The colourful life of Luke Marks

Entrepreneur: Luke Marks refurbished old water skis into skateboards — just one of his successful design achievements.

Luke Marks is a self-confessed entrepreneur and his colourful home reflects an equally colourful life. Loren Sirl talks to Luke, who has been a global surfer, actor, skateboard inventor, tomato grower and vegetarian chef.

The friendly barista behind the counter at Raglan Roast in Wainui Road, Luke was a mischievous middle child who once blew up his grandmother’s letterbox, after she complained of too many bills coming her way.

He grew up in the Auckland suburbs in the 1960s, when life wasn’t easy for his single mum who was bringing up three kids.

“Mum was quite smart,” said Luke. “We didn’t have much money, but she chose the best area to live in so we could all go to good schools. I think it was the only flat in Epsom. It was near One Tree Hill, so that was my playground. It was quite adventurous, with all the caves and hollows.”

An 11-year-old Luke took to the streets with two paper rounds and a side stint as bill collector for the newspaper.

“There was a 10 percent commission on the accounts collected. I made sure I went back and finalised the bills.”

Luke was one of the first skateboarders in New Zealand.

“I started skateboarding before there were skateboards and had an old roller skate strapped to a piece of wood. Of course, things evolved from there. The big breakthrough was urethane wheels.”

He spotted another opportunity to make money.

“By then we’d moved to Auckland’s North Shore. Skateboarding had become pretty big. There were a lot of rich people around the area. I had worked out through magazines how to import all the latest American gear.”

Posting a wad of cash off to the States, he was able to buy goods for $100, and turn it into $1500 — making the most of the skateboarding trend.

At the age of 14 he called it quits when kids figured out how to do it for themselves, “but I had a year of doing quite well”.

At 16 Luke headed to the surf and sunshine of Sydney, Australia. He spent his weekends driving up and down the East Coast in a Holden and surfing.

Arriving with little cash and not knowing a soul, he scored a job at Russell’s Health Foods.  This was right up his alley, “being a vegetarian”, he said.

“I became a vegetarian when I was 11. I hid the meat from dinner by throwing it out my bedroom window, until one day Mum was wondering where all the flies were coming from. She didn’t serve me meat after that.”

Starting off in the production line of the company’s muesli brand, Luke secretly started sourcing and adding better quality ingredients to the mix. The manager came and asked him one day, if had he done anything different. Muesli sales had “gone through the roof”. Luke was promoted to the shop floor.

The decision to return home found him and a mate going halves in a vehicle. They headed off exploring all the surf breaks New Zealand had to offer.

“Life was simple and land was cheap,” he said. “I ended up in Raglan. The surf was pumping. An ocean-front section was for sale for $7000. I kicked the sign over, went into town and bought it.

“That’s how things are different now. You’re not going to get that today,” he said.

Nuclear arms concerns were playing out daily on tv, so Luke decided it was time to let go and live a little. He sold up and embarked on a global surf adventure. Indonesia, Tonga and the Tahitian islands were a highlight, but a few close calls in Tahiti once again changed his course of direction.

A sudden storm hit while he was out surfing. A surfer nearby was struck by lightning and died instantly.

“Fifteen minutes after that the sun was out and the waves were rolling in like it never happened,” he said.

In another surfing incident, shark fins were everywhere.

“Night was closing in and I thinking I was going to be eaten at any moment

. . . before I knew it, I was paddling on dry sand.”

He sold all his surfboards and headed to India.

“An assault on all the senses at once,” is how he described the continent.

Living for a time with the yogis in the hills of India, he figured it was time to head home. On his return to “Kiwiland” he became a Hari Krishna.

“Why not? My life’s been interesting so far,” he laughs.

It was there he met his wife-to-be. They went on to have two daughters (although Luke is now reluctantly single).

Eventually deciding life in a saffron- coloured robe wasn’t meant for the pair, he started work as a taxi driver. Within a year he was able to buy his own taxi and work for himself. After new government regulations restricted his ability to run a taxi sole charge, he wondered what was on the cards for him.

Not one to waver, he became a commercial tomato grower. He set up his own business during the 1990s. Popularity sparked with his fresh ideas and techniques for avoiding chemicals by using alternative natural methods. Beehives were set up in the hothouses and Encarsia wasps used to control whitefly.

As the business world was changing, with little hardware shops being swallowed up by larger franchises, the same thing occurred in tomato growing.

One of the biggest operations was being built and Luke was asked to come on board. Starting off as head grower he soon became general manager — turning the company’s loss into profit. NZ Hothouse dominated the market.  It was during this time he developed an enthusiasm for martial arts and Shaolin Kung Fu replaced surfing. He found the sport increased his confidence.

However, it was the combination of a Porsche and his love of oriental weaponry that capsized his life.

“One day, I had a bad day,” he said.

Transporting his gear to be stored at his mum’s place, Luke was driving on Auckland’s motorway. His Porsche was full of his favourite collection but unbeknownst to him, someone passing had called the police to report “a driver in a Porsche with weapons looking like he was about to start World War 3”.

The entrepreneurial kid from the suburbs was about to hit his darkest days. Cop cars and a helicopter hovered overhead, meeting him on the harbour bridge. An innocent drive across town had turned into a media fiasco.

That “bad day” resulted in Luke finding himself in his 40s with no job and no money.

He was forced to move back home to his mum’s, something that was hard to come to terms with.

He struggled to sell his main asset — a block of land. Finally, on completion of the sale, he bought an apartment on the famed K Road (Karangahape Road) in Auckland city.

And what did he do for work? Acting, of course — he hired an agent and landed a role in a Tommy Lee Jones movie.

Later, an accident forced him to once again reinvent himself.

“I could have either become an alcoholic or get a project — a project was better,” he said.

He refurbished old water skis into skateboards. The first 200 boards sold out fast.

“I was growing tired of city life. A friend was moving to  Gisborne.”

The desire to reignite his love of surfing was an inspiration to move.

Today his home in Gisborne is filled with vibrant mementos of his life’s adventures — photographs, art work, driftwood sculptures and mosaic mirrors. His passion for design and creation hasn’t slowed.

Working at Raglan Roast is a job he says he has enjoyed the most.

“Every coffee I make is important — people matter.”

In 2021 he was involved in the Dancing for Life Education event.

“I was frightened to terrified when I was asked to be involved. I’d prefer taking on a 20-foot wave than dancing in front of hundreds of people.”

It is now something he is proud of, adding another string to his bow.

Luke’s advice to young people: “A bad upbringing shouldn’t be the excuse. Everybody has a choice — that’s what it comes down to.

“Life’s got so many forks in the road. Ultimately the things we do, make us who we are today.”