New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- It is raining in Weligama, enough for most people to wait out the showers indoors. But I spot people in the sea as I drive past the bay.

They're surfing.

"The rain doesn't stop us," a trainer sitting by a stack of surfboards at Yaka Surf Club tells me when I step out to take a few photographs. "Not when it comes to surfing."

Twenty years ago, Weligama was a fishing town most travellers drove past on their way to Galle. Today, its broad, 2km bay is lined with surf schools, boards and beginners waiting to paddle out.

Weligama translates to "sandy village", a fitting name for a town curved around a wide golden bay on Sri Lanka's southern coast, about 144km from Colombo. The shallow, sandy beach and small, generally c...