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Steve and Mary’s Dock
... a coed talent pool
cozies up with some old friends in the
Caribbean.
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It happens each time the Indies Trader
pulls into a new marina. The local surfers
come running to check her out or hopefully
meet one of their heroes. But people who’ve
never heard of the Crossing and who click a
mouse and call it surfing are attracted like
parched mosquitoes to the flamboyant blue
and orange floating spectacle. Mary fits
somewhere in between. She doesn’t surf, but
her husband Steve still paddles out on
occasion. The first time she glanced out the
back window of her Caribbean hideaway
overlooking the marina and saw the Trader
motoring past, she instantly recognized it
from her sons Kelly Slater ProSurfer game.
In seconds, this U.S. expatriate turned
unofficial island welcoming committee was in
her car and zooming around the marina to
meet the boys. |
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Steve and Mary's dock.
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"...Indo on a good day."
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That was back in
February of 2004, and a few days
later, Steve – with his Jimmy
Stewart voice and unflinching
eagerness to please – taxied the
crew straight up to a heavenly
open-ocean right-hander on the
other side of the island. After
rubbing their eyes to make sure
the bombing overhead freight
trains were real, they were
believers. Martin Daly, a man
whose eyes have seen perhaps
more perfect reef-breaks than any
others in the world, was
positively frothing, claiming
he’d be stoked to pull up to the
same wave in Indo. He was ready
to purchase some land that very
minute. |
Since then the
Crossing has spent more nights moored at
Steve and Mary's place than in any other
location. A friendlier couple you’ll not
find anywhere in the Caribbean. Not
coincidentally, the crew has also scored
more surf in this neck of the woods than
anywhere else it has travelled. While the
cadre of nearby waves is fickle and
frequently windblown, the potential is
staggering. The trader spent a good
portion of two winters sampling the
neighbouring goods, either right behind
the house, around the corner, or along
one of the nearby islands. Every so
often, they’d return to the dock to
exchange passengers, enjoy a friendly
cookout, and to launch a few shots at
the hockey goal in the driveway. Faced
with this sort of hospitality and
proximity surf, its difficult to leave.
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Earlier this
year, following her six-month
promotional stint around the
United States, the Trader as
last rediscovered her sea legs.
Two trips of top-notch surfers
scored some ideal conditions
within dinghy distance from
Steve and Mary's. The former
troop included Dylan Graves,
Frankie Walsh, Gabriel Villaran,
Matt Hoy and Jimmy Rotherham
(who already knew how good it
could get from last year’s
visit.) While the first week was
a total wash, the final few days
more than made up for the
deficit. And as lady luck would
have it, the Roxy girls –
current world champion Sofia
Mulanovich, Lisa Andersen,
Chelsea Georgeson, Rosie Hodge,
and Caroline Sarran – sashayed
straight off the plane and into
solid swell. |
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Worth the wait!
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By the
time spring had sprung, the Crossing bid
a fond farewell to her gracious hosts.
With lots of ocean left to explore,
there are no plans to return to this
quaint tropical retreat anytime soon.
Steve and Mary now “surf” over to the
Captains Log religiously to follow her
progress from afar. And they always keep
an eye out the back window.
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The potential of the place was obvious on this
day.
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