Surfing in Sri Lanka in October

October is the inter-monsoon and the weak spot in the Sri Lankan calendar. The south-west monsoon has finished, so the east coast has lost the wind that made it work, and the north-east monsoon has not arrived, so the south coast has not gained one. Rain falls on both. Sri Lanka in October rates fair, its worst month of the twelve.

The rest of the world is doing the opposite. October is the fullest month of the global calendar, with eight coasts at their own peak, more than any other month of the year: Senegal at 29°C, France at 19, Spain at 19, Portugal at 18, Wales at 15, Ireland at 13, Iceland at 9, and Mexico. If your dates are fixed and your destination is not, October is the month to let the destination move. Senegal is the warm answer and the Atlantic coast of Europe is the near one.

If October is fixed and Sri Lanka is too, take the second half of the month and take the south coast, because November is what it is turning into. Hiriketiya is the village that makes the most sense here: the cove is a three-hundred-metre horseshoe with a headland at each end, you can see the whole of it from the road, and those two headlands bend swell into a rideable shape on days when the open beaches are in pieces. It is the one address on this coast that hedges.

The compensation is real. October is the cheapest month of the Sri Lankan year, nothing is booked out, and the southern villages are reopening rather than full. That is the trade: the least dependable surf of the twelve, at the lowest prices, on a coast that is about to switch back on.

There is no good month for an experienced surfer in Sri Lanka in October. It is a gamble on both coasts, and the one month of the year when the honest advice is to look at the other sixteen countries first. This is the fullest month of the global calendar, with eight coasts at their own peak — Senegal at 29°C, France at 19, Spain at 19, Portugal at 18, Wales at 15, Ireland at 13, Iceland at 9, and Mexico. Sri Lanka in October rates fair, its worst month of the twelve. If your dates are fixed and your destination is not, this is the month to let the destination move.

If Sri Lanka is fixed, the east is still the better surf and the worse trip. Pottuvil Point gives four days out of seven in October, which is the best wave on the island this month, and it comes with a town that is closing for the year around it: half of Arugam Bay has shut, the season staff have gone, and the offshore is no longer dependable. Plantations, on the south, is back to one day in seven and rising.

So the least bad version is the second half of the month on the south coast, with Hiriketiya as the fallback. Two headlands wrap the swell into that cove so it holds something when the open beaches close out, and you can read the whole thing from the road. Midigama is twenty minutes west with four reefs to choose between, which in a month of narrow windows is worth more than one good spot. Take the back fortnight, watch the forecast rather than the calendar, and treat anything you get as a bonus on a cheap trip rather than the reason for it. October is also the only month of the year when nothing is booked out, which means you can decide on the morning rather than a fortnight in advance, and on this coast that is worth more than a forecast.