Raging Bull There is only one Mark Occhilupo. Only one Raging Bull. A global surfing icon who captures the essence of stoke in every loveable moment.
In every wave ridden. In every rock that trips him up while he walks to check the waves. His story of course, is rock star stuff. The child prodigy who setthe world on fire. The lost years. The Comeback and the World Title. The movies. The laughs. The mind-boggling sessions all over the planet. The unrestrained power. Occy, the eternal grom remains as relevant now as he has ever been, because he reminds us just how fun it is and how blessed we are to do what we do in the arms of MotherNature.No surprise then that Occy speaks fluent ocean. Always has. Always will. And nowhere is that conversation clearer than in the deep-seapower of Bells Beach and Cloudbreak reef. Waves that moulded him. Waves that made him a legend. The Curren heat at Bells in 86, the Litmus years punctuated with the Skins and the CT victory-the best backhand surfing seen in the bowl to this day and maybe forever more. And the offshore Fijian reef that thunders just afew Kays off his second home-the smallPacific Island of Namotu. A place where his surfing becomes poetry. Yeah,he won the comp there too on the way to the World Crown, but there’s more at play at here. Something spiritual. Something connected. We’ll get to that.Let’s start with Bells. A cosmic union of man and continental shelf.
A fair question: where does one begin and the other end? Perhaps they’re one and the same as air, earth and water are heart, brain and soul.“I jelled with Bells at a really young age,” says Occ. “One afternoon, one session it all clicked, I remember thinking, ‘Far out, that’s as good as I can surf!’ The waves were all-time,and I just wanted to keep that feeling forever. I hit a level of surfing that I never wanted to lose. Every time I go back there,I try to find that again because it feels so natural. When I come back it’s a homecoming.”Pure magic from a man embedded in folklore of Djaraak, Wadawurrung Traditional Landowners.“When I’m way behind the bowl all I’m thinking is I want to get that first bottom turn off… Once I’ve finished that bottom turn, if I can get to that first big turn and nail it… it’s butterflies. It’s magic from then on.”That’s the very essence of Occy and Bells right there. And then there’s Cloudbreak. “Cloudbreak is so special. Big open faces it gives you tubes and turns. It suits my surfing and has done since day one.”And as with Bells, Occy connects with Fiji on a much more primal plane. “There’s so much surfing to be done before you even get in the water, “he says. “I watch the sky, I feel the wind, I seethe texture on the water… Watching the sunrise, doing yoga. It’s all part of how you communicate with the land and sea and sky before you paddle out.”“The spirituality of it is real for me. I get chicken skin just saying that because I think the ocean is a living, breathing and it knows me. When I’m surfing, I’m definitely not thinking and I’m definitely not pushing against the ocean…I’m going to groove with the wave and only allow what I can feel is in synchronicity with that moment.”Power. Precision. Presence. Raw feelings. From Bells to Cloudbreak the Bull is clearly at home.
