ATOLLED YOU SO Photos: Andrew Shield

Future Contenders Swarm On Maldives

Right now, swanning about in the Maldives, there are a dozen elite tour guys, a dozen previous elite tour guys, plus a further ten dozen frothers hoping to be on the elite tour next year.

Surfers are dropping from palm trees like coconuts, climbing out of giant underwater clams, falling out of packed refugee boats and generally going hog-wild in the transparent waters of the Indian Ocean paradise.

The occasion? The annual six star derby at Pasta Point.