Big-waver Mark Healey reveals wild childhood on podcast, The Truth Barrel…
The Hawaiian Mark Healy is someone you can safely refer to as a “waterman” without conjuring up scenes of noise and braggadocio.
Without fanfare, the thirty five year old from Wahiawa, has won the WSL biggest-paddle in award (2014), the Todos Santos big-wave event (2010), the XXL Monster Tube Award (2009), the Surfer Poll worst wipeout (2008), and in the same year he won the World Cup of Spearfishing in La Pax, Mexico. Outside magazine called Healey the “greatest athlete you’ve never heard of.” Mark likes to dive with the fabulous Great White, too.
Recently, Mark was a guest on The Truth Barrel, a podcast that takes place in a heated sauna and is hosted by the journalist and one-time pick-up artist Neil Strauss and pro volleyballer and wife of Laird Hamilton, Gabby Reece.
There’s no fluff around Mark Healey,” says Reece, who posits that it wasn’t just Mark’s exposure to the ocean that turned him into the beast he is today, but growing up a small, white kid in a tough, local Hawaiian school.
In this episode, Mark speaks movingly of being the smallest kid of 200 in his grade at Kahuku High, girls included. The only kid who approached his diminutiveness was a boy with cancer.
“I didn’t break one hundred pounds until I was seventeen,” says Mark.
Small, white, no connections.
“I experienced real racism,” he says. “But then again it’s complex issues. A lot of white people did a lot of bad stuff over there. I didn’t. I wasn’t coming from land barons. My parents were just as poor and hard-working as anybody else, probably a lot more poorer than the local families. It’s human nature (to bully, exclude). You deal with a lot of stuff. Racism is obviously an issue and bullying is obviously an issue today but…
“Come on people, if they experienced the skin of stuff I experienced growing up. I’d be twelve years old, and small for twelve years old, and have a senior come by and give me his best shot. Straight down the pipe. Blow my face out. You were constantly on edge. You’d get in altercations twice a week. You learned to be either a doormat or stick up for yourself. Not a lot of kids stick up for themselves. You kinda snap every now and then.
“The crappy thing is,” says Mark, “you get forced into a situation where you have to react and if you lose, you lose. If you win, then you have their entire family looking for you.”
And don’t go expecting the other small white kids to help. They’re “shaking in a corner with PTS,” laughs Mark.
Thing is, he says, the fights, the racism helped him become who he is.
“I was dealing with an environment where I was, a, a minority and it was a little rough, b, being the smallest guy, c, being poor… I always tell kids this. If there’s anything that’s really served me, it’s this. I learned at an early age that sometimes you have to work twice as hard to get the same results as the person next to you. Life’s not fair. Do you want it or not? Do what it takes to get it.”
Listen here.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Looks like we have a peckerwood participating the comments Blah. Go back to your trailer and spare us from your ignorant diatribes
Woooah there’s a lot of white angst suddenly on display here. So ugly. Triggered much? Fuck off to your safe places if you can’t deal with the truth of institutionalised white privilege.
Surf media. White media.
captain cook was one of histories most important figures. Hawaiians should lick white peoples balls and thank them for everything. if it wasnt for him, they would still be killing each other over red feathers
Hawaiians killed and ate him when he tried to flex, seemed like a fitting tribute.
Beautiful island peoples and their customs, four-on-one beatings, drowning dogs, amid the scent of plumeria wafting, brah!
Honolulu Star Bulletin: Prosecutors say the defendants resented a man’s confrontation
over animal cruelty
In Circuit Court yesterday, witness Keaunui recalled the man saying: “A f – – – ing haole is gonna die on this beach today!” Kupahu went on trial yesterday along with his father, Manuel Kupahu Jr., 53, and cousin Guy Meyers, 40, for allegedly assaulting 51-year-old Edward Van Lier-Ribbink at the beach park in March, leaving him injured and bleeding on the ground. All are charged with first-degree assault, which is punishable by a 10-year prison term.
Van Lier-Ribbink had apparently confronted Manuel Kupahu earlier on the beach after beach-goers witnessed Kupahu beating his dog and holding its head down in the water. A pushing match ensued, with Van Lier-Ribbink ending up straddling Kupahu. The dog was dead from drowning, and Kupahu dragged his dog home across the street. Police later found the dog dead at the owner’s home.
