Today Cody and I leave to go to Kuta Lombok. We’ll fly out of Bima and into Lombok, and head to our hotel Village Vibes Lombok for a week or so. A couple homies we met in Lakey Peak, Antoine and Alex are there already so maybe we’ll link up and get some waves. Tom went to Yo-yos yesterday in eastern Sumbawa to go surf rights and chase his dreams. He has this cool idea of starting up a bbq fish joint by the beach around there and is going to put some time in and see what the deal is. Wish him the best of luck with that. Real good guy.
One last session with Aussie’s Tom and Sam at Peak, around waist high, swell is building. Nothing crazy but mandatory to be in the water if I have the time before a fat travel day. By the time I have to go in to pack up, the waves are upper chest high range, and even get caught inside on a set, a good sign.
Cody set up a ride to the airport with Nando, our villa’s caretaker, a few days back. I told Bustan, our photographer friend, that we would roll with him. At some point this kinda turned into an issue, both dudes want the business. We told Bustan that we already committed to Nando. He was not having it. He kept saying Nando was not part of the organization and that he would talk to him and get it all sorted out. Our boards and bags are loaded in the Nando car and Bustan pulls his car up in front, blocking the car, and takes our shit out of this car and into his. A real awkward situation but we have to get in the car and take off and make our flight. I don’t really get the politics of the situation but it may be something like this. Nando is making money off us because we are staying in the villa, Bustan wants the business of taking us to the airport because he hasn’t made any money the last couple days via photos while the waves were small. No one’s buying pics of themselves surfing lately. He needs to make money and he literally insists that he take us.
Two hour drive through Sumbawa to Bima, halfway along is the town of Dompu, where all the students are from. On the way in, it was dark and I didn't love the way the driver from the airport was driving. I was in the way back feeling a little queasy as he sped past other vehicles and turns in the night. Bustan is a way better driver and the drive is cool watching scenery and locals living spaces pass us by. At one point a man cut a branch from a mango tree that was hanging over the road and it damn near fell on our car. A bunch of kids rush out to grab the mangos that fell with the branch. Bustan was pissed. The end of the dry season means that all foliage is brown and grey and dry, begging for rain. I think Lakey Peak may be more of an offseason place to check out. It’ll be green and the variable winds mean maybe more variety of surf instead of onshore all day after 10-11am.
The airport is basically totally empty, Cody and I have it and then the plane totally to ourselves. Chilling, uneventful flight to Lombok. Taxi ride through the sunset on our way to Kuta, Lombok. It’s a lot more lush and way more populated than the road to Lakey, and also seems to be less impoverished. The saying is that Kuta is like Bali ten years ago, kinda makes sense because as you get to the center of the strip it’s all cafes, bars, Mexican restaurants, pizzerias, yoga studios. It’s crowded with tourists in just this one little zone. Our accommodation is like 5 minutes out of the strip, quiet, peaceful and a good spot with a pool and greenery around.
Torn on my decision to leave Lakey Peak. Excited to see new waves and new, prettier countrysides, and also leave that gnarly onshore wind all day. However surfing a really good wave out front with homies is pretty hard to beat, swell is on the way and most of the boys are sticking in Lakeys to score it.
Nov 7
First day in Kuta Lombok, slow start. I woke up late because last night I did the trial over Zoom for the murder trial I’m a witness in. I had contact with the suspect in 2018 in Santa Monica the day of the murder and they need my testimony. It’s been a whole 5 year ordeal, cops, subpoenas, and court dates, but eventually we worked it out and I can do my civic duty from Indo! Went to sleep at 10pm, set the alarm for 1:45 for my 2 am call time. Basically did online tech set up for the first hour with the judge and lawyers and didn’t get questioned til 3. I got questioned in front of the jury by the prosecution and defense. I guess my face was on a screen in the courtroom. They had me speak slowly and loudly so that everyone could hear. Kind of intense. Glad to finally get this trial behind me.
