Bali Surf Connection - Surf Expedition Part 2- Nusa Tenggara - MCD Expedition

Desert "Crowd" Point

We left Bali on our way to the islands of Nusa Tenggara on the night of the 30th with the expectation of finding good waves with a small or no crowd...on this trip were me as a guide, the professional surfers from MCD James Santos, Fernando "Fanta", Cássio Sanchez and the cameraman Bruno Bez that was collecting material for a future project...we stayed at the Surfers Inn again and went early just after sunrise on a boat searching for waves of difficult access on the morning of the first day when a swell of strong intensity was expected to arrive on the coast; Unfortunately the internet was wrong and this swell never materialized arriving with a lot less power than expected and with a wrong direction making the few waves go past on the outside not coming inside the bay where we were...We decided then to go to Desert Point where we could still get some barrels and get some footage done on the rest of the week...

On the following day we were already at Desert Point dividing the point with a strong crowd...amongst the surfers that dominated the point on this first swell there were Hawaiians Liam Macnamara and Kamalei Alexander, Californians Nathan Fletcher and Darryl "Flea" Virotsko, Brazilians James Santos, Fernando "Fanta" and Cássio Sanchez, a young Peruvian that ended up getting hurt on his face plus the spot pioneers like Pablo and Cris...we still surfed some good days of solid 5 to 6 feet until the end of the swell and decided to stay to wait for a new swell that was on its way...on the flat days we went diving with Desert's resident Brazilian Mohamed Hugo in his boat to chill after with those Bintangs coming non stop...

On the night prior to the swell we found out that the contest at Padang was over and the tides weren't that good for G-Land anymore.all the hotels and home stays were booked out with reservations for surfers on the ferry on their way to Deserts and plus there was about 3 other boats of the "boat trips" with about 12 surfers each.the circus was coming to town.a crowd of many Hawaiians, Brazilians, Australians, etc...was coming starving to Deserts...cameramen, photographers and professional surfers from many places wanted their slice of the cake and Deserts got the biggest crowd I've ever seen till today...at a moment I've counted 25 cars on the parking lot...

The amount of drop ins and lack of respect I've seen in the water are not
worth mentioning.simply depressing!!

It was 3 days of waves on the 5 to 6 feet range again on a Deserts of good waves but nothing special about it with some good barrels but none of the waves that barrel from the take off till past the parking lot as usual when its cranking...

While this was happening, new warungs are getting made and are now part of the picture (now there are 5 on the beach front) and new houses are getting build to accommodate feral surfers that like to stay on the beachfront. In another words, Desert Point has got nothing else from Desert but the name...

The standouts on this last swell were the Hawaiians of Pipeline Posse amongst which Kahea Hart and Jason Frederico that got around a 100 waves getting some nice barrels and throwing some airs, the Balinese Mustofa Jackson that got some very deep barrels, the Brazilian Marlon from Curitiba that got one barrel all the way to the parking lot and the Aussie Eddie Blackwell that showed a brutal backhand performance silencing the crowd at the beach showing that he is one step ahead everyone else as radicalism goes...Many other surfers had good performances but those are the ones that really stood out...

A strong fact on both swells was the radical change on the ideal tidal conditions of this wave.opposite to normality, there were good waves on the high tide with few barrels but good sections for turns that were getting more and more hollow as the tides dropped to medium and finally disappearing completely with no waves breaking on the low tide.we also had some few quick rains and winds that changed direction from time to time... There was a clear picture...times are changing!!

Detached facts: An absurd crowd; Radical weather changes; A Peruvian dissapear while diving and regularly we had helicopters flying around the area looking for his body; A beach clean up was organized on the beach by the locals that should be an exemple to other locals from other spots...

I leave here my special thanks to my buddies James, Fanta, Cássio and Bruno, my local friends and the Deserts pioneers, to Pak Suleman and family and to the Pak Gede and the people of the Aman Gati Hotel.

Desert Point?? you shoulda been here 10 years ago!!!