In 1984, Mark Occhilupo was not yet a legend of surfing. He was just 18 years old at the time, and it was clear to many that big things were on the horizon, but just how big those things were going to be wasn’t yet clear. Five years earlier, at the tender age of 13, he’d won his first amateur schoolboys’ contest, then followed those up with two Cadet State Titles. When he finished the tenth grade, he became an ASP trialist and quietly landed in the top 16 by the end of the year. That meant he’d secured a spot for the next year, and he began his journey to legend status. And Jeffreys Bay was tailor made for him to let the world know what was on the horizon.
“At Jeffreys Bay, his powerful and aggressive style were an advantage in backside surfing,” wrote Real Surf Stories. “Occhilupo hovered around the top five in the rankings, and was becoming popular in the United States when Tom Curren was at the peak of his career.”
On July 21, 1984, the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), formerly International Professional Surfing (IPS), was barely a year old. The J-Bay Open was held at Supertubes, Jeffrey’s Bay, and Occy won it in resounding fashion.
“Those there to witness it left with the impression they weren’t just watching the best surfing ever – they were witnessing the best surfing that might ever be,” said his coach at the time, Derek Hynd. “In my notebook, I had to invent new codes for what he was doing.”
The video above is a look at a day that had a hand in shaping what surfing looks like today, and just how important Occy’s role in that day was.
