Surfer Profile: Mark Healey

Highlights:
“If you’re going to be dumb you’d better be tough,” surfing big waves and big wave events around the world.

In the year 2004 it was Bruce Irons who shone at Waimea Bay with some serious charging and foolhardy shorebreak messing to win the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational In Memory Of Eddie Aikau. Bruce rode the waves he needed, charging the biggest sets from behind the boil, and scored a bizarre win at Waimea. Bizarre because he doesnt really surf there much at all. Behind the scenes there was another surfer who was really impressing, really making the judges and spectators take note. Young Hawaiian Mark Healey was going for some of the latest drops ever seen at Waimea, on his backhand, deep behind the peak.
Those take-offs and attempted freefall takeoffs are what every one was speaking about apart from Bruce's victory, and was what solidified him on the big wave register.
Apart from air-dropping macking Waimea, Healey has a few other specialities up his sleeve. You'll get that if you hang with other other foolhardy surfer Jamie Sterling, and I say that with all respect.
Healey also charges Pipe. A committed local, he knows the ins and outs of Pipe like few others, and is not afraid to pull into anything no matter where he is on the reef. Hes had a few good slams there, but has lived to fight another day every time.
He made a bit of history when he and fellow Pipe-maestro Danny Fuller attempted to ride bulls after a few beers, in their boardshorts. Healey climbs onto a particularly fierce looking beast, with bare feet and no protective gear, and manages to ride before getting tossed, and luckily, nit trampled.
Healey also has an affinity for Teahupoo, having a go on the killing fields of this notorious reef when given the chance. Paddle or tow, Healey has been seen deep within some serious tubes at Chopes and is the leader, along with Sterls, amongst the young crew out there.
Mark is also an avid and skilled spear fisherman, cruising around in the dark along the edges of the North Shore, looking for some pelagic supper for himself and his mates. It is this very diving that gives Healey the knowledge of the reefs and the set-ups and gives him confidence out there when its macking.
Sponsored by Quiksilver and an invitee to the Quiksilver Waimea event as well as the Billabong Pipe Masters makes sure that his profile is kept humming, but this is going to be his first venture down to the Cape Of Storm and to Dungeons. He has been invited before, but the event did'nt run last year so he has yet to see the beast that is Dungeons and the ferocity she can deal out. Sterls backhand bottom turn is already synonymous with Dungeons, so with their fierce competitiveness, no doubt we will soon be seeing Healey's bottom turn at the bottom of a whole bunch of big waves as well.