But before he and his wife could make it to their car, Van Lier-Ribbink was intercepted by at least FOUR people, including the three defendants, and the assault began. They punched Van Lier-Ribbink while he lay in a fetal position on the ground, trying to ward off the blows, adding that they took running starts and kicked him in the midsection.
Van Lier-Ribbink sustained eight broken ribs and cuts to his face. He was choked from behind and suffered injuries to his neck.
these fucking mokes are the biggest pussies on earth. ever seen kala fight someone bigger than him? never.. i lived there for years. saw a 6th grade white kid get his eye fucking gouged out by a pack of these island niggers. if i was the white kids dad, i would machete these coconut faggots limb from limb
Then you’d go to prison for the rest of your racist life!
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Healey, dis you brah?
Oh the horror, Healey calling out Hawaiians/Locals for their “bad” behavior. It is he, my hoaloha, that is casting bad light upon the scared beliefs of those of Pacific Islander decent. Ol’ Meryl Streep will be on your ass in no time!
Stick to not thinking, burnsy. You’ll get a nice little hat too.
You’re a fucking idiot, there’s no debate about that.
Your love makes me stronger! Shower me with your glitter!
I DO love you, Drunky! Let’s take down the patriarchy together!
Phew. Thanks, audit.
I know this is clickbait economics but what the hell:
What Mark experienced was racial prejudice and not racism. There is a difference. Prejudice + Power (including institutional) = Racism. As Mark is white he benefitted and continues to benefit from numerous privileges hidden in plain sight and instituionalised.
Oh, who will think of the whiteys!!
A young boy getting bullied because of the colour of his skin is fucking racism, no matter what colour his skin is!
nup. it is racial prejudice/discrimination. Racism is a system that acts against people of colour (established through for example slavery and colonisation – Hawai’i much?). white people have power to oppress other groups because they control the system and economic structure in society. the effect is also privileges, despite being poor. what Mark experienced is not ‘racism’, it’s ‘prejudice’ or ‘discrimination’.
You’re tripping, Angel. Maybe you never lived there. There’s plenty of power in the hands of (certain) locals. Is the racism understandable? Absofuckinlutely. But call a spade a spade (er … maybe there’s another way to say that.)
if native Hawai’ians had ‘plenty of power’ that you write of they would have the independence and autonomy many desire. they also wouldn’t be marginalised on their native lands. they have been colonised by a western imperial government and interests – the u.s.a – which is ruled by a wealthy white elite and white privilege is institutionalised in the usa. whiteys fucked shit up and continue to do so. their narratives remain predominant and their privilege is embedded. the Hawai’ian people have fought tooth and nail to hang on to what they have and keep their stories and values and practices alive. fighting back does not equal ‘plenty of power’. there is no way the hawai’ian people have ‘plenty of power’. what this story is is of someone experiencing an effect of this cluster fuck but that doesn’t mean little white boy experienced racism. he and his people and lands weren’t colonised and once out of school all sorts of goodness flowed his way because he was white and barriers didn’t pop up because he was white. all the while most young hawaiians continue to face all sorts of shit. the Native Hawaiian population is more often faced with homelessness, poverty, and can feel marginalized on their native land. aspects of racism — ethnocentrism, prejudice, and discrimination are not technically racism until used in conjunction with each other as a system of power and historical exploitation. this is why i keep saying this is an experience of racial prejudice. that’s not to downplay it and the experience. but we can call, as you put it, a spade a spade.
onto the next bottle of red. i am feeling all intewellectual like.
You are confusing Hawaiians with locals.
How often have you had the shit beaten out of you as a result of your skin colour and apparent cultural identity Angel?
If not, I promise you the definition between “racism” and “racial prejudice” tends to blur pretty quick.
Isn’t it possible for what you call racism, a power structure based on racial identities, to exist in smaller groups – prisons, schools etc – in apparent opposition to other kinds of racism that may run through broader swathes of a society? And even for the various kinds to feed off each other?
Healey is a very intelligent person by the way – weirdly, many big wave aficionados are! He might even appreciate your definitions, he’d certainly understand them. But he’s talking about his lived experience here, I think your jibes (“little white boy” etc) do that and him a disservice.
ps I hope this is smug enough for Smug Week.
Well, actually, beaten to a pulp. Very poor. And then I was propmted to learn more and was taught more. So i could better understand what was happening.
By the way, you can be smug but you are wrong about racism. No such thing as reverse racism against white
A person who can take 50ft set on the head can handle a jibe i am sure. And does not need uncle nicky to defend him.
