By Phil Jarratt
To celebrate the 25th anniversaries of Mark Occhilupo’s 1999 professional surfing world title and the initial release of the award-winning film The Occumentary, legendary surf film-maker Jack McCoy and Occy will premiere a 10-stop east coast tour at The J in Noosa on Wednesday 1 May.
The tour will be the first time the film has been shown in cinemas on the big screen and McCoy has remastered the film to give it a completely new look.
He says: “I’ve spent hundreds of hours blowing up the film from its original VHS release as a 4:3 aspect, to 16:9 widescreen. When I watched it for the first time it was like watching a whole new movie, people’s minds are going to be blown! Occy managed to do what many believed was the impossible. It’s truly one of the most inspirational and motivational stories in the history of Australian sport.” says McCoy.
The man known around the world as simply Occy is possibly Australia’s most revered surfer, a vulnerable, child-like figure whose extraordinary career spanned more than two decades and encompassed more radical highs and lows than anyone else in sport. Occy was a child prodigy who had to wait until he was 33 to win a world title, in what has been described as one of the most remarkable comebacks in any sport.
Born in southern Sydney, Occhilupo started surfing before he’d reached his teens and developed his skills quickly by copying every move of his hero, Tom Carroll. Like Carroll, Occy was a slightly-built kid, but he had powerful legs and a low-centre-of-gravity approach to surfing. In the early days it wasn’t pretty, but Occy soon developed finesse and began to learn where the speed section of the wave was, and how to get there.
Occy quit school at 17 and joined the pro tour in 1983, finishing 16th in his rookie year.
The following year he looked a more complete surfer, with a fluid backhand attack his signature. He finished the season at number three in the world, picking up the World Pro Junior title as a bonus. Over the next couple of seasons, while the world title eluded him, Occy became a brilliant competitor, tactically shrewd and able to put together a winning heat much of the time. But Carroll had his measure, and so did the next champion, Tom Curren. Nevertheless, he won five events in 1985 and became Australia’s favourite surfer.
By 1987, however, all was clearly not well with Mark Occhilupo. His behaviour had become erratic. He started drinking heavily and using cocaine and spent months at a time as a couch potato, watching television while he consumed massive quantities of junk food. Unsurprisingly, his body blew up to more than 120 kilograms, and on his rare trips to the surf the bloated Occy was a tragic figure.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the early 1990s, Occhilupo spent more than a year in therapy. Billabong founder, Gordon Merchant, sent Occhilupo to WA to live and train with McCoy and his family, and begin the comeback of all comebacks.
He shed 30 kilos, cleaned up his lifestyle and the duo began documenting Occy’s journey back to the pinnacle of professional surfing. At the start Jack took him on filming trips on the understanding that he’d keep the camera away from him until he’d lost weight. It was a confidence-building exercise and it worked. Occy rejoined the world tour in 1997 and finished the season second to Kelly Slater.
After a so-so year in 1998, Occy won three tour events in 1999 and scored highly enough in the others to win the world title at age 33 by a big margin. After six straight years of Slater dominance, the public and media revelled in the greatest comeback story surfing had ever seen.
The Occumentary instantly became a cult classic, with many still regarding it as one of the best surf movies ever produced. As with all of McCoy’s films, the soundtrack is next level and features the likes of the Foo Fighters, Ed Kuepper, Powderfinger and Yothu Yindi.
Throughout the tour, the audience will be treated with McCoy, Occy and special guests sharing untold stories and never seen before footage from the surfer’s career.
Says Occy: “I look back at this period as one of the most amazing experiences of my life and to have it documented in such a way is so special. I can’t believe it’s been 25 years but it’s going to be great to hit the road with Jack and friends to celebrate the occasion with the surfing tribe.”
To purchase tickets, head to jackmccoy.com
