Solid Surf House Weligama

The camp

Solid built its villa on the Weligama headland, on the ocean side, set back from the road in thick greenery. The bay's beach break is five hundred metres away; in exchange, Jungle Beach and Turtle Bay are a short walk. An eleven-metre pool, an open-air cinema, a pool table, and every room has its own bathroom and air conditioning.

Levels one and two get a two-hour lesson and then free surfing on the sand of the bay, four or five to an instructor. Levels three and four go out guided twice a day by tuk-tuk or jeep, and guiding is not a lesson: nobody fixes your stance, they take you where it is working. Midigama is under ten minutes away, with Lazy Left, which peels and makes a good first reef, and Rams, two hundred metres along, which forgives nothing.

Five dinners a week, none on Wednesday, cooked in an open kitchen with a vegetarian option every night. Friday means sunset drinks at Jungle Beach; another night it is the party at Doctor's House in Polhena. The music goes off at ten, and after that the night moves to town. Most guests come on their own.

The house is open all year, and a week costs €200 less from 1 May to 15 October. That is the south-west monsoon, when a week in Weligama can go by without a session. From November to April, for someone who already stands up and wants the wave found for them, this is the house.