Hotel provides a nice breakfast with a papaya, watermelon, banana smoothie. They also rent us some scooters with surf racks. Mine is a black and red honda, pretty standard. Cody’s is white with golden rims, ridiculous. We take a 15 minute drive east to Are Guling to go surf. The drive is lovely, up and down windy hilly roads, green farmlands and pastures, rural. Even though it’s the end of dry season, hasn’t rained once yet, it is so much greener than Sumbawa, imagine in the rainy season. Go through farmland, workers in the field with sickles and tiny little villages doting the roadside. The touristy part of Kuta is well developed, not crazy yet, but in no time you are in this green land winding your way to go surfing. Over a nice big hill, we see our destination, a beautiful bay, blue water in the distance with lines filtering in, a right reef break at the top and a left breaking kinda in the middle closer to the big sandy beach.
The right has like 40 people surfing it and the left is completely empty. Why is there no one on the left? I’m trying to ask some locals why it’s empty but they assure me it’s not too shallow over the reef there. People are getting ferried by boat out to the right, we walk past and paddle out, the left is way closer than the right. This is pretty common in this whole area, many waves are very far out across bays and sometimes the only way to get there is by boat. It turns out no one is at the left because the current is strong, doesn’t bother me too much but you cannot stop paddling.
The entire time we are surfing, the current is pulling away from the lineup. You catch a left and when you kick out it feels like you are right where you took off from. A lot of the waves are big closeouts that look like burgers from far away but jack up when they slap the reef. We eventually figured out that any wave that looks nice and tapered would just run away and close out and that it was the ones that looked horribly shouldery, like they would have no line, would in fact run real fast down the reef. Surfed there for 2.5 hrs, had a good time on some fast waves over shallow reef sections, but it was exhausting. A fun challenge and with the current, it was non stop movement.
This zone is the exact opposite to Lakey Peak. There is no such thing as going out front for a quick surf. Every time you go to the beach it is a mission, then a far paddle/boat ride (depending on the spot), then the mission back to the crib. The land is beautiful and rural, unlike Lakey Peak as well. By the time we get back to Kuta, this whole mission was 4 hours and I’m starving. We wolf down surprisingly good cheeseburgers. Between the nonstop paddling session, the fat ass burger, and not sleeping a lot from the trial last night, I am dead. Pass out for 2 hours, wake up groggy, let’s get out of the house.
We take off to Pantai Ann, a beach 2 bays over to the east, 30 min drive, to watch the sunset. Getting there the highway is impeccable and we fly through as if in mario kart. We pass by the tremendous car/motorcycle racing arena outside of town. I guess that’s one of the big attractions to Lombok, once a year this place is full of car enthusiasts for the big race. Pretty surreal to see one of those. We head over to the headland facing west to catch the sunset and make the little climb up for the good ocean view.
The place is full of people, locals and tourists, we kinda just stumbled on one of the best and most popular sunset lookout points around. More excitingly, there are guys with big ass eagles flying over the cliff sides. The men wear thick leather gloves going up their forearm and the eagle lands there and snacks on the chicken treat its master gives. Then the man would almost throw the eagle, like a baseball, off the cliff and it would open its wings and soar. Reminded me of the guys that fly their model planes at the bluffs back home. At first I thought this was kinda a touristy thing, like you can pay to go have your experience with an eagle or whatever, but after a while I realize no one is doing that. I think this is just people doing their hobby. Cody asks to do it and one of the guys says sure. HIlariously, the eagle would never land back on Cody’s gloved arm. It would always keep flying and then land on the ground near its master until they seduced it with some chicken legs. Really beautiful watching them fly over little sandy beaches in coves below and all around us high and low as the sun set beyond Kuta. This whole zone is a series of south facing bays with reefs all around, waves everywhere, some surfable, some not but beautiful to look at nonetheless. From up here we got a better perspective of this.
Cody set up plans with Antoine, French, and Alex, Canadian, two dudes I briefly met in Lakey Peak, for dinner. We caught up again and made some plans to go surf some new waves that Antoine knew about tomorrow. Epic first day in Lombok.
