Watch: Occy Still Rips

Occy’s speed and raw energy sent him into the competitive stratosphere as a young man in the 1980s. But there is no nostalgia here. This is just clean, foundational surfing that we should all aspire to surf with in our fifth decade. 

It wasn't always this way for Occy. If you want to learn more about Occy, his humble beginnings, his failures and his triumphs, read Sean Doherty’s definitive profile of him here, published in SURFER’s 2015 Big Issue. It may take you half an hour to finish, but you’ll have a newfound appreciation for the Raging Bull who was able to tone it down (just a little). 

Below is a passage from Doherty's story that demonstrates Occy's commitment to living clean and getting back into the world. After stripping away the booze and the drugs and the drama, what remained was a guy who loved surfing and still does to this day.

The following year, Occ went hard at qualifying. Any man who would wake up in the morning and bang out a thousand sit-ups before greeting the day is in the grip of something fierce. Occ had teamed up with Joel Fitzgerald, and the pair would travel together for most of the year. Occ ate salad, didn’t drink, didn’t party. Joel Fitz may not have had a competitive bone in his body, but he was calm, and above all he lived to surf. Occ would roll out of bed and start chipping away at his sit-ups, 50, 100 at a time. He threw squats and push-ups in between sets. Joel Fitz joined in, more for moral support than anything. “It took nearly two hours,” recalls Occ of his morning routine. It was discipline like he’d never known and the weight melted off him. He started to look like the guy off the Ab-Buster commercial he used to watch on his couch at Kurnell while eating fried chicken. He started to look 18 again, which helped, as most of the guys he was surfing against now actually were 18. Occ qualified easily.