Surfing in Sri Lanka in January

January sits in the middle of the south coast season. The north-east monsoon crosses the island and reaches Weligama, Midigama and Ahangama as an offshore wind, so the reefs and the bay hold their shape through the morning and often all day. In a week, count on five days out of seven worth paddling out for at Plantations in Midigama and at The Rock off Kabalana beach, and four in Weligama bay, where the bottom is sand. The days you lose go to wind rather than to a flat sea, so even a bad day usually has an early session in it.

The sea is 28°C and nobody wears a wetsuit. Six degrees north of the equator the day barely changes length through the year, so January gives you two sessions in daylight, one early and one late, with the heat of the middle of the day in between.

Where you sleep matters more than the forecast, because the three villages sit a few minutes apart on the same coast road and share the same swell. Weligama is the one for a first week: the only sand, a wave at every stage of the tide, and the shortest transfer, two and a half to three hours from the airport. Midigama has four reefs across two kilometres, room on them, and nothing to do after dark. Ahangama has The Rock and the evenings: rooftops, cocktail bars facing the sunset, cafés that open early.

The catch is company. January is high season, in the water and in the price of a room, and the fortnight around New Year is the busiest of the southern year. If your dates can move, fly after the first week of January, and book the camp before the flight.

If you already surf, January in Midigama is the south coast at its peak, and the crowd is the only thing to plan around. Plantations comes up clean five days out of seven this month and still has room on it, because four reefs share two kilometres of coast and most people stop at the first one they reach. The days you lose go to wind, not to a missing swell, and they usually still give you the first hour.

All four reefs break on the same south-south-west swell and the same north-easterly offshore, so you choose between shapes rather than conditions. Lazy Left peels. Plantations breaks both ways. Rams Right is short, hollow and shallow, and it is the one wave on the island that belongs to experts. Coconuts closes the run at the eastern end. Every one of them has rock in the line-up, so learn where the channel is before the first set rather than after it.

The alternative is The Rock, off Kabalana beach at Ahangama, a few minutes west: a reef peak that breaks both ways, works at any tide, and gives the same five days as Plantations in January. It has urchins on the bottom and more people on it than the Midigama reefs.

The east coast is out of season until May, so the whole island in January is this one stretch of road. The train from Colombo stops at Midigama, running beside the water for its last stretch, at a fraction of the cost of a car. Midigama itself is quiet: two or three kitchens and dark by nine. If you want evenings as well as reefs, sleep in Ahangama and ride over to Midigama for the dawn session. Book early: January is high season and the guesthouses closest to the reefs fill first.