Urban Surf

Mark Foo (born Mark Sheldon Foo, February 5, 1958 – December 23, 1994) was a professional surfer.

Life and career

Mark Foo was born at February 5, 1958 in Singapura, at 4 year, he relocated to Hawaii. He spent his early childhood surfing the South Shore of O'ahu. In the early 1980s, Foo quit the IPS World Tour, stopped competing, and began surfing Waimea Bay, a famous big wave surfing spot on the North Shore of O'ahu. Foo's passion for surfing big waves led him to surf larger and larger swells.

Accidental Death at Maverick's

On December 23, 1994, Mark Foo died in a surfing accident at Mavericks, a big wave break off the coast of Northern California. During take-off on a relatively small wave estimated at 18-20 feet (Hawaiian scale), Foo experienced a seemingly innocuous wipeout which resulted in his drowning. The most popular presumption is that Foo's surf leash had become entangled on the rocks, with the rushing currents of a second wave passing overhead preventing him disengaging his ankle strap and getting to the surface. Foo's death shook the big wave surfing community, as one of its famed riders had died. Approximately 150 surfers paddled into the Bay and formed a large circle.

Legacy

Foo helped elevate the popularity of the sport, with his talent, courage, and enthusiasm, and was certainly recognized as one of the greatest big-wave surfers to ever ride the waves. In the surfing sport, Mark Foo's death has brought about a continuing discourse regarding the safe use on extreme size waves of surfboard 'leashes' (a flexible plastic cord which connects, by an ankle belt, surfboards to the ankle of the trailing leg of the surfer when he's riding his surfboard). Many in the surfing sport believe that Foo's surfboard leash may have caused or contributed to his death.

Opponents of surfboard leashes in big surf state that a leash can cause the surfrider to collide with his board in a 'wipe out', causing head injuries, and the leash can also loop around arms, legs or the surfer's neck when underwater, and thus dangerously restrict movement to safety or, worse, strangle the surfer with his own leash.