Mark Scanlon

Mark Scanlon is an Australian surfer born in 1955 and raised around Maroubra in Sydney, known for pioneering surfing in the Maldives together with fellow Australian Tony Hussein Hinde. In 1973 the pair were crewing the ketch Whitewings on a voyage across the Indian Ocean from Sri Lanka toward Reunion Island when the boat was wrecked on the Helengeli Reef in Kaafu Atoll. Repairs kept them in the Maldives for several months, and Scanlon realised how good the surf was in the northern atolls and chose to stay. He was arrested in the Maldives in 2000 for possession of cannabis and was released in 2002 after diplomatic intervention, after which he returned to Sydney to rejoin his wife Mandy Andrews. He is remembered as an explorer of surf rather than a competitor.