Wake up early for breakfast at Village Vibes and head off to Serangan, a right hand point break style reef break. Antoine and Alex are surfing there so we go to meet up with them, 30 minutes by scooter away. It’s the same drive that we did yesterday to Are Guling but maybe 20 minutes further down the same road. As we arrive and check the waves, we see Alex and Antoine just starting their paddle out. The deal is that you park at the restaurant/resort right in front, surf as much as you want, hang out in their comfy day beds and couches as long as you spend at least 100k rupiah at the restaurant. It’s a killer deal, you will most likely spend that anyways on breakfast and then lunch. The place is gorgeous, a beautiful landscaped lawn going right up to the sand, a pool, upscale. Shaded palapas with cushions to chill in.
The surf is overhead, long rights, some fast pumpers, and some slopey, good for turns. As the tide changes the wave changes as well but the surf is still super fun. Got some nice fast medium sized ones early and then some bigger slopier ones later. First time surfing an actual right hand wave in 2 months, a little shaky on my backside swoops but exciting. Obviously I came to Indo in search of hollow lefts, but this is an amazing change of scene and really fun. No one out. Just me, Cody, Antoine, Alex, and two Aussies that paddled out like 1.5 hours into the session. Come into the restaurant and the 4 of us share a delicious breakfast and cruise over to the lounging zone on the sand. Napping, chilling, eating, drinking a coconut. We spent the whole day in and out of the water there, sublime.
For the evening sesh we head off to Mawi, a break on the way home and directly across the bay from where we are. We can kinda see waves in the Mawi area from way over here. The drive to Mawi is lovely, countryside, kids playing soccer in the fields, tobacco plantations, pastures with mountains all around. After the turn off from the main road, you traverse gnarly dirt road, filled with bumps and dusty rocks. It’s like a chiller version of the road to desert point but still kinda gave me some flashbacks. Don’t wanna topple here. A herd of buffalo cross the road, I eventually get around them, and pull into the bay where a nice looking a-frame is peeling, so cool.
The cove is facing the sunset and the waves look so fun, we obviously paddle out. I only went on the bigger lefts that were breaking. A fun drop, time for a turn maybe two, then the wave would kinda fatten out and sometimes reform. After a nice ride, I got smoked on the paddle back out to the lineup. On the inside there’s a little slab that I got caught by and it hammered me straight downwards. When I came up and onto my board, another wave broke on me again. For some reason this was like a 20 wave set, they just kept coming. I got stuck in this no man’s land for way too long. I tried going to the right, but the waves would break, I’d get pounded, and the current would suck me back to the slab in the middle. I paddled to the left, get pounded by a wave, and pop back up right where I was. The one foot slab would just deny my duck dive and was unable to paddle through it. I was in this little vortex getting drawn into the same slabby impact zone over and over. So frustrating. I almost quit after duck diving 15 waves, I was shocked and exhausted, was I really getting denied on this paddle out? Eventually snuck out and caught a nice one right before dark, determined not to end today with a unique ocean beating. A nice big left wrap into the pocket that I banked and rode out of. What a release. Who knows what it looked like haha but felt great to end on a good note.
Tomorrow is the smallest day on the forecast for the next 5 days or so and it is Antoine’s last day in Lombok before heading to France. We figured that tonight would be our go out night. The four of us ate, had some drinks and went out to Surfer’s bar, one of two touristy party spots near the Kuta strip. Electronic bangers and DJ style music. Had a good night.
Nov 9
Slow start, little bit hungover. The boys are down to run it back to Serangan, even if the waves are small. There couldn’t be a cooler spot to chill, uncrowded, and nap away last night’s debauchery. Kicked it under the palapas in the shade, eating food, and relaxing. Didn’t surf.
Nov 10
With Antoine on his way home, it’s now just Cody, Alex, and I on our way to surf the Gerupuk left. Gerupuk is a massive bay with like 6 different surf spots breaking along reef outcroppings around the border. To access these you have to take a boat from the small town of Gerupuk on the east side of the bay. The spots towards the outside of the bay pick up the most swell and get large, while the inside reefs typically stay small and perfect for beginners. Hop on the bikes and head east down the amazing highway.
