Maldives Dive Guide Suspended After an Underwater Confrontation at Kuda Rah Thila Is Caught on Video

Kuda Rah Thila is a reef in South Ari Atoll that liveaboard groups visit in numbers, and on the morning of 28 October it was, by one diver's account, crowded. A Chinese dive instructor, Xiao Du, says that at about 18 metres a diver approached from below, pushed him and gestured at him, that a second man he describes as a dive guide grabbed his arm and reached for his mask and regulator, and that a third diver joined in. Du says his instructor training got him out of it, DIVE Magazine reported on Wednesday. Footage he posted to social media is at the centre of the case.

Du was diving as a guest with a buddy from a Maldives Legend liveaboard; the other divers are believed to have included a guide from the Infinity X liveaboard. On Monday Maldives Legend said it had suspended one of its dive guides pending the outcome of the investigations, and its sales and marketing director, Ali Sujuaan Shafeeq, said the company's own review was ongoing and that it has a zero-tolerance policy for violence, according to DIVE. Neither the guide nor Infinity X has given a public account.

What does the diver say happened?

Du gave his version to China's Yangtse Evening News the day after the dive, and Divernet set it out in detail on Sunday. He says he ignored the first diver until the man swam off and struck him with a fin, which he deflected with his hand; that the man in white shorts then held his arm and he kicked to get free; and that during the struggle a hand went for his face to dislodge his mask and second stage. On the surface he confronted the group on their tender in English. He said he would report the matter to the Maldives police. Divernet notes that the footage does not by itself establish who the Infinity X guide was, and the account above is Du's allegation, not an established finding.

What has the Maldives boating association asked for?

The National Boating Association of Maldives issued a statement on 31 October calling on the Maldives Police Service, the Ministry of Tourism and other institutions to carry out a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation, and urging the sector not to blame one another or reach conclusions before the facts are clear, Edition.mv reported. The association also warned against using one incident to portray the Maldives as unsafe for diving, and used the moment to raise a wider complaint: it questioned how much genuine Maldivian control sits behind some foreign-run liveaboards registered through local companies, naming Infinity X as a vessel transferred to a Maldivian company after localisation rules changed, and pointed to gaps between the tourism ministry's register and the passenger capacities advertised on booking sites. No police or ministry response had been published by Wednesday.

Why does interference with a regulator matter so much?

Scuba training treats another diver's mask and regulator as off limits for a reason. Losing a regulator at 18 metres is recoverable for a trained diver, which is why the skill is drilled in entry-level courses, but a sudden struggle raises breathing rate and the risk of a panicked ascent, and a diver holding his breath while rising is the textbook route to lung overexpansion injury. Du's own point, that restraint was his only option, is the one most instructors would make: an underwater argument has no good outcome. Crowded sites are a known trigger. Divernet points out that a separate underwater altercation in Palau about three weeks earlier also involved a guide and a visiting diver. This is journalism, not instruction; how to respond to a contact at depth is something to practise with a certified instructor, not learn from a video.

Whether the Maldives police open a formal case will decide whether this becomes a disciplinary matter for one boat or a test of how the country polices a liveaboard fleet that has grown faster than its oversight. The association has asked for both. The guide's suspension is the only concrete consequence so far.