Mark Occhilupo with Creed McTaggart : photo Surfing Australia/Robertson.

Occy Grom Comp

Surfing Australia
Burleigh Heads, Queensland
4 July 2009

Billabong Occy’s Grom Comp off and running at Duranbah
Occy comments on his upcoming clash with great rival Tom Curren!

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 4 July, 2009 : - - Duranbah Beach, Gold Coast, QLD - The sixth annual Billabong Occy Grom Comp began at Duranbah Beach today with fun clean 1m surf arriving right on time for this iconic national grom event that brings together Australia’s top 16 year and under Boy and Girl surfers along with a solid gathering of talented internationals. 

The 12 and 14 year and under Boys round one heats were run today and while the action was dynamic in the water, most of today’s attention focused on the events namesake Mark Occhilupo who was at the event for most of the day checking out tomorrow’s stars.

“It means a lot to me to have a quality event for Australia’s best youngsters and it’s great to see perfect weather and a new swell for them today. “Every year we see new young rippers appearing and it’s exciting to see these kids pushing the performance levels” said Occy.

Occy also surfed a heat with 10 selected groms and his trademark power driven bottom to top turns were on display as Occy prepares himself for an upcoming rematch with three time Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)  World Champion Tom Curren (USA).

Reviving one of surfing’s greatest ever rivalries through the 1980’s when Occhilupo and Curren went head to head 16 times and incredibly their win loss ratio stands at 8 all, this rematch is set to take place at Jeffrey’s Bay before the final of the Billabong Pro later this month!

"I can’t believe it’s 8 all” said Occhiupo. “This will be a massive heat and I’m taking it seriously as I’m sure Tom will be as well and there’s no better venue for us to meet than at Jeffrey’s Bay. “I hear Tom is already in South Africa training, I’m training and heading over on Monday and I’m really excited about facing off with him again – in excellent surf it will be amazing.”

While Occy is clearly in competitive mode and his surfing looked sharp and powerful today, the grommets he surfed with were all about aerial moves while Occy focused on power driven on-face moves. 

“The kids here are the future of Australian surfing and a lot of their surfing takes place above the wave with aerials but they also need to have their on-face turns fully tuned in to power and style and from what I’ve seen today they have.” 

Western Australian surfer Creed McTaggart won the Occy Sony surf shoot out today and picked up a Sony Cyber Shot Camera for his efforts – His winning moves were two clean aerials on the one wave and the stylish Margaret River surfer is a favourite to win the 16 Boys division at this event.

“ That was awesome to surf a heat with Occy and I even better to win it” said McTaggart. “The sand bank here at Duranbah is really good and after surfing through that heat I’m better prepared for my 16 Boys heats hopefully tomorrow.”  

Other surfers to excel today were Tahitian 13 year old O’neill Massin who won a high scoring heat defeating Noosa surfer Nick  Callister. Both Massin and Callister registered excellent 8 point plus scores and in the four surfer heats both deservedly  progressed through to tomorrows round two. 

Duranbah is expected to be the venue again tomorrow and organizers will decide which divisions to run when they