Dreamsea Surf Camp Sri Lanka

The camp

Dreamsea runs a hotel on Galle Road, opposite the police station, and the garden goes straight onto the beach. Private rooms have a sea-facing terrace with a hammock. Shared rooms sleep four in two bunks, mixed or women only, each with its own bathroom and air conditioning. The bar and restaurant sit round the pool and serve all day, and that is where the house ends up once the sun drops.

The group has camps in seven countries, from Imsouane to Nicaragua, and the school runs like it. Three levels, four students to an instructor, an hour and a half of theory before you get wet, then five sessions of ninety minutes in the water. You surf in front of the hotel, or take a tuk-tuk to Kabalana and to The Rock, the reef peak off the beach that goes both left and right. Reef underneath and urchins on it make The Rock the next step, once standing up has stopped being the question. Video review comes with level 2, at extra cost.

Only three dinners are included, the weekly barbecue among them. That is fewer than the neighbours offer, and in Ahangama it costs you nothing: the other four nights you eat in the one village on this coast where people go out, rooftops and bars facing the sunset. The power cuts out now and then.

Arrive on any day you like. It suits a first coached week, alone or as a couple, with a pool at the end of the day and evenings of your own.