Searching the seas for great waves
By Kendis Gibson
CNN Headline News
(CNN) -- In Virginia Beach, Virginia, this week, a fishing trawler pulls into port. Not necessarily noteworthy, until you consider the mission the Indies Trader has been on.
I spent some time aboard the boat this spring in the Atlantic Ocean off the Bahamian coast. It was in search for what could be considered a diamond in the rough. Crossing three oceans and more than 78,000 nautical miles, the Indies Trader, a converted fishing trawler, is used now simply in the exploration of surf.
The exploration is a multimillion dollar promotional campaign called "The Crossing Tour" for the Quiksilver clothing company. It has taken world championship surfers such as Kelly Slater around the globe, along the way discovering 91 new world-class waves. Followed by millions of youngsters online, the exploration fulfills the dream of any surfer -- to find an undiscovered wave.
"The anticipation," says championship surfer Jon Rose, "and then you're like, 'Oh My God,' there's a swell. You can see the back of the waves rolling in, and you're like, 'How big is it?' and you start getting butterflies, and you get really psyched up."
From Sydney, Australia, to the canals of The Netherlands and the Suez Canal in Egypt, the Indies Trader has been at this mission five years now.
"We're going to these far reaches of the globe where there's surf, and we're showing these different communities and territories the spirit of surfing; it's fantastic," says the CEO of Quiksilver, Bob McKnight.
There's also another mission for The Crossing Tour promotion -- working with oceanographers and students from UCLA who are studying the world's reefs and ocean water levels.
Dan Rineman is the latest marine biologist on board the boat. "They're getting this data from different kinds of reefs and different oceans from all over the world, and try to compare it all around, so they can say this is the state of the coral reefs at the present time," Rineman says.
At present, the Indies Trader is making stops along the U.S. East Coast for the very first time, allowing others to explore this boat that has done so much exploring.