Although, i admire your homosociality! Bro down!
No, stop trying to integrate the Power portion to fit your narrative. The textbook definition of Racism has nothing to do with power.
“prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone
of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”
Oh yes, relying on a reductive dictionary definition. Well done. its got everything to do with power as this is what led to race categorisations and the subsequent effects. you skipped class didn’t you?
Yes, I’m relying on the definition of the word, not your pseudo-intellectual narrative/made up bullshit. It’s fucking idiots like you that got Donald elected.
Oh man, its like conversing with trump. Try this, at the very least
http://m.huffpost.com/us/en…
Then try reading franz fanon.
Enjoy!
So many assumptions, you raging dolt. Try pulling your head out of your ass and then get back to me. I’m a lifelong, voting liberal and you fucking disgust me!
A trump voting liberal! Heil! What a wonderful liberalism you deminstrate! Keep that shower of love coming! Show the world what a true usa liberal is like! We want to know more! Really, we think your great! You will make america great again! Heil burnsy the usa liberal! democracy delivered!
Nothing more to say here, you’ve shown everyone what a complete clown you are. Delete your account.
But I love you, burnsy! You’re so smart! So … so … wise! It’s true love!
Congratulations on on the weapons grade hair splitting above. Your writing style reminds me of Chas’, but without the ‘who really gives a shit’ subject matter. Are you his alter ego, by any chance?
Id live to be in bed with chas.
And you appreciate the dark arts!
Exactly what institutional power does a little boy living as a poor, extreme minority have access to? Wouldn’t he have exercised this power to not spend his youth being beaten like this? Have you thought that maybe said “institutional powers” don’t exist in societies that don’t respect them or create their own institutions? Maybe on a macro/global/whatever scale whites have institutional power, but if you live in a small community (or practically a country to a small boy when you have no access to any resources) where the police are on your enemies side, how is that not racism?
It does not feel good to expeience what healey did. Been there. It’s legitimate to feel hurt by that
It’s not legitimate, though, to equate that with racism that is the reinforcing if oppression of people of Color. Sure, it can be a hurtful reaction, but equating racial prejudice against White folks with that experienced by people of Color erases the often-invisible structures of oppression at play.
It does not feel good to expeience what healey did. Been there. It’s legitimate to feel hurt by that
It’s not legitimate, though, to equate that with racism that is the reinforcing of oppression of people of Color. Sure, it can be a hurtful reaction, but equating racial prejudice against White folks with that experienced by people of Color erases the often-invisible structures of oppression at play – even in Hawaii
http://www.projectwhitefolk…
I don’t disagree with the existence of institutional racism, but I disagree with it being impossible for a POC to be racist. Especially in this circumstance. So in the 20-40 years (forget the number) when whites are the minority, when they don’t have the majority power/influence, will it still be impossible for a POC to be racist? It is absolutely possible for Hawaiians to form their own, very powerful institutions, that replicate the same institutional racism they were subject to. Racism exists all over the world by different colors and population groups
“That’s racist!” -straight white men (history’s most discriminated against group!)
“Hoale” hits as hard as “nigger”
haole. and maybe on the Westside
Haole and the N word are strataspherically different. Most of the time Haole means “asshole-in-a-hurry; all-for-me-mainlander.” The N word usually means “you’re less than human.” Totally different.
If Lunada were an island.
head down. respect. anytime in the islands…love that place to surf and take the family for vacations tho.
KILL WHITEY!
So is this the ‘aloha spirit’ Hawaiians always go on about?
no this is the ‘rispec’ they always go on about
You gotta earn Aloha. Not everybody deserves it.
Do I deserve it?
If you have to ask…
You’ll never know…
No Bob, no aloha for you. You know why? See your first comment, i.e., if you knew anything about Hawaii, you’d know that there’s idiots and crazies here too . . . just like the rest of the world. Dig a little deeper and you might encounter Aloha, just probably not in a place completely overrun with tourists; that being said, even in Waikiki, if you pay attention, you’ll see that “aloha spirit” we are so very proud of.
Chill out brother, I’m not being serious. Just read the article again, obviously its full of aloha!
Unless you have white skin.
This seems backwards. Surely Aloha and respect are something you give to everyone until they do something lose it.
Oh, I respect everybody, but not everybody gets genuine Aloha.