Cruise line vacationers will have wave surfing as another option

People of all skill levels can participate in the simulation.
By Arline Bleecker
Orlando Sentinel
Royal Caribbean International could call itself the "DreamSports" cruise line.
Its cruises certainly deliver a shipload of frolicsome options for sports enthusiasts. This is the line, after all, that introduced rock-climbing walls, ice-skating rinks and roller-blading tracks to high-seas vacationers several years ago.
Now it plans another first: wave surfing.
In May, when Freedom of the Seas debuts, it will be the world's largest cruise vessel, 160,000 tons and more than one-fifth of a mile long. And it will incorporate a deck-high wave-surfing system.
We're not talking hanging ten in the wake of a Royal Caribbean behemoth. We're talking hanging ten on deck 12, a hundred miles out to sea.
The wave-surfing attraction, a system called FlowRider, will be situated in the space now occupied by miniature golf courses on some of Freedom's siblings.
What it's like
According to Royal Caribbean's president, Adam Goldstein, it's "an adrenaline-pumping, unforgettable new experience."
The FlowRider resembles a wide water slide. The 32-foot-wide-by-40-foot-long surfing system, created by California-based WaveLoch Inc., generates a 3-inch sheet of water that flows over a trampoline-type material suspended above the wave-making innards to cushion falls and spills.
FlowRider pumps 30,000 gallons of water per minute from nozzles at the base. The gushing water rushes up a deck-high concave slope to form a permanent standing wave that simulates surfing a 10-foot-high ocean wave moving at 20 mph.
Even though the experience is simulated, the option certainly breaks new ground at sea. Its designers correlate the experience to swimming against a current in a stationary lap pool, only with FlowRider you surf a steady wave that doesn't actually go anywhere. You stay in one spot as you try to balance yourself against the powerful cascade of water.
Can do at any level
Freedom's Surf Park offers passengers a choice of surfboard options: a 42-inch flowboard with no fins for stand-up rollicking wave rides or one designed for less balance-demanding body boarding.
Novices need not worry. After you sign up, an instructor will walk you through a required safety session with tips for a successful ride. Best of all, FlowRider is free.
If performing a balancing act on a moving vessel isn't challenge enough, consider that you'll be surrounded by plenty of onlookers. In addition to surfside spectators, flat-screen TVs in an adjacent sports bar will feature a live feed of action from the surf park.
Ouch.
Comic books
Lindblad Expeditions is getting into the comic-book business.
Renowned for its exotic destinations and stellar onboard lecturers, Lindblad aims to expand its appeal to younger passengers and burnish its educational halo. The line recently announced a partnership with longtime comic-book illustrator and colorist Stan Goldberg to create a series of educational picture books for young passengers.
Goldberg, a 55-year veteran of the comics industry, has been a colorist for such Marvel Comics heroes as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk, as well as an illustrator for Archie Comics.
The first book, "Fun and Games with Little Lin," follows a child explorer through her discoveries on the Galapagos Islands. The comic book was inspired by Goldberg's own travels with Lindblad to those untrammeled islands made famous by Charles Darwin as a cauldron for evolution.
The picture book is chock-a-block with information and entertaining puzzles as Little Lin -- a towheaded adventuress decked out in some pretty impressive hiking gear -- roams the Galapagos Islands. She shares her discovery of the islands' unusual animals, such as giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas and sea lions, as well as its plants and lava formations.
Intended as an educational tool for kids and as an inspiration for them to be wise stewards of the environment, the book will be distributed free to all families traveling with Lindblad to the Galapagos.