On arrival you got a bunch of dudes hollering at you to come use their boat services for surfing. They see you with your surfboard and basically force you to a halt and deal with them if you want to go surfing in their bay. Get a boat coordinated, hop on, and off we were to the outside left of Gerupuk. The drive out is beautiful, blue ocean and white cliffs in the distance. Unfortunately, the onshore wind has the left totally blown out and doesn’t look good. The driver scoffs when we ask him to take us across the bay to surf the outside right. We make it there and see these massive 8-10 ft burgers with a big ol’ drop and would maybe offer a turn if you get lucky before fizzing out in deep water. On the inside there are a bunch of surfers surfing the inside section of the reef, no clue why no one wanted a piece of the outside, it was empty.
The boat drops us off at the outside peak and I paddle out on my 5’8”. It’s gonna be a big wave, small board kind of session for me. It’s fine, the wave is of no consequence even if it is large. The crazy thing is that it’s such a burger that you have to take off under the lip to even get up to your feet. You see a fat wave jack up and come towards you looking like you will get pounded, but it never breaks. You just have to wait and hold your nerve til it gets to you in the take off spot, then you turn and paddle down the wave face a bit and sometimes even let it crash on you as you ride on your belly for a moment. This ended up being a really fun surf session. I had a blast hooting the boys into big waves and making a couple fun drops. The three of us traded waves there alone for several hours.
We go to the Mexican joint in town, have some food, and go out tonight. It’s Friday night and this is the big party night in Kuta. Everyone in town, even many young locals, head to Surfer’s bar for a night of dancing and drinking. It’s super crowded and lively, a way better vibe than some of the parties I went to in Uluwatu. The parties in Uluwatu could be more clicky and influencer islandy. Uluwatu has world class waves and a lot of really good surfers plus a million instagram models, so could get a little more stuck up compared to here. Kuta Lombok is loaded with surf spots for beginners and because of this many people here are just psyched to maybe get their first overhead wave or catch a wave for the first time on not a soft top. People as a result here are more social, and there’s maybe less pressure to be a cool guy surfer/influencer type deal. Whatever, fun night.
Piece of shit hangover day. Slept in, stayed in the AC room longer than I’d like to admit. Nothing good here to report.
It’s Alex’s last day before he heads back to Canada, he forces us to get up and greet the day. Mandatory to surf with him before he leaves back to the frigid land of Vancouver. So we head back to Gerupuk, thinking that the surf got bigger and we could check out a new spot in the bay. Coordinate a boat and head to Don Don’s. Unfortunately, the swell really did not come in and it’s way smaller than we anticipated. We were hoping for fun shoulder high a-frames but what we got was 1ft onshore a-frames with a boat full of soft tops jumping in. Let’s go back to the outside right, the driver scoffs and we’re out. Smaller than yesterday, but still burgers. Was fun to surf but not really great.
Say our farewells to Alex, super cool guy, great hangs, and get to rest. There is swell on the forecast for the 12th-14th and I’ve made up my mind that I am once again headed to Desert Point. I’ve got a big day tomorrow, a 3 hour drive to the far west of Lombok to reconvene with the legendary break I visited two months ago. In the middle of the night I awake to brutal thunderstorms. Oh no, the first rain of the rainy season is upon us and it is pouring. Will I still be able to drive to Desert Point tomorrow?
Wake up early, have breakfast, pack up my boards, and get my scooter situated for the mission to Desert Point. Cody is heading to Bali to get the swell there and surf guaranteed good lefts before he heads back to Colorado for Thanksgiving. Farewell Cody, it’s been real. Met him in Bali at Manta and then stayed together the past 2 weeks goofing off and surfing Lakey Peak and Kuta Lombok, good times, lots of laughs.
With the first rain pour of the season last night, I’m a little nervous about the road to Desert Point. I remember from last time that that last little stretch to get there was hell, and if that’s all muddy and washed out, the crossing there will be impossible. I’m thinking it’s a 50-50 shot of actually making it there. I’ve got to at least try, the swell looks promising and I wanna go where the waves are good, I want to get barreled. Take off and head down the highway towards Desert Point, google says it should take me like 3 hours.
