Desert Point Swell Window
Lombok, Indonesia · part of the Desert Point spot guide
- Swell window (from)
- 190°–280° (S–W)
- Best direction
- ~230° (SW)
- Period sweet spot
- 14–20 s
- Open-ocean height (Hs)
- 6–13 ft
- Resulting faces
- 4–15 ft
Open-ocean vs. the face: the heights on buoys and forecast models are significant wave height (Hs) in deep water. What you ride is the breaking face, which depends on period, direction and this break's bathymetry — that's why the two rows above differ. PierMonkey's spot ratings already do this conversion for you.
The reef faces west-southwest into the open Indian Ocean, so the money direction is a solid, long-period southwest swell on the 210–250° heart of the window. Period is long — 14 seconds is the minimum to switch it on, and the best days run 15 to 18 seconds and up; short-period swell of the same height won’t break the wave properly.
It is a threshold wave: a local benchmark is that it starts to come alive roughly when nearby Kuta is 8-to-10-feet and closing out — the surrounding coast is maxed before Deserts is even good. The height on a model is an open-ocean reading; the reef turns it into overhead-to-double-overhead barrels, and up to about a 15-foot face on the heavy days.