Help! 3 Weeks in December; Indonesia or Sri Lanka ?

[GregS9009]

Hello All!

I've been living the last year in rural north India. For a change of speed, I am planning to go surfing for 3-4 weeks somewhere in southeast Asia in mid-December to January. I want to do this (reasonably) cheaply and off of the main tourist trail. I am struggling to figure out what to do and where to go. From what I’ve been able to figure out, Sri Lanka and Indonesia seem to be good spots to go. I’ve surfed somewhere around 50 scattered days and can do some basic carving. I’ll need to hire a board and want to take a lot of lessons. I was curious if anyone here had any insight or might be able to help steer me in the direction where I might find some.

As a side note: I was a professional skier for 2 years and have pretty solid balance, I'm looking forward to the potential improvement to be had from stitching together 3 weeks in the right situation.
If anyone prefers to PM me with specific advice I would be very grateful and, for what its worth, very happy to share my opinions on backcountry ski in summit county Colorado.

Thank you,
Greg

[Big H]

You need to wait for mid April before the "right situation" presents itself in either location.....rainy/off season during your planned period and the absolute worst period for waves; we can go flat here in Bali for days in a row which is unheard of any other time of year.

Reams of posts about why your ski ability won't translate to surfing, but that's beside the point. At least you'll have some fitness overlaps that will help, and less mental blocks than your average person as far as making yourself "go" into a drop when your mind screams "no".

I would recommend going north of Indo/Sri Lanka to somewhere like Central America (Nica, El Salvador, Costa Rica) if that is the only time period available....I spoke recently to a friend of mine who went on about the virtues of El Salvador and have heard from others about Costa Rica and Nicaragua; good things and good waves for beginners and intermediates.......the only saving grace is that if you are a beginner, you don't really need great waves and can probably get by and learn on what is available that time of year....you will have to deal with the trash that will be in the water that time of year from the rain runoffs (septic at times), but crowds are less which will be a plus though the more beginner surf areas here in Bali will have onshore winds which negatively grooms the waves unless you plan to rip some airs.....

[BaNZ]

That reminds me, I really struggled when I tried to learn how to snowboard. I thought it was going to be a breeze because it's just surfing a smaller board. Five minutes into the lesson, the instructor asked if I could surf because my surfing instinct keeps kicking in. He was saying that it is easy to spot a surfer trying to learn snowboard.

[GregS9009]

Thank you both for the feedback. I really appreciate the thoughtful responses, hoping to still make something work on this side of the world, too bad this just isn't the time of year.
Greg