Mark healey surfer injury
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The island of Mikomoto is a barren, windswept, wave-battered chunk of basalt infested with sharks and scoured by current, and looks as if it erupted from the fever dream of a malarial sea captain. Six miles offshore of Japan’s quiet port town of Minami-Izu, its waters are so treacherous that the 25-acre uninhabited island was chosen in 1870 as the site of one of the country’s first stone lighthouses, a 75-foot tower wrapped with black stripes. For Mark Healey, these are all the ingredients of a good time.
“This should be fun,” he says as the Otomaru, our 40-foot chartered fishing boat, pulls into a rocky cove.
Clad head to toe in a three-millimeter camouflage wetsuit with fins to match, he looks like he just swam out of a Special Forces unit. He has a black GoPro camera (one of his many sponsors) strapped to his head; it’s an accessory so common in his daily life that it may as well be a permanent appendage. A knife is cinched at the hip to his weight belt, along with a trio of two-pound lead weights, custom-made to reduce drag in the water. A black glove protects his left han
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Mark Healey
ABOUT MARK
Mark Healey is a professional waterman, big-wave surfer, award-winning spear-fisherman, free-diver, photographer, filmmaker, and part-time Hollywood stuntman. Mark relies on the durability and precision of his Bremont Waterman whilst navigating the oceans and being subjected to their tough conditions. Despite his unruly itinerary, Healey's made no shortage of major achievements in his career as a self-described waterman. Earning his first surf sponsorship at age 13 and going pro at 17, the 31-year-old has racked up victories at big-wave events like Todos Santos and in 2008 nabbed the Spearfishing World Cup. Still, Healey half-jokes, my biggest accomplishment so far is probably just staying alive.
A CONNECTION WITH WILDERNESS
While he's encountered his share of close calls from shark attacks to blackouts, Healey thrives on the elements of danger inherent to his work. Anytime you step into the ocean, you're in an environment that's completely uncontrolled by humans, he says. Everyone needs to connect with that sort of wilderness in some way, especially
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Professional Surfer
Featured
Mark Healey grew up with the pulse of the ocean in his blood. Hailing from the North Shore of Oahu, his world was shaped by the ever-changing sea and the lush tropical landscape that surrounded him. Mark had dreams of becoming a marine biologist as a boy but, while still in middle school, his oceanic calling found him in a different venue. Healey first blew the surf scene’s collective mind in a magazine photo spread. The shutter snapped, as an ant-sized, unidentified 14-year-old flew down the face of a 40-footer at notorious Waimea Bay, and Mark Healey’s life course was altered forever. Since then he’s surfed in every big wave event there is, from the Oahu-based Quiksilver Eddie Aikau Memorial Contest, to the traveling Big Wave World Tour. The BWWT is especially innovative in its mandate of paddle-in surfing only and its 50-foot+ wave requirement. Winning contests is an undeniable high, but the real gift Healey’s surfing career has given him is a ticket to wander the planet. As a 31-year-old globetrotter, Mark has discovered those hidden
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