Kima Surf Weligama

The camp

Kima took over a Sri Lankan colonial house more than a hundred and fifty years old, set among a hundred and forty fruit trees, a couple of minutes' walk from the Weligama beach breaks. A pool, a beach-volleyball court, lounges and sunbeds, and a restaurant open from seven in the morning to ten at night. The same people run houses in Bali, the Mentawais and Hiriketiya, and it shows: this is a base for surfers who move around.

Nobody gives lessons here. They guide. Two sessions a day, seven days a week, by tuk-tuk to whatever the swell is favouring, sometimes to a break the team keeps to itself. You sign up the night before on a board where every session is rated from one star to six, gentle to committing, so you pick tomorrow's step yourself.

Boards are extra, and the five-day learn-to-surf course is an €79 add-on. A complete beginner pays twice and is not really who the house is for.

Dinner changes every night from Monday to Friday, rice and curry one evening, Mexican another, and the week ends with Friday's barbecue. Weekends you eat in town. Yoga six days a week, an ice bath three times, and a beach bar nearby if the house feels too quiet. If you already surf and want to go out twice a day without arranging any of it, this is your place.