Desert Point Alert Guide

Lombok, Indonesia · part of the Desert Point spot guide

Desert Point is forecast-only — the nearest buoy is thousands of kilometres away — so the alert flags a plausible switch-on, not a guarantee, and the height below is an open-ocean reading. Pair any alert with a low-to-mid tide window before committing.

The forecaster's checklist

1. 1.Watch the Southern Ocean / Roaring Forties for a deep, well-organized low tracking east under Australia — the southwest-groundswell factory.
2. 2.Give it about three to five days to propagate from the Southern Ocean fetch to Lombok.
3. 3.Run on models — there is no local buoy — using GFS-Wave and Windy for height, period and direction plus Surfline.
4. 4.Read the switch-on tell as southwest (210–250°) at a solid open-ocean height and period of at least 14 seconds; if nearby Kuta is going 8-to-10-feet and closing, Deserts is likely coming alive.
5. 5.Tide is the final gate — overlay the swell peak on the low-to-mid tide window; miss it and the best swell of the season can be flat or un-makeable.

Local winds & tide

Best wind: E–SE offshore (the dry-season trades) — from 90° to 160° (E–SSE).

Tide-critical and effectively a hard gate: Desert Point is a low-tide wave that can all but disappear at high tide, so it needs a solid long-period southwest swell to coincide with the low-to-mid tide band — a few-days-a-month alignment. No tide series is modelled.

Dial it in