Cocoplant Surf Inn & Surf School

The camp

Cocoplant is a guesthouse that has been running since 2010 at the eastern end of Midigama, on the inland side of the road. Eleven rooms on three floors wrap round a Buddhist garden. Standard rooms have a balcony or terrace over it, Budget rooms are smaller and quieter on the ground floor, and only the Deluxe rooms, the largest, have air conditioning.

Plantations is a minute's walk away. In January five days of a week are worth paddling out for, the same as The Rock in Ahangama, with three people on the peak instead of whole groups. Reef and rock underneath, like the village's other three waves, all close enough to go and see which one is working. The in-house school gives private lessons of an hour and a half, alone or as a pair, mostly in the morning, on longboards and shortboards.

There is no all-inclusive week here. Cocoplant sells you a room and everything else is à la carte: a private lesson at 25 USD with the board for the day, meals at the in-house restaurant, open from breakfast to dinner. A package can be worked out on WhatsApp, with no published price. The dining room doubles as the lounge, with the wifi, and at night Midigama offers little more: two or three places to eat and a string of guesthouses.

For somebody who already stands up on reef and wants Plantations at the end of the garden. A complete beginner is better off looking at Weligama, fifteen minutes away, where the bay is sand.