Hi Jaffa,
nice to be asked!
We flew from Heathrow UK with Qatar to Doha then onto Columbo in Sri Lanka. Qatar will take boards upto 3m in length, even though some reports say the boards have to be overall dimensions of no more than 3m, but if you phone them up beforehand and get the operators name and confirm the board allowance size and book it in you at least have some comeback if there's trouble at the check in, I've never had any trouble with them. Emirates have now said you can only have 3m total dimensions, which really p*ssed some people off, but they winged it and when they turned up had no trouble.
We stayed at Bay View Hotel right on Weligama beach, balcony overlooking the beach break, I only had to sit up in bed to check the surf! This is the 3rd time I've been there in the last year. You can get a double room for $70/night [much less out of season] includes breakfast and great dinner for two people. The hotel leads straight onto the beach. You can get cheaper the further you go into town away from the beach, but to be on the beach means you can keep a constant eye on things and you're gonna hoover up the best waves.
Weligama beach break is a funny one, the sand bars seem to move all the time, there is a very small tide but it makes a massive difference to when is good to surf.
Also the wind picks up often between 11am and 3pm. It can get stunningly crowded and there is quite a lack of surf etiquette amongst the many foreign beginners who go out the back with no idea what they're doing. The locals are great though, just a few friendly words and a grin will get you friends for life and they will often be happy to share waves...although there are one or two who will unashamedly drop in on you, but you've gotta laugh it off as they will do it with a big fat smile of their face!
The wave itself, I believe only really works upto about 4 ft, above that [and smaller at times, depending on wind/banks/tide/ etc] it just closes out.
There is a spot on the left corner in front of the new hotel being built [as you look at it from the sea] which is probably the best place to be and often peels into some really good rights, and sometimes some smaller lefts.
I found that the morning sessions at 10am were a bit closed out, with the odd section to be had, it was very frustrating getting to your feet, putting in a bottom turn for a 2 second ride then it's all over. BUT....just like the dawn sessions, some of the later afternoon sessions were world class, super clean, easy paddle out, and not too busy around 3.30pm / 4pm. The wave still would often hit some deeper water in places which made paddling into them really hard if you were in even slightly the wrong place. Also there was a tendency to lose the wave power due to deeper water.
There seemed to be very few rips, overall a pretty safe beach break.
We did one trip up to Midigama in a Tuk Tuk [all round cost 600 rupees, about £2.80 there and back], they strap the boards to the roof. We went upto Lazy Left which was incredible, it's a reef break, so a readable, consistent utterly gorgeous left..perfect for goofys [like me !] the paddle out is easy and it didn't get too crowded.
All in all a great place, the people are friendly, food/tuk tuks/accom are cheap as chips and the culture is amazing.
I made a video last time, just for fun [music is from my band]
check it out here if you want
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 8:33 am
