Mark Healey lives quite a bit differently than most people. Yes, he surfs waves far bigger and packs barrels far throatier, but he also does the rest of life outside of surfing differently. You know, by now, that he’s an avid spearfisherman and hunter and depending on your point of view, it’s either a good thing or a bad thing.
I lean to one side: that getting your own food is a much better, more sustainable way of living (not to mention a million times more rewarding) than buying a slab of meat at a grocery store. Yes, I still do that, but when I can, I’m eating something I’ve grown or killed myself. Unless you’re a vegan, there isn’t a whole lot you can say about killing one animal that will feed you and your family compared to millions of animals being raised in captivity, pumped full of hormones, and slaughtered wholesale for McDonald’s. And while getting your own meat is simply not possible for everyone, it sure is a hell of a lot easier for Mark Healey.
Growing up in Hawaii lent itself to a certain mindset. Big waves, big fish, big ocean. That way of life bled into his adulthood and now he makes a living by living simply. “Simply”, though, often means putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, but Healey has the ability to keep a level head. “The similarities that I see with archery hunting and some of my other passions like spearfishing and big wave surfing is that they all require a moment where you can feel control slipping out of your hands. And there’s always a moment where you’re like, ‘I’m not going to panic. I’m going to focus on this task at hand.'”
Of course, one of the biggest parts of getting your own food is the ridiculous amount of work it takes. Failure is part-and-parcel of the whole thing — which, by the way, makes success taste that much sweeter — but learning from those failures and moving forward is when things really get rewarding. Such was the case on an elk hunting trip to Idaho Healey took. After days of hiking, bugling, and searching, Healey was coming to grips with the fact that this hunt might end in failure. Finally, though, they found one. And while seeing an animal lying dead on the ground by your own hand is hard, it’s better to see where your food is actually coming from instead of seeing it as a red hunk of meat wrapped in plastic under grocery store lights.
“I can’t find any other examples in life where you feel so many different and sometimes opposing emotions at the same time,” says Healey. “The whole process just to get to that point was so much work that there’s excitement and there’s happiness and there’s sadness; almost a little bit of regret. It’s weird. It’s really hard to describe. You have to experience it to know the feeling… that’s why you’re up there. To harvest your own meat; to have some accountability for what you eat and what your lifestyle is on a day-to-day basis.”
