Desert Point Oct 6 2023
Both Padang Padang & Desert Point need a lot of swell to break properly. If you think Padang is going to break but it doesn't, not a big deal because you can go surf nearby Uluwatu or a number of other breaks nearby. Desert point is different, there are very few other surf breaks in the area. Only a handful of surfers live nearby so committing to surf Desert's takes hours of driving time, often times a full day or night of travel. From most locations in south Bali, it is approximately 1.5 hours drive to get to the ferry. The ferry ride is 4-5 hours and once you reach Lombok, you got another 1.5 hours driving time and 30 mins of it is off-road.
With all the traveling time involved, the question is will the surf be good enough to justify traveling. On October 5th, the day prior to this video, the surf was forecasted to be 8-10 ft. @ 16S intervals 207 degrees. You can see that video (Lombok's best wave - Desert Point - 4K drone footage) • Lombok's best wave - D... to see how it was breaking. We really did not know if Oct 6th (the day this video was shot if it would be good). As you can see in this video there were left over larger waves from the day before mixed with smaller waves in the shoulder to head high range. The swell has a lot of south in it so both days had sets that broke with too much angle, were relatively fat alternating with sets that hit the reef properly. For a 208 degree swell to wrap into a reef facing 325 degrees requires a longer interval. If it was an 18 second interval, the odds of good waves would be better. At 12 second intervals the chances of the swell refraction would be much less. Even in the age of swell forecast models and webcams on many popular breaks, predicting when to travel and where to travel has its risks of getting skunked. Understanding swell angles and intervals increases your odds of getting good waves.
4 окт 2024
