Occy: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Mark Occhilupo

' Kelly Slater, eight-time world champi on Child star at sixteen, ranked third in the world at seventeen, winner of the Pipeline Masters at nineteen - Mark Occhilupo looked set to sweep all before him with a radical, spontaneous, irresistible brand of surfing. Yet a spiralling descent into drug abuse and depression snuffed his flame out p rematurely when he quit the pro tour at just twenty-two. Faltered comebacks , spectacular bursts of free-surfing and manic breakdowns followed, as the surfing world watched a freakish talent self-combust. After years spent imm obile and overweight on the couch, in his so-called 'Elvis period', Occy ev entually emerged from his cocoon, reborn and ready to tackle a whole new ge neration of surf stars. His celebrated comeback to win the world title in 1 999, sixteen years after his career began, is a sporting fairytale without equal. Now for the first time, in his own words, Occy tells the complete, r emarkable story of his spectacular rise, terrifying fall and miraculous reb irth. 'By going down so hard, by fully falling apart, he was able to give h imself longevity. It's like the Buddhist teachings about birth and death - something has to die for new birth to happen, and that happens inside us to o. Occy was the ultimate example of that.' Tom Carroll. 'I think it's one o f the great sports stories of all time.'.…