed, made the appeal to the ABU during the opening ceremony of the organization’s 80th Administrative Council. According to Nasheed, the local satellite platform does have rights to all 64 games, making the World Cup available to only about 25,000 people out of the country’s 300,000 population.

TV Maldives is reportedly being asked by the unnamed pay-TV platform to pay more than US$600,000 for access to a limited number of games. Nasheed referred to the asking price as “a tsunami amount of money.”

“Charging a small public broadcasting organization such as ours whose only interest is to show its nationals their life-blood game is like taking away the means of our life and charging an exorbitant amount to return those means,” he said. “We cannot be victimized by this and we do not want to accept such manipulative deals.”

He continued, “US$600,000 is equivalent to nearly 7.7 million rufiyaa. Divide that by 300,000 people, it comes to 25.7 rufiyaa per person. This is an enormous amount. And if we understand correctly, there are richer and bigger countries that would pay only US$40,000 to watch all the 64 games.”

The Secretary-General of the ABU, David Astley, added that the asking price was a 3,000-percent increase on what the broadcaster paid for the same rights in 2002. “It is outrageous that the rights holder should be asking for an increase of this magnitude at a time that this small island nation is recovering from the devastation of the tsunami. The amount being asked is totally out of proportion to what other countries of this size are being asked to pay.”

The Maldives’ government is said to be drafting legislation that would require events like the World Cup to be made available to free-to-air television at a reasonable cost. “This could have been avoided if the pay-TV provider had been willing to negotiate a fair price with the free-to-air broadcaster,” Astley said. “I believe it is a case of the pay-TV operator simply not being aware of the market conditions in the Maldives.”

The ABU’s head of sport, John Barton, will hold discussions with pay-TV operator concerned.