Around halfway there, I get dumped on by rain. I make it under a little covered area by the side of the road where other people are sheltering as well, just wait it out. When it rains this hard I do not feel safe driving the scooter. At first I didn’t realize that the way my scooter is situated, I have the bike under the shelter but the side of the bike, with my board bag, is taking water. After a short time, my board bag is filled and the weight of it causes my bike to topple over much to my surprise and the people sitting next to me. I get the boards off the scooter while the nice man helps me get the scooter back up, crack open the bag, and water gushes out.
The rain lets up a bit and I head down the road. 30 minutes later another downpour. Damn! Now I’m about 30 minutes away but waiting underneath a shelter again. My hope was that it had rained all last night and today in the sun the roads would be dried out and the path to Deserts would be clear. But here I am so close to my destination and it is pumping rain. No way that end section is going to be passable on the scooter, maybe I should’ve gotten a dirt bike. A local dude pulls up to the shelter right next to me wearing a Surf Lombok shirt or something like that, so I ask if he’s going to Desert Point. Turns out he’s from there and is heading there right now. He’s not concerned about the rain at all. “It doesn’t really rain over in Deserts, you’ll make it no problem, I go there too.” It almost doesn’t make sense. It's raining cats and dogs here, 30 min away or so and he’s sure the path will be clear. In my time of doubt he was an angel that assured me and gave me the confidence to keep going up to the gnarliest road. Sure enough we make it to the Deserts region around the corner and the roads aren’t even wet. In fact it’s 90 degrees and dusty, just like it should be, on the world’s worst road, the final stretch to the wave. Up the incline and down smooth as can be, a couple rough moments, but nothing like my last try where I fell over several times.
Make it into the little town of Desert Point, really just some humble accommodations for surfers, head over to Budi’s house, where I stayed last time, and it is totally shut down and under construction. Wasn’t expecting that. Head back a ways and talk to Ati, a nice woman who runs a warung on the beach and has some accommodations in the back. 150 a night. She leads me to the back to check the room out, open the door, and it’s a stained mattress on a little bed frame, chickens and chicken shit everywhere. The chickens are screaming as she shoos them out with her broom, what a scene. “We go back, I make you food, you go surf, and I clean the room.” Sounds like a plan. Welcome back to the rugged Deserts! She made me one of the best Mie Gorengs with fried fish I’ve ever had, tangy and a little spicy, this rules.
The town is totally empty, there are a few surfers here, but not nearly as crowded as when I was here 2 months ago, then it wasn’t even crowded. Meet Arbs, a 42 year old Canadian shredder, been coming to Indo for 20+ years, just loves surfing. He’s here on a long stint across this region surfing Deserts, then a soul mission to the Philippines, snowboarding in Japan, and then back to Indo for the end of wet season. We get along great. So happy to be in the company of a real surfer, someone who explores and chases good waves, fun to trade stories with. “Dude Kuta Lombok sucks! The waves suck over there and it’s crowded! If the waves are pumping across Indo that is not the spot to be, there are so many better waves. If you wanna party and goof off it’s fine, but if you wanna score, get out of there!” He’s totally right I have to admit. Happy to be here for the swell that is supposed to hit tomorrow and the next day.
Dawn wake up to check the waves. Low tide, the waves don’t look great, wtf the swell is supposed to be here! End up paddling out around 7 after some eggs and coffee from Ati with Arbs. The surf ends up being really fun, the size picked up as the tide filled in and offers long beautiful rides. Unfortunately, it is not working the way you’d hope for Desert Point, no real makeable barrels. I did pull into one super long tunnel that gobbles me up after a few seconds of traveling through the closeout. Ended up smacking my board on the reef and bashing it up a little bit. “Oh yeah, it’s a shallow reef…” Kept surfing since it was in the shoulder-head high range, long waves, smooth lefts. Nothing like the Desert Point you think of but nonetheless, uncrowded fast lefts on my gaffer. After a few hours the waves go completely flat and I paddle in. Fix up the dings on my board with some solarez, the 90 degree heat and sun cure it in a heartbeat.
