On the south-western point of Lombok lies one of the best waves on earth. You’ve heard of it, and if you’re lucky, you’ve surfed it. It’s Desert Point, and it’s a dream wave. Since its discovery, it’s become one of the most well-known, fabled breaks in the world, and for good reason. But of course, waves were breaking there long before anyone surfed it. Its discovery was relatively recent, but that’s because, if you think about it, surfing’s popularity has risen with surprising swiftness.
Now the place has become a place on every surfer’s bucket list. Back in the early ’80s, a young California surfer named Bill Heick began exploring the region as Bali’s perfect waves were just coming to the forefront of surfing’s collective consciousness. The crowds quickly followed, and like all surfers, Heick and his friends felt the need to go farther afield. They ended up at Desert Point, named for the surrounding landscape, and ended up holding it close to their chests for the better part of a decade. It wasn’t an easy adventure, though–and no adventure worth it ever is–but what they experienced was worth it. Their story is, as the call it, “one of the last great dirtbag adventures of the 20th Century.”
