There’s those around us that say surfing’s gone soft.
It’s hard to disagree.
Nowadays you’re more likely to be smashed by a Wavestorm (see ‘Olaian’ if in Europe) than bashed by a local. Surfers make vlogs. They share vegan dinner recipes. They advertise their non alcoholic beers on Instagram. I mean come on. God we miss the days of top tier surfers drinking actual alcoholic beers and scraping on the beach. That’s sport!
EPØKHE remembers. To some, memories of the 90s/00s, knee length boardies, fluro rash vests and the smell of hair gel, are still a little too fresh. Not for the EPØKHE senior management team of Dion, Kai and Mitch. They know it was the last bastion of proper pros and proper fiery competitive surfing. That’s why they got Occy on board, the raging bull, the last word in give-a-fuck, balls to the wall surfing.
For those that don’t know, Mark Jay Luciano Occhilupo, to give his full name, had a tumultuous career. No sooner than he was at the top, winning events and going toe-to-toe with Tom Curren and the likes, he was off the tour, battling with drugs and depression. But, with a name like raging bull, you don’t stay down. Occy fought back, won the 1999 tour, ended Slaters 5 year run and sent him packing back to the arms of ol’ Pam Anderson, not all bad then!
So, by signing for the boys at EPØKHE let’s hope he’s had a sniff of the salts (the boxing kind not the other) and is back for round 3. Long live Occy!
Enter the LAVAZ. Occy wanted to blend clean lines into an 8 base wrap made with lightweight materials, presumably for going fast. And that’s what he got, no questions asked. Ask and you shall receive.
But how to make an intro to a marriage of such importance? Mr Neville, Kai grabbed an old handy cam and perfectly teamed Occy with our new favourite term long-short board renaissance man Creed.
Three minutes of badly acted skits a la Ben Stiller and Andy Irons in Fair Bits (2005), ‘old’ and young Occy on a tear in the goldie and all set to Frenzal? The whole thing is like an Oxford AstraZeneca antidote to the air reverse.
So for those that say surfing’s gone soft, walk up to Occy in his fresh LAVAZ wraps and say it to his face. Or just watch the clip for the same amount of adrenaline….
