Arugam Bay: A Surfing Adventure

Sri Lanka is still one of the surfing world’s secret gems, discovered by a few lucky ones who return year after year to enjoy the tropical waters, fun waves and diverse cultural experiences the country has to offer.

arugam.info reporting directly from the Bay. Since 1997

Yet to the majority of the worlds’ travel addicted surfing community it has been overlooked as a surf travel destination. The local surfing community and exposure of Sri Lanka as a surfing holiday destination are in their infancy, but this trend is rapidly changing as more and more surfing travellers experience the beauty and adventure Sri Lanka has to offer and share their stories about this once forgotten paradise with the world.

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Arugam Bay: A Surfer’s heaven

Every year between April and October, storms from below South Africa, whip the ocean into a frenzy and send large, consistent swells up the length of the Indian Ocean and into the coastline of Sri Lanka. The storms are usually located thousands of kilometres away, so that by the time the swells reach Sri Lanka, they are perfectly groomed ground swells that wrap their way around the southern and eastern sides of the island. During the surf season it is not unusual to encounter at least one solid ground swell every single week and with the prevailing wind coming from the west, the majority of the southeast and eastern coasts of Sri Lanka are protected from the wind offering hundreds of uncrowded and sometimes even undiscovered locations to surf. Breaks range from gentle beach breaks, reef breaks and sandy bottomed point breaks, catering for every type of surfer from the complete novice, up to the experienced professional.

Pro Training Session 😉

Arugam Bay or A-Bay as it is predominantly known is the hub of the Sri Lankan Surfing community, with the entire village set up to handle surfing tourists, with a huge range of accommodation and eating options. Unlike many surfing destinations which cater for only the hard core surfer and his or her desire to spend 10 hours a day catching waves over sharp shallow reefs, Arugam Bay and all of the Sri Lankan surfing destinations are the perfect place to take your girlfriend or the family. While they enjoy swimming in the protected turquoise waters of the bay, you can slip out to the point to surf perfect uncrowded waves for the morning. Once surfing is over there are so many adventures and places to explore only a short tuk tuk ride away.

Surfing: A sport for all, young, old and any gender

Things like escaping up the coast and spending the day relaxing on a secluded beach without another soul in sight, or heading into the jungle to watch the elephants feeding. Of course there are the cultural experiences of going to the markets in the nearby town of Pottuvil or checking out the ancient temples and ruins. If relaxing sounds more like you and grabbing a spot in a hammok under the palm trees and reading a book in the warm afternoon ocean breeze is what you need, then you are in the right place as well. The locals are amazing, extremely friendly, always keen to help and their stories of history, lifestyle and culture are worth taking the time out to listen to.

The remoteness and adventure required to get to Sri Lanka’s surfing destinations means it is one of the last uncrowded surf spots on earth. The average day at A-Bay would see only 5-15 surfers at most and that’s sharing a perfect sandy-bottomed point break that stretches for several hundreds of metres. Not to mention the times my mates and I would venture to other breaks. One of our ventures took us about an hour’s tuk tuk ride north, where we stumbled across the most perfect head high barrelling wave I’ve ever seen. Without a single person in sight the two of us traded wave after wave in the most idyllic set up.

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With the 2011 swell season fast approaching, you would have to be a fool not to consider Sri Lanka as your next surfing adventure. If you’re worried about the quality of waves don’t be. The Association of Surfing Professionals are now calling Sri Lanka and specifically the Point at A-Bay home to one of their highly respected 6 star World Surfing Tour Events, ensuring the world’s best travel to Sri Lanka to compete for valuable ratings points.

Surfing and travelling to Sri Lanka is like no other surf adventure in the world. It’s not like Bali, it’s not like Hawaii or Australia. It’s like Sri Lanka and the only way to really find out what Sri Lanka is like is to head there for your own surfing adventure.

source:
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