Occy’s Got A New Board (Or Two) For The Plus-Sized Surfer

Not all Stab readers are built like Filipe Toledo. 

In fact, many of you are taller, rounder, and wider than the Oi Rio Champ. Your turns throw fountains of spray thanks to beer keg calves and a pasta-infused gut. Your airs, despite never earning you a dollar, are constantly cross-referenced with a credit card.

And that’s a beautiful thing. Husky folks can rip too. Just ask the judges every time Wade Carmichael stands up.

Or, alternatively, Mark Occhilupo. 

Over a decades-long career, Occy’s weight fluctuated by dozens of kilos, the Australian prodigy starting off a strong, sinewy grom before becoming a veritable mountain of muscle, then protecting that muscle with layers of chicken schnitty before returning to firefighter form and winning the 1999 World Title.

Now 20 years removed from the podium, Occy’s remained uber-relevant in the surf industry at large, thanks not only to his unwavering exuberance (and quirky podcast!) but also his surfing, which was most recently displayed in the Bells Heritage heat, where Occy defeated 3x World Champion and his life-long rival, Tom Curren, with this turn:  

Imagine how terrified the fish would have been.

Photography

JS

With this turn and a thousand others like it, Occy has shown that with great strength comes great responsibility to ride a reasonable surf craft. Namely, one with a little extra foam through the middle.

To assist you in this quest, Occ, along with his sponsor Jason Stevenson Surfboards (AKA JS), have released a two-board quiver for big boys and gals, now available online and in surf shops across Australia. There’s the Raging Bull model—what JS calls a “shortboard”—for when the waves have some push, and the Bullseye model for everything south of three-foot. 

You know, surf like this:

Dropped his Swiss francs!

Photography

JS

A little more about the boards, from JS:

Raging Bull

The Raging Bull is an incredibly forgiving, versatile travel board that will be your go-to for better days at home and any time you’re lucky enough to be away chasing proper waves. It has all of the elements Occ wanted to make performance surfing easy. User-friendly, but with the ability to handle heavier conditions and powerful surfers. Compared with our other models built for quality surf, there’s a lot of differences here. A fuller nose with the wide point and extra thickness pushed forward combine with a flatter entry rocker to make it paddle fast and get into waves early, and then while surfing, generate and hold all of that extra speed.

A pulled-in tail gives you control for turns and barrels in more critical conditions, while a touch more curve in the exit rocker adds manoeuvrability and release out of the lip. Moderate single concave starts under front foot, moving to double just before the fins to provide lift and more intuitive rail-to-rail transitions. Then finally, there’s Occ’s favourite part – as he calls it, the “Raging Bull thickness”. Essentially, this refers to JS maintaining a strategically generous distribution of volume throughout the board that goes hand in hand with thicker stock dimensions. This is the key to more paddle power, gliding over flat sections, and to again quote Occ, “lets you leave it on rail forever.”

MARK OCCHILUPO // Height: 5’9 (175 cm) // Weight: 95 kg – 210 lbs

Rides 6’2” x 19 7/8” x 2 3/4” x 35.6L

Hawaii, the true test of a board’s virility.

Photography

JS

Bullseye

Occy’s new step down, the Bullseye, accentuates all of the small wave features the Raging Bull already has in spades. Ridden 2-3 inches shorter and wider than its big brother, the Bullseye is built to keep you catching a lot of waves and flying down the line when other boards would be struggling. You’ll enjoy most of the same key design features as the Raging Bull throughout, with its wide point pushed forward and even more foam redistributed under your chest / front foot. Complemented by a flatter entry rocker, these elements work together to get you valuable paddle power and instant acceleration up to wave speed.

Unique to the Bullseye however is a slight vee in the nose, a forgiving addition that lifts the forward rails out of the water in steeper sections and helps to initiate turns with less effort – especially useful in weaker surf. This moves to a moderate single to double concave for extra lift and easy rail-to-rail transitions. Similar to the Raging Bull, the Bullseye’s pulled-in tail and a slight curve in the exit rocker lets you hit sections hard whenever possible. 

The Bullseye has been fine-tuned for Occ since he’s retired (mostly) from competing, but not from surfing. It’s versatile and user-friendly enough to be a daily motivation if you want to be in the water more than ever, keeping you sharp to surf your best, and then jump on a Raging Bull for pumping waves without missing a beat.

MARK OCCHILUPO Height: 5’9” (175 cm) // Weight: 95 kg – 210 lbs

Rides 6’0” x 20 1/2” x 2 11/16” = 36.5L

Parko, now off his strict CT training regime, loves the Bullseye too!

Photography

JS