Editor’s Note: #HeavyMissions is a brand new series featuring surfing’s big-wave elite members. These are the stories told by the watermen and women from the heaviest waves around the world. The fifth in the series is Maui charger and coconut enthusiast, Coconut Willie.
I got the name Coconut Willie after I got a deadly parasite in Indonesia when I was 18. I almost died from kidney and liver failure. Between homeopathic medicine and modern-day Western medicine, nothing I tried seemed to work or help. So, I decided to drink one fresh coconut every morning for two weeks. It healed me back to 100% and I’ve been in love with the coconut ever since. Here’s a small selection of photos taken over this past El Niño.
