Surfing in Sri Lanka in May

The south-west monsoon sets in during May. It brings wind and rain to the south and west coasts and turns the same airflow into an offshore on the east, so the points around Arugam Bay come alive over a few weeks while the south shuts down. Weligama and Midigama barely see a clean day in May, and they will not work again until November.

Understand the journey before you book, because it is the part people get wrong. Arugam Bay is six to eight hours by road from the airport, across the middle of the island rather than along the shore. It is a travel day: plan to arrive in daylight, with the car booked through the camp. Once you are there, the four points spread over about twelve kilometres, so a tuk-tuk or a scooter is part of the trip rather than an extra, and the camps run shuttles.

The waves are a different kind too. The south is a chain of reefs you walk between; the east is a run of long right-hand points you ride between. And the east is limited by swell size rather than by wind: at Whiskey Point, even at the height of the season, the wind spoils almost no days and the swell is simply too small on most. The number to watch on a forecast here is the height.

In May the season is still filling in, and that is the argument for coming. Pottuvil Point, the long right north of the bay, already gives five days out of seven, and hardly anybody is on it. The town is opening rather than open, prices and crowds are at their lowest of the east coast year, and the sea is 29°C. If you already surf, May is a quiet version of July. If you are learning, read the beginner note first: the gentle breaks need more swell than May usually sends.

If you already surf, May is the month Sri Lanka turns over, and it turns in your favour straight away on the east coast. Pottuvil Point, the long right at the northern end of Arugam Bay, comes up clean five days out of seven in May, level with its July peak, and the season crowd will not arrive for another six weeks.

The east works on the reverse of the south's logic. On the south coast the wind decides your day; here the swell does. At Whiskey Point, even at the height of the season, the wind spoils almost no days and the swell is simply too small on most. So the forecast you read here is a height, and in May, with the season still building, the height is the only number that matters.

Four points spread over about twelve kilometres, and only one of them draws a crowd. The Main Point at Arugam Bay made the name and breaks over reef. Whiskey Point is north of the bay, Peanut Farm and Elephant Rock further along the coast, and almost nobody rides past the first point they reach, which is the whole opportunity of this coast. Rent a scooter on the first morning and look at two before you commit to one.

The south is finished: Plantations has almost no clean day in a typical week until November, so there is nothing to look back at. Getting east is the cost. It is six to eight hours from the airport across the interior, a full travel day, so land in the morning. What you get for it is May's version of Arugam Bay: low prices, a town that has not filled up, the sea at 29°C, and the best point on the island with room on it. Coming now rather than in July buys the same waves with a fraction of the people.