diving7seas – Special Edition EMBUDU / ENGLISH | Page 23

diving7seas 2020
not completely wrong nowadays. In the last
years many islands, which in the early days
of the Maldives had a legendary reputation
as a diving destination, have been completely
redesigned. At some point the excavators
came and some classic, small diving islands
became – let‘s say „pure wellness oases“.
Two-storey bungalows and substantial price
increases included. Other islands were newly
developed and at once available as a 4- or 5-
Star resort with designer rattan furniture
and exclusive wines. Without a doubt that
exclusivity is shown by the price.
But another way is possible, as one can see
in the case of Embudu Village: There
are regular modernisations and reno-
vations, too – but no new concept.
It‘s still the small island covered with
coconut palms where (unlike many
new Maldives islands) the dive cent-
re is larger than the spa centre. The
latter has been around on Embudu
for three, four years now, but it‘s
more due to the general trend and an
expansion of the offer – but it doesn‘t
run as the main act of Embudu cine-
ma, so to speak. Other protagonists
play the main role here. And they
clearly do not live under palm trees,
but in front of them in the sea.
For over 30 years Embudu has had the same
dive centre with the same owners. Jürgen
Rudorf from Darmstadt/Germany has been
the Diverland Embudu manager for 20 years.
Sportive and two metres tall Jan Gehriger
from Bern is responsible for the overall orga-
nisation. The man from Switzerland knows:
Like everywhere also at the
house reef of Embudu applies:
no trained animals live here. But
if you are in the water at the
right moment, you might obser-
ve something special
The Embudu Channel is one of the
reasons why the island in the northern
South Male Atoll is one of the le-
gendary diving destinations still today.
It is located where the channel runs
out inside the atoll.
Here as well high tide and low tide
move the water with power from the
open sea into the atoll interior and out
again. Sounds like ideal conditions for
a controlled drift dive with incoming
water? That‘s exactly how it is.
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