06.04.01
TransWorld Surf

Event dates:June 4 – 17
Location: Indian Ocean

A surfing expedition unlike any other, featuring six-time world champion Kelly Slater, begins this weekend at a secret location in the Indian Ocean.

Over the past two years Kelly Slater has been in semi retirement from the World Championship Tour and as a result he has been less accessible to the international media. For the next two weeks he will board the Quiksilver Crossing with a select group of surfers he has personally invited. Kelly Slater Outside the Boundaries will be broadcast to the world, from somewhere on the Indian Ocean, via the internet.

The Quiksilver Crossing is a voyage of surfing discovery on board the surf exploration vessel, the Indies Trader. The boat left Papua New Guinea in March 1999 and over the last two years has journeyed east across the South Pacific to French Polynesia. From there it has returned west to the northern islands of the Indian Ocean.

Since it's inception the Crossing has found more than 60 world class waves, most have never been surfed. It has carried over 250 people including professional surfers (males and females), marine biologists, university professors, cinematographers and photographers to record the adventures. Scientific data has been collected throughout the voyage on isolated coral reefs and this is being collated for the United Nations-sanctioned Reef Check program. Another important aspect of the Crossing is respect for, and interaction with, local cultures.

Kelly's invited team includes, two time world champion Tom Carroll (Australia), 2001 In Memory of Eddie Aikau winner Ross Clarke Jones (Australia), Mavericks charger Peter Mel (USA), and all round waterman Dave Kalama (Hawaii). He has also chosen to introduce two young grommets - Dylan Graves (15, Puerto Rico) and Ry Craike (16, Western Australia) - to these legends of the sport and to the worlds media.

The mission of Kelly Slater and his team will be to discover new surf spots and they definitely have the energy needed to ignite these undiscovered waves.

"I'm looking forward to joining the Crossing for a two week stint," Kelly Slater stated. "It's prime season for waves in this region of the Indian Ocean right now and a solid swell is on its way." He went on to say, "I have just recovered from a recent injury and am really fired-up to go surfing. The lure of new discoveries makes it even more exciting."

During the Southern hemisphere winter, almost constant storms in the Southern Ocean off the Antarctic generate swells which march unimpeded northward through the Indian Ocean towards the Indonesian Archipelago's. The Quiksilver Crossing's experts have been closely following the US Navy WAM charts (worldwide swell forecasting tool) and a perfect swell is due to hit the day Kelly and his team arrive on the boat.

Keeping our locations confidential is a very important aspect of the Quiksilver Crossing. While the basic route is outlined, no specific references are given in regards to surf spots. The primary aim of the Crossing is to explore new regions and to avoid populated surfing areas as much as possible. On this trip we are looking for new waves in a rarely visited region of the Indian Ocean.

The Indies Trader is a 75-foot diving and survey vessel constructed of steel with an aluminum wheelhouse. It weighs 95 tones and has a cruising speed of eight knots. At the beginning of the Crossing's voyage her hull was painted with a Polynesian tattoo design. She is totally customized for surf exploration.

All this action will be captured through a range of mediums for use by the press. Three cinematographers will be filming with Betacam, digital and 16 mm cameras. Two still photographers will be on board capturing everything on both digital and 35mm slide film.

The latest satellite and computer equipment has also been shipped to the Quiksilver Crossing so that we can get up to the minute information from the middle of the Indian Ocean.

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