Mark Foo

Mark Foo (1958 to 1994) was a professional big-wave surfer. Born in Singapore on February 5, 1958, to American-employed Chinese photojournalist parents, he grew up in Hawaii from the age of ten and surfed the South Shore of O'ahu through his teens. He joined the IPS World Tour in 1977, then left the tour in the early 1980s to concentrate on ever larger swells, riding Waimea Bay on the North Shore for the first time in 1983. He rose to fame on January 18, 1986, when a wipeout on waves said to exceed 60 feet broke his board and required a helicopter rescue. Foo drowned on December 23, 1994, after a wipeout at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, California, a death that fed a lasting debate about surfboard leashes. He also founded the Backpackers Hawaii hostel and is remembered as one of the greatest big-wave surfers of his era.