Ali Thameem
Yasin Ahmed Nashidh, 15, has been crowned champion of both the Men’s Open and the U18 Boys’ titles at ‘Kerandoo’, the second of the three events in Dhivehi Surf League 2026.
Kerandoo, which is held at Laamu Maabaidhoo’s right-hand wave break known as the “Machine”, saw Yasin defeat Mohamed Inan Abdhul Hannan (Kalhusoru) by a margin of 3.43 points in yesterday’s final.
Yasin had scored a spendid 16.0 points in the final – the highest of any surfer in the event – with his third (9.0) and fourth (7.0) waves in the final. While Yasin took on seven waves in total, Inan attempted one more. The top two waves of Inan’s were his fifth and sixth, from which he scored a 5.07 and 7.50 points respectively.
On his path to the Men’s Open title, Yasin scored 13.4 points on average across five rounds, collecting a whopping 67 points in total. He defeated Aiham Adnan by a margin of 4.17 points in the semifinal, having knocked out Adam Mueen Ibrahim by a difference of 1.67 points in the quarterfinals. Inan made it to the final with a narrow victory (0.94 point-difference) over Ismail Rasheed (Smiley) in the semifinals.
Just last month, Yasin had won Eleyi’s, the first of the DSL events of the year held at Fuvahmulah.
Yasin and Inan were the finalists in the U18 Boys category as well in Kerandoo. Yasin scored 8.0 and and 7.0 points in his second and fourth waves to win it by 15.0 points in total. Inan fell short by 3.0 points, having scored 6.83 and 5.17 points in his second and seventh waves.
The Kerandoo champion is set to represent Maldives alongside Kayan Abdhulla Areef (Kaiputty) in the Asian Games at kabane Long Beach in Aichi, Japan, later this September.
Dhivehi Surf League will return in the first week of November, as surfers regroup in the capital for the final DSL event of the year – the Rannamaari Challenge at Varunula Raalhugan’du.
