Reading Time: 4 minutes
Mark Healey always wanted an adventurer’s life that revolved around fun stuff like riding big waves, spearfishing and hunting wild boars. While Healey’s bold feats earned him handsome sponsorship in his early years, he had the foresight to see the crash of the surf industry coming. So he figured out how to become a one-man business and keep his dream alive. Below is an excerpt from the ‘Healey Inc.’ feature in Issue 591.
***
Before I sign on the dotted line
The sense of hustle developed early on had also spawned a wary eye for business.
“I’ve been like that since I was a little kid,” Healey says, pondering the thought for a moment before chuckling (again).
“I’d wash cars, I’d walk dogs, mow lawns, sell baseball cards and bottle caps to kids in my neighbourhood. I just always wanted that independence that making your own money gets you and I always had that entrepreneur- ial mind, so when I got into the professional surfing thing, I would see things happen (with sponsorship deals) that didn’t make sense.”
Healey says his approach had less to do with not trusting companies rather than feeding his own desire to be forewarned when the deals were to be done.
“I wanted to know what happened on the back end, I wanted to go the headquar-ters in California, I wanted to meet the designers, I wanted to meet the sales reps, I wanted to understand what the machine was that fuels my ability to live the lifestyle I want,” he says.
“I redlined (a process of editing a contract for the benefit of both parties) all my own contracts. I would reference a legal diction- ary if there were words I didn’t understand. I was basically negotiating with legal teams of billion-dollar companies in my early 20s.”
Healey says the vested interest in the machinations of how professional surfers are procured proved to be a prudent approach.
“It was like The Wizard of Oz and seeing the wizard behind the curtain, you realise when something doesn’t make sense, it usually doesn’t,” he says.
“I thought about how many of my friends would just sign contracts and they could have just gotten screwed at any moment. I was proactive with that stuff from the beginning and that prolonged my career.”
What goes up
Armed with a brace of contracts, Healey found himself with the means to chase swells around the world.
Among other things, it allowed him to be on hand for some of the most pivotal big- wave moments in modern surf history; The Nias super swell of 2018, The 2023 Eddie, or the never to be forgotten Thundercloud swell of 2012.
Having never been on hand for such moments myself, I wondered if they seemed historic markers as they played out or only snap into focus in the rear- view.
“That’s a super-good question,” replies
“I’ve been at a lot of them, and I’ve seen so many things that have changed the trajectory of surfing forever. I guess earlier I would not have noticed until a year later because I was so in the moment, but as I’ve gotten to see enough of those moments, I’ve learned to appreciate it as it’s happening. When you know it’s got that magic in the air and you’re aware of it in the moment, that makes it so much better.”
Alas, as Healey’s main source of income was tethered to the sinking balloon that was surf industry, as its fortunes took a plunge, he had a fair sense of what was coming.
“It’s a reset and it happens in various ways,” says Healey of the moments throughout his career where sponsors either call with bad news, or worse still, don’t call at all.
“Surf companies are not a charity and I only ever wanted what I believed was fair, but the ones which are bad, and I’ve had some, were the ones where there may have been a big financial retraction and they Healey. know you’re getting crossed off, no matter how well you were doing. They know for months but nobody has the balls to tell you and you’ll get cut abruptly after being strung along. Basically, due to the coward- ice of one person, you’ll go a year without pay and it sets everything else back.”
But the Mark Healey of today says he’s far from bitter for the experience, instead parlaying the lessons learned into a diverse range of pursuits and business ventures to keep the plates spinning.
While his boards still play host to a bevy of sponsors, aside from board company, Wave Riding Vehicles, they’re mostly companies more aligned with Healey’s external passions of hunting and spearfishing.
That income is supplemented with two to three months a year as a contracted stunt man and his own private adventure company.
“To me, diversification buys you the freedom to make better decisions and be the person you are,” Healey reasons.
“You don’t have to fit your personality into the mould of another company. You can walk away or say no to stuff that doesn’t fit. You have to be yourself, but you have to build yourself into a position of stability to be able to do that.”
***
