The Golden Week

  After the unplanned trip to Sumbawa it was time to go back to Bali and take care of business...while i was traveling i had done some business via telephone such as reservation for a peruvian friend and his wife at Bobbys Camp at G-land for the best of all packages where i had got a good discount for them besides reservations of airline tickets to Lakey Peak and Sumatra and rental car for some friends that would take an overland trip and needed good cars and not the old beaten Kijangs that you find everywhere.

  Little did i know the surprise that was waiting for me...As soon as i arrive in Bali the running around started and i went to see how things were...soon i realized it was worse than i imagined...my peruvian friend that i had made the booking for G-land went on the following day of the reservation without realizing what he was doing into a little room with pictures of G-land on the Bukit to see the pictures and ended up leaving his name there even after making clear that he had already made a reservation with me and only want to look at the pictures.

  Even after making clear at the office in Kuta also that he was paying for the package that he had booked with me it was too late. The reservation was now at someone else's name that had called the office the day after i had made the reservation and told them that this was his client and somebody at the office accepted putting me out of the deal.

  My friend even asked me if i wanted him to cancel his trip and his payment via credit card but i told him to enjoy his trip and that i was already used to this kind of situation and would end up finding a solution after all it was not his fault as he didn't know that he should never have asked any more information about surf trips to anyone else... Less than 24 hs on the island and i already couldn't wait to get on the road again and leave all this negativeness behind.

  Then i decided to to talk to all the people that i had to talk as soon as possible, take what was mine and hit the road to Desert on my bike, specially after seeing that a medium size swell was on it's way and the tides were good...that's how hours after i was saying good bye to some friends sitting on my Tiger bike with 2 surfboards on the rack, a backpack on my back and the will to hit the road as soon as possible.

  I arrived at Lombok at sunrise and soon after i was already at my local friend Sulaeman's house. I greeted the family and the Hawaiian Darrin that lives there most of the season, organized my stuff and in a few minutes i was already at the beach at Desert Point.

  What happened on the next few days was the routine of waking up early, drink coffee and go to the beach to wait all day for those few hours when the tide gets good and with luck and depending on the swell direction the barrels can start to break; On many days it was not what happened but on a few we had a bit more luck and could enjoy a few but good waves. Definetly a spot inapropriate for those who have short holidays and want to enjoy as much surfing time as possible on their trips... for those the best call is to enjoy as much as they can at Bali, Lakey Peak, G-land or the Mentawais where the waves are way more consistent and break on any tide with any swell direction.

  Rarely there was good waves but on the days they appeared i could take some pictures and get some to don't waste the trip. The rest of the time was spent siting on a little warung on the beach front, feeling real hot, drinking warm water and trying to get rid of the clouds of mosquitoes and flies.

  The detachments on the days with waves were: The American local and pioneer of the spot Paul "Pablo" aka "Mr. Desert" for his perfect positioning, wave knowledge and humble behavior and positive attitude in and out of the water giving a lesson to a lot of people; The Hawaiians Reef Mcintosh that was teaching how to get tubed on your back hand and maneuver on the most critical section of the wave on the shallowest part of the reef that ended up costing him a couple of broken boards and a creased one and Ricco Jaminez that was surfing with a 4 fins and got a lot of deep barrels.

  The Brazilian resident of the spot Hugo for his good tubes and positioning that besides everything else is now a family father thanks to the birth of his daughter result of his marriage with a local girl from the area. The spot regulars such as the Aussie Kelly, the Hawaiians Tony and Darrin for their performance and knowledge of the wave and also Andy Campbell from Tasmania that surfed with a 5'7 twin fin and pushed the limits as always, the Brazilians Ricardo Oliveira and Guilherme from Curitiba and Clayton from
Florianopolis and the Hawaiians from Kauai Kai, Jeremy, Donavon and Chris from California that had found good waves did good also.

  Besides all of those something else that got everyone's attention was the performance of the little locals of Desert Point Usman "Us" and Adi between others showing that the local surf will soon be well represented on the line up specially by "Us" that with only 11 years of age is already getting good barrels on the smaller days and is already starting to go for it on the bigger days with lower tides.

  Congratulations to Da Hui Bali for already being supportive to this young athlete. These locals are the future protectors of Desert Point that together with the foreigner locals such as Hugo, Paul, Darrin, Tony, Kelly, Chris and Kevin amongst others will guarantee that the spot always keep the order and respect.

  Looks like the "boaties" as the surfers from the boats are called will have to learn to respect the area a little bit more as they always arrive in crowds and never leave any kind of help or business to the local community besides disturbing the peace on the point with their arrival at mass numbers and the little locals don't seem to like this one bit... These are a few groups that were at Deserts last week and their nationalities:

From Hawaii:
Ricco Jaminez, Reef Mcintosh and his girlfriend from Oahu-Hawaii; Kai, Jeremy and Donavon from Kauai and their friend from California Chris.

From Brasil:
Ricardo Oliveira, Elaine Casteli, Guilherme and Isabela (Curitiba); Clayton, Humberto, Andre and Jorge (Floripa); Paulo (Rj) and some guys from his same town in a Kijang, Me, Rodrigo "Digone" (Rs) on my solo mission and Lui (Itajaí) that showed up there on the last days as always alone and on a bike.

From Australia:
Byron and Michael; Andy Campbell (Tasmania) and girlfriend from Jakarta; Jayson.

From America:
Ryan e Jamie Wooton.

From Spain:
Mario, Carlota and Juan from Venezuela.

  Besides those there was the residents, the regulars and the surfers from many boats.

  At the end of this week the swell started to drop off and as i already had a beautiful cut on my foot to take care of that i had taken as a souvenir from Deserts and the first game of Brazil in the world Cup would be happening at that night i decided to go back to Bali and leave Deserts with some waves on my departure time.

Special thanks to:
The locals from Desert Point Putu, Usman, Adi and the rest of the family at Desert Point; to the residents and regulars Paul, Hugo, Darrin, Kelly and Tony for their dedication to the point and for helping keep things in place; to the crew from Oahu Ricco, Reef and girlfriend for taking the little locals of Deserts for a ride to the town of Mataram and to the malls giving some help to this kids; to my old and new friends from Kauai Kai, Jeremy, Donavon and Chris for the friendship and for taking the little Deserts locals to know Sumbawa and surf Super Sucks and to all my friends that i've met on this trip and specially pak Sulaeman and his family for his attention and hospitality.

  See you next time, those of you that were there know that is a torture but sometimes is worth...

Rodrigo "Digone"