Occy: Rise, Fall And Rise

By World Pro Surfers - Published on 9th February 2009 | Viewed 5883 times.

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HALFWAY through Tim Baker's Occy book, Paul Sargent explains the subject's fatal flaw in one sentence: "Both him and Pottz at the same time - seventeen, eighteen - on tour with all this money, all this fame, got whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it."

Occy was indeed losing it, and in his own words "loving it": a Spitfire in a nose-spin, heading full throttle at the tarmac; the nightclubs of Honolulu and Hossegor his chosen crash zone.

As the story goes, he stepped from the wreckage and slept on a couch (for a good couple of years). A strange recovery where belching horns and screaming fans were replaced by the soothing ding-ding-puk noise of a slot machine and a 15oz beer glass draining down his gullet.

As Occy summates, "I'd been on tour from age 16 to 22. I still really felt like a teenager or felt like I missed my teens, and I just wanted to go home and see my mates."

He ached for the simplicity that legendary photographer Aitionn recalled when he picked the kid up, pre-stardom, standing next to his letterbox with just a board, a towel and a wetsuit: "There was no pretension or drama. He was just a kid stoked to be going for a surf."

"Occy: The Rise And Fall And Rise Of Mark Occhilupo" goes right back to these origins to understand this genius of simplicity which sparked a comeback from a bloated burnout to a World Champion chiselled from Italian granite -- Occy Balboa.

Occy is unflinchingly honest throughout the entire account and also pants-down hilarious as he ping-pongs from one escapade to the next with a slew of cameo characters you could never make up like "Mullman", "Beaver" and "Gordo The Great".

It would bewilder no-one to find out that motion picture hawks are currently circling this particular life story. The toughest part of turning Occy's life into a film treatment would be deciding the genre, because it pretty much fits all of them: screwball, action, drama, coming of age, road movie, buddy movie and redemption movie.

Buy it HERE

This article has been given an average rating of 3.5 from 819 votes.

Comments

Archived Comments

	jimmy jazz1062 days ago	+51 Rating
	I´ve been betwen Occy in the caos times.I knew him the day he won the World Junior Champ,and the after years in the Basque country and in the worst times in Zarautz.Is a really great victory for him bet all the fucking problems he had

	devildog16333101064 days ago	+56 Rating
	I used to see Occy at the Wave and Studabakers in the early 90's. He was a cool dude. Always a wave and a smile. I always thought he had it made. I never thought things were falling apart. Glad to see him back!

	dora lives 1096 days ago	+14 Rating
	bet the occ at the ripe old age of 43 could still smoke most off the britsh pro's in a contest no one on planet earth can surf like the raging bull we would all like to surf that way ,it's not that he surfs that way thats how he surfs ,occy never copied anybody had his own style ,watch a cutback or a snap in the hook,and his inclusion on any list of power surfes' is a forgone conclusion,something to do with the build,long torso,disproportionatley muscled thighs and calfsgiving the stocky goofyfooter an almost stunned look on land ,but in the water that same clown stance is pure magic .It provides occy with his low center of gravity,the ability to apply full body weight to the rail of the board,burying the rail completly,while retaining the agility neccessery to ride through the power exchange over the stringer,and emerge on the other side of the turn balenced ,cocked ready to fire again,talk power surfer's and you have to talk occy.ironic then,that his lasting influence and most significant impact on our sport today hasn't to do with how he surf's ,but that he surf's that way ,The story of occy's comeback from 25 year old burnout to 33 yeasr old world champion is the stuff of surfing ledgend,but every few in the competitve ranks or the industry itself ,looked any deeper than the feel good story. Occy's accomplishment,and his continued success in to his mid 30's he is now 43 sends a powerfull message to our youth obsessed market ,one that they've gone great lenths to ignoer ,occy ,the eternel grom,probabley doesn't see himself as the standard bearer.but with every op boat challenge he wins ,he won two back to back against the best surfers in the world ,every buried rail ,mark occhilupo does raise the standard,forcing the surfing power's that be acknowlege that it's not just an impessionable kid's sport and that to continue to portray it is selling us short....lets all hail occy cos he is king..........

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