Watch: New Occy Just Dropped

Made in partnership with Billabong.

I recognised a pair of Mark Occhilupo’s boards in the downstairs storage of a Gold Coast apartment block 20-plus years ago and whispered to my Mum and Stepdad, “Those are Occy’s boards.”

They thought I was mad. Obsessed even. There’s a lot of surfboards on the Gold Coast to a layman’s eyes, and how could I, a child, possibly know that these two belonged to the man who sat above my childhood bed for the duration — in a framed Billabong poster of Occy in a big Chopes pit, signed: “To Ali, Keep Ripping, Mark Occhilupo”. 

My Mum had gotten me the poster by writing (as in, a letter) to Billabong back in the early 2000s. A foundational Christmas gift.

We got in the lift of the Rainbow Bay apartment we were staying in for a couple days. It went up two floors — B2, B1, G — and stopped. 

In stepped Occy. 

I froze and went silent — terrified to talk to my literal hero (and not just because I’d worn out my Occumentary VHS and had been brainwashed by the Foo Fighters). A regret to this day. 

Twenty-five years later, Occy’s unmistakable vernacular is spitting out of my phone speaker into my Garageband (which is recording) from Lower Trestles, where he was checking out the qualification for the world Club Challenge with the Bong US crew and his son, Jay. 

“I remember flying in and just seeing lights as far as I could see, and it looked so wild,” Occy told me of his first time visiting California back in the 80s. “I was so excited, we got picked up and they threw us in the back of the ute and we went all the way to Huntington, and it was summer, so it was warm. It was a real eye-opener, to tell you the truth. And it was just radical.”

Our conversation is in aid of Occy’s new collection with Billabong (remarkably, the first full signature range he’s had with the brand), a company that he’s been sponsored by for over 40 years. Plus the accompanying film — featuring contemporary Occy surfing Bells and Cloudbreak, two of the most storied waves to feature throughout his career.

Occy’s been a semi-regular visitor to Bells throughout his post-tour career in various capacities, but it was his first trip to Cloudbreak (Namoutu, to be specific) since he retired from competing in 2007. And interestingly, his first ever freesurf trip to Fiji. 

Luckily (with a fair bit of judgement thrown in too), it was pumping.

“Billabong used to do a trip there (Namoutu) every year with all the staff, and I never went,” Occy says. “So my first memories was going there for the comp. I was blown away by how good the wave was, because I’d heard so many stories.”

Famously, Occy won the Quiksilver Pro Fiji in 1999, a key component in his World Title victory that year. Safe to say that the aftermath was one of the more raucous parties that Namoutu has seen before or since, those being the infamous days of the Matt Hoy-invented cocktail — the Skull Drag. 

26 years later, Occy was greeted by numerous staff members still working on the island, making the homecoming — and subsequent world class waves — all the sweeter. 

“We must’ve had the comp there 10 times at least,” Occy explains. “So the Fijian people working on the island became like family. When I landed on Namotu, the Fijian lady that does the bookings came up, and she’s like, ‘Do you remember my name?’ And I was like, ‘Abby!’ and she’s like, ‘You remember my name!’ I bought some kava in town and gave it to them, and it was so special to be back. I love Cloudbreak. It’s a heavy wave, I can’t lie.”

Occy goes on to tell me that the brief when he returned — especially considering the waves they scored — was to channel how he surfed in some of his iconic freesurfing film performances. Surfing that is, quite literally, eternal. 

“I can surf a lot of different ways, but on this trip they wanted to make it cinematic and reminiscent of how I used to surf when I was a freesurfer,” Occy explains. “You know, I kind of used to like to style out a bit, and so I was trying to do that on this trip. I was stoked that they got the Yothu Yindi song to put to it. I had that song in my head the whole time and I was kind of trying to surf like I did back at Sumba and draw those kind of lines.”

The footage is remarkable. 59-year-old Occy looking fit as a butcher’s dog (hasn’t touched a drop in six years), soul-raking off the bottom and powering through 6-8ft pits (“there was some big clean-up sets, and the ones I was getting were kind of the medium ones…”) and hosing water off the back of any shoulder that presented itself in un-mistakable fashion. 

“I pine for going left because I live in the land of rights,” Occy continues. “And when I can get barrelled going left, let’s say I just get excited.”

Speaking of rights, if there’s one wave that Mark Occhilupo will be associated with forever then it’s Bells Beach. Particularly the Bells Bowl. 

On re-examining the footage of one of the Ranging Bull’s most memorable contest performances, at the 1997 Bells Beach Super Skins events, what’s instantly clear is that people still can’t surf like that now. It’s really remarkable how much power and speed he’s able to generate on a wave that so many struggle with. The way Occy’s able to vary his turns out of the lip is pure improv, pure feel, and pure raw style. And that’s before we even get onto the foam climbs. 

The event was pivotal in signifying that Occ was well and truly back at the pinnacle of the surfing elite. He won 11 heats, 55 gees and a Jeep that day, then the following year won the contest — his first in 12 years — then the aforementioned World Title the year after that. 

Occy’s first trip to Bells was with the Peak Wetsuit crew from the Northern beaches who drove down in a bus in 1984; the following year his Mum Pam drove him down. 

However, Occy says that his first “real” Bells experience came in 1984, shortly after he won the Beaurepairs at home in Cronulla. 

“Rabbit was staying at my house in Cronulla and we drove to Bells,” Occy explains. “ I think it was in his Mazda RX7, listening to David Bowie the whole time. Rabbit was in such fine form and I just fell in love with the wave from that trip. It’s not everyone’s favourite wave, but it soon became mine.”

So part two of the film could only be Bells, and whilst Occ didn’t drive down this time, he still tore the back out of the Bowl in quintessential fashion, and cut around town modelling the new Occy range. Which, given its throw-back feels, would’ve been a trippy thing to view from a far; the vision-impaired, not realising that Occ’s now pushing 60, could’ve been forgiven for brushing past him or watching him power carve the Bowl and thinking they’d eaten a magic bean and been transported back to 1998. 

This is a sensation that Occy admits he himself has sometimes, when he checks the surf on the Gold Coast and sees all the groms scoping it out dressed in long baggy denim like it’s 2001.

As for Occy’s first capsule with Bong, the brief was basically a full range that Occy and, say, his son Jay, who he was cruising around California with, could wear simultaneously. Something that Occ says was a home run in his eyes. 

“It was so fun looking through old designs with Fizz, the designer,” Occy says. “When the range was finally done, I came in and looked at it and it was just what I wanted.”

To say that he deserves it is an understatement. 40 years Mark Occhilupo’s been sponsored by Billabong, remarkable by today’s disposable standards. “We grew together,” as Occy describes it. 

This couldn’t be more apt a description, considering that Occy and Gordon Merchant literally did the tour together in the early days, Gordon’s baby increasing in range and yield year on year. 

We continue to riff on Billabong trackies back in the day — Aussie Pipe missions and the iconic left rivermouth session from the Occumentary shared with longtime buddy Luke Egan. To say that it was — as Occy’s Mum Pam put it in his signature film, “a great thrill” —would be an understatement. 

Perhaps most heartwarming of all was the clarity and the life in the man’s voice. Which together with his surfing at 59, has to be a sign of things being on a good footing.

“I’m feeling so good, you know,” Occy says when asked where he’s at in this phase of his life, sober as a judge, surfing a tonne and spending time with his kids. “Yeah, it’s brought new life to me because, you know, every year it seems to get better, you know. I’m really proud of myself and I’m just loving life.”

Browse Occy’s fresh Billabong range here.