Thursday, January 30, 2020

How Diving Can Improve Your Surfing, with Mark Healey

Hawaiian waterman explains the benefits of descending beneath the surface

Surfline January 29, 2020
These days, the virtual world is nearly as tangible as the good ol’ fashioned terra firma. There it is, constantly in our pockets, awaiting our scrolls and likes and hashtags. But Oahu’s own Mark Healey lives in the real world, unplugged à la The Matrix. He’s in the sea – surfing, diving, and fishing. He’s on land – hunting wild boar. He’s in the air – or, rather, he’s breathing it in ways to help him in his pastimes above. He’s a man of the physical world in all its material forms; although his Instagram account is still a solid follow. Just sayin’.

And one of Healey’s favorite side hustles – outside of his main muse, surfing – is diving. He’s become a well-respected free diver and award-winning spear fisherman, which, in an era when simply packing a bomb at Pipeline or hucking air reverses on repeat has become blasé, is important. You need to be more than just a good surfer to be recognized. You need to be an eco-warrior or a musician or a mixed martial artist or (in Healey’s case) an all-around “waterman.” And, more importantly, it also helps to have something else to do when the waves go flat.

But the best part is, Healey’s hobbies help him when big swells do arrive. And diving in particular. So, for another edition of our ongoing series on cross-training, we picked Healey’s brain about what it’s like to go beneath the surface, and how it helps when he comes back to the lineup.

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