Pico Alto: the queen of all Peruvian big waves surfertoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from surfertoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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