We’re all watching the waves, knee high at their biggest, trying to make sense of how and why this place goes hot and cold like that. A guy rolls in on a small boat and anchors just beyond the lineup, comes in to have a coffee. He goes for a quick paddle and catches a couple small ones and comes back in. “Man the waves suck, I never seem to get this place good.”
By the time the tide peaked, the wind was howling onshore and suddenly the surf began to pulse. Like almost double the size of the waves this morning, 6-8ft (Californian), sketchy fast waves. With the wind knocking the wave down, it was breaking even faster than its already speedy pace, not safe to surf, no one was out there. By the time the wave made its way to the grower, the wind was kind of side-shore and there were incredible beasts of barrels to watch and mind surf down there. Too small to surf, the barrels at the grower were breaking over shin deep sharp reef.
I get over to the man to warn him that his boat is in a really bad spot. With every growing set, the lines get closer and closer to where his boat is anchored. If the waves keep getting bigger your boat is gonna get munched. He hops on his surfboard and paddles out in front of Ziggy’s. Sure enough he gets denied on the paddle out, at one point I see him standing in knee deep water, board in hand, as a barrel comes racing down the line just in front of him. Suicide paddling zone. He comes in and tries the paddle out from in front of Budi’s house, makes it out past the surf, but now is getting dragged out to sea, in the opposite direction of his boat, in the current of the outgoing tide. No matter how hard he paddles he seems to stay in place, when he takes a break he gets washed out. At last he figures out that inside where the waves are breaking the current is pulling towards the boat, but then you are in the impact zone and have to take 6 footers on the head on shallow reef. It’s a sketchy roll of the dice but unfortunately, this is his only choice and gradually moves towards his boat in the impact zone. Relatively unscathed. He finally makes it to his boat about an hour after he originally started his quest to our cheers, but he’s not getting the fuck out of there, I’m not seeing a sense of urgency. Turns out his anchor was stuck on the reef below, we see him pulling at the rope, then start his engine and try to yank it out. Eventually he cuts the rope with a knife and sets himself free. What a nightmare. Luckily his boat got out in time and never got swallowed or worse got slammed while he was onboard and anchored to the reef. Yikes! Don’t know if he’ll ever come back.
We are watching the waves thinking if this wind switched a little offshore or something this would be epic. As soon as I get the slightest feeling that there’s a change in the gusts I grab my board and head out. As soon as I see Budi paddling out, I know this has got to be the window.
This turned into a really sweet 3 hour surf session in many different kinds of conditions. It went from crazy, choppy, overhead pumping down the line type waves to offshore glassy barrels at half the size. I pulled into about 4 tubes and made it out of none. Saw Budi and his brother, as well as a few others, totally pull into nice waves, compress and fly out of the tube. Partly I think it comes down to wave selection, I didn’t take the correct waves while they did, but also I’m just not nearly as skilled as they are at weaving through long tight tubes. Oh well sucks to suck, I’m still having a blast out here! A real fun surf session. The wave really dropped off in size once again and I went in like 30 minutes before sundown.
The sun hid itself behind a cloud and everything just glowed orange, bathed in golden light. My board is orange, my shorts are orange, my skin is orange. Everyone looks more tan than usual. A surreal sunset. Had to have a beer on the sand to watch this go down after surfing in that barrel fest.
At dinner, Arbs shared amazing stories of surfing here 15 years ago with Andy Irons, Joel Parkinson, Christian Fletcher, legends. His first time here was 2005 and he makes a point to stay at least a week or more every year while he’s on his way around Indo and SE Asia wave hunting. Very happy to have made a friend in Arbs, hope to surf with him again one day and maybe get a little more knowledge from him. That’s the thing about these legendary waves, like G-Land, it attracts the best surfers, and they are loaded with stories of crazy times. When you’re in the water surfing the heavy waves it feels special, like you are in a real proving grounds, I imagine the greats before me here as well and the energy they brought to these places.
Really wild when you think of the course of the day. Started flat at dawn. Pulsed in the morning in the 4-6ft range fast point break style waves. Went flat for like 3 hours. Afternoon it pumped at 6-8ft in scary windy conditions (but the grower was offshore). Then calmed down a bit back to 4-6ft light onshore to light offshore, followed by long lulls before sundown. Theoretically this place is tide dependent but it worked and didn’t work on all tides today. This temperamental wave is beyond my forecasting abilities, but amazing to witness. Thought I was getting skunked at first and as always, a subpar Desert Point still delivers plenty of excitement.
At dinner, Arbs shared amazing stories of surfing here 15 years ago with Andy Irons, Joel Parkinson, Christian Fletcher, legends. His first time here was 2005 and he makes a point to stay at least a week or more every year while he’s on his way around Indo and SE Asia wave hunting. Very happy to have made a friend in Arbs, hope to surf with him again one day and maybe get a little more knowledge from him. That’s the thing about these legendary waves, like G-Land, it attracts the best surfers, and they are loaded with stories of crazy times. When you’re in the water surfing the heavy waves it feels special, like you are in a real proving grounds, I imagine the greats before me here as well and the energy they brought to these places.
Really wild when you think of the course of the day. Started flat at dawn. Pulsed in the morning in the 4-6ft range fast point break style waves. Went flat for like 3 hours. Afternoon it pumped at 6-8ft in scary windy conditions (but the grower was offshore). Then calmed down a bit back to 4-6ft light onshore to light offshore, followed by long lulls before sundown. Theoretically this place is tide dependent but it worked and didn’t work on all tides today. This temperamental wave is beyond my forecasting abilities, but amazing to witness. Thought I was getting skunked at first and as always, a subpar Desert Point still delivers plenty of excitement.
NOV 14
Wake up at 5:30 once again, calm beautiful morning, the waves are flat. Very lowkey and chill day. Most of the people who were surfing yesterday take off back to Bali or Kuta. After breakfast, the surf picks up again, and I head out for some waves, shoulder high sets. It starts to rain, first rain at Desert Point of the season, it’s really just a sprinkle, but it creates the most beautiful optical illusion. The millions of water drops hitting the grey ocean in unison make it look like there’s a one inch layer of white mist hovering on the ocean’s surface. The rain fully cuts the wind and its oil glass. After an hour or so of this the wave fully changes into shitty little burgers and I paddle in. How many different faces of Deserts am I going to see?
Turns out I’d see at least one more face. Have some food and see the waves start to look fun so I grab the board and paddle out for my last sesh of the trip. The waves are double the size of this morning, overhead waves coming through only it looks nothing like desert point waves. It’s like a peaky beach break off the point further up from the usual take off zone. I surf out there with some new friends, Noah from Hawaii and Federico from Italy. Every now and then a wave will double up and allow for a nice long ride if you can race it. Most waves are short almost windswelly but with some size. Start getting some front side wraps in but when trying to bank it off the whitewater, looking down I realize how shallow it is, I’m looking right at the reef. Normally Deserts at this size is not really a wave you want to do turns on because you are pretty close to the reef.
The wind is howling in one direction and the current is pulling in the opposite. It’s totally a battle against the elements type of surf session. Fun but exhausting. Non stop paddling, non stop paddling. Even though it was just for 1.5 hours, it felt way longer. I come in and have a big meal from Ati, chill with the homies around, say my goodbyes and I’m off back to Kuta.
The drive back to Kuta is at first gorgeous as you would expect driving through rural Lombok and then less so when you get to the highways. Drive through the sunset and haul ass so as to not get caught by nightfall and maybe more rain. Safe and sound in Village Vibes Lombok I take a hot shower back in civilization, I pass out in my comfy bed. Desert Point is definitely a place I will revisit, hopefully next time with better barrel riding skill and better wave selection.
Nov 15
Chill start to the day with the nice breakfast and papaya, watermelon, banana smoothie. Head to Mawi and surf some chill slopey lefts. Lots of beginners in the water, back on that program, but have a good time catching waves. On the exit I run into Noah and his girlfriend Gara, from Spain. I was just surfing with him yesterday at Deserts and now here we pick up where we left off and hit it off. The three of us hang at the beach all day. Chatting, eating, relaxing super good times. They introduce me to some of their friends and we all go out for dinner and drinks in the evening. A nice night with new friends back in Kuta Lombok.
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