SURFERMAG Interview: Occy on being a rock star, fatherhood, Curren, Irons, Slater, and a whole lot more.

Scott Needham Photography - SNP

It was the blazing hot summer of 1983, some 21 years ago, when American surf fans caught their first glimpse of the flashy young goofyfooter from Down Under. Contest commentators at the Hang Ten Grand Prix continually mangled his strange surname over the loud speakers as he routinely savaged the lefthanders pouring through San Diego’s Ocean Beach Pier. It wasn’t until the Quarterfinals that they came up with a viable solution to their pronunciation problems. From then on they referred to the kid as Mark Off-The-Lippo.

His real name, in actuality, is Marco Luciano Jay Occhilupo, but for more than two decades now we’ve known him simply as Occy. Of course, for those who remember him as the brash blond grommet, Occy is still the lovable, comical, outlandish answer to California’s favorite son, the ultra quiet Tom Curren, who won that event. But it was the pair’s ensuing clashes that catapulted them both to stardom, and the dreamy concept of a viable world tour into a fully functioning reality. But today, Occy, now 38-years old, is playing father both figuratively (as the longest running veteran of the ASP) and literally (to his toddler son Jay) on tour, residing amazingly comfortable up in the Top 10 as of press time. After surviving some very public tumultuous times, he’s now rewriting the book on how long surfers can stay at the top of their game. To celebrate his 21st anniversary to our shores, we figured we’d check in with Occy to get his thoughts on his amazing journey so far. –Chris Mauro

SURFERMAG: What do you remember of the 1983 Hang Ten Grand Prix in Ocean Beach San Diego?
OCCY: Ah, yeah, you mean my first visit to America? I remember the waves being pretty good, with those lefts coming through the pier. I was pretty young at the time and America was just this really strange place to me.

SURFERMAG: Everyone there remembers the bright orange board you were riding and being pretty shocked that someone could surf as fast as you were.
OCCY: Yeah, Banksy [Jim Banks] shaped me that board. He was with me on that trip. Y’know, he’s from my hometown of Cronulla, and he and Peter Crawford were probably the two guys who really influenced me the most early on. They were absolute animals running all up and down the coast. It was like…they lived in their own little world, with their own little language that nobody could understand and they were just having that much of a ball. I was probably too young to know what they were on, but they were pretty hilarious.

SURFERMAG: Being that it’s been more than twenty years now since that first visit, and you’re still making trips over here, competing, I’m guessing you’re still having fun with all this…
OCCY: Ah, yeah mate. I’m having soo much fun it’s silly. I don’t even know where to start. It’s been such a journey over the years, but I’m as happy or probably happier than I’ve ever been on tour.

SURFERMAG: What’s changed the most?
OCCY: Everything’s changed. We’re surfing at good spots now, some of the best in the world. Guys are making real money now, and the surfing is incredible…these guys today are going nuts mate.

SURFERMAG: Some of the aerial surfing they’re doing is something you probably couldn’t have imagined 20 years ago, eh?
OCCY: Not in my wildest. But it’s just going to get better, there’s no doubt about it. The hardest thing for me to do is air-reverses. It’s not even in the chip (points to his head.) But I want to do stuff like that move C.J. Hobgood pulled last night in the Video Awards. [Backside 360 aerial from Campaign] That was just ridiculous. I remember when I was on the boat trip challenge a few years back C.J. was trying that move, and I was trying it too, but I was sooo not getting anywhere close, but it was fun trying. I still try. But that move was all time, and they’re just going to become more commonplace. So yeah, there’s definitely been a lot of changes.

Bass

SURFERMAG: So much has been made of your years in obscurity and the comeback that led to your world title. Now that we’re a few years removed from all that, do you have a new perspective on what events triggered the slide down and the road back?
OCCY: Well, yeah…I have. I think probably the biggest thing that led to my downward spiral was when my father passed away. I was already pretty bored with the tour at the time, the waves were really pretty bad and a lot of me mates had stopped doing it, but when my dad, his name was Luciano Occhilupo, when he passed away…that was pretty devastating for me. He was like my hero, he was such a family man and we’re a really tight knit family.

SURFERMAG: So losing him pushed you over the edge?
OCCY: Yeah…I mean, looking back on it now I realize that’s when I started drinking a lot, which led to full on depression. People talk about drugs too, but those get blown out way out of proportion, because it was mostly beer that was the problem. That’s how I put on all that weight on when I got really fat…I sat on the couch for ages, watched T.V. and drank pretty much all day everyday.

SURFERMAG: What was it about your dad that made his loss so painful?
OCCY: He was just there for us when we needed him. That’s all you really want from a dad. He was this hard working guy who came over to Australia on his own from Italy when he was real young, about 17 or 18 years old. He arrived with nothing. In my house back home right now I have this picture on the wall of him when he’d just arrived—just off the boat, and he’s just got this look on his face like he’s got his whole life in front of him. You can see it in his eyes. It’s my favorite picture of him for sure…and I’ll tell you what, I missed him for so long and now…the crazy thing is when I stare at my son Jay…it’s like I’m staring right back in that face in the picture. He looks exactly like him, so in a way it’s like he’s right there. It’s really sort of comforting.

SURFERMAG: That’s amazing. Did your father’s life revolve around the ocean the way yours did?
OCCY: No, not at all. He was very ethnic, y’know, and he was very into his work. He was a civil engineer, but he worked at an Italian firm where everyone spoke Italian, so he was very happy there. He did come down to watch me win a contest at Cronulla one time, which was a huge stoker.