Ocean Athlete®, the North Carolina-based ocean sports apparel brand, will make its online retail debut in June with the help of scuba diving superstar John Chatterton. Chatterton is the popular host of the History Channel’s series Deep Sea Detectives and one of the world’s preeminent wreck divers.Chatterton is the first endorsee signed by Ocean Athlete to market its apparel and accessories designed for coastal sporting lifestyles, including diving, surfing, sailing and fishing. Ocean Athlete will also be supporting Soldiers Undertaking Disabled Scuba, or SUDS, a program that is important to Chatterton who is a combat veteran of Vietnam. SUDS, founded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, aids in the rehabilitation of injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“For anyone in the dive world, John Chatterton is a rock star,” said Duane Willis, president and founder of Ocean Athlete. “He brings immediate credibility to our brand, and working with him to help benefit SUDS makes our partnership that much more rewarding.” In addition to benefitting from Chatterton’s worldwide recognition among divers, Ocean Athlete will also offer diving enthusiasts exclusive online content provided by Chatterton.
“I am very excited to be part of the Ocean Athlete team,” Chatterton said. “The brand’s involvement in diving and other ocean sports, plus their support of programs like SUDS, convinced me that this is a company I would be proud to represent.”
In 1991, Chatterton and his dive partner Richie Kohler led the stunning discovery of the German submarine U-869 off the coast of New Jersey. The six-year exploration was chronicled in the 2004 New York Times bestseller Shadow Divers and in the two-hour special Hitler’s Lost Sub for the PBS series NOVA. Chatterton’s expedition to the Titanic was featured on the History Channel in Titanic’s Final Moments, and is also depicted in the bestselling book, Titanic’s Last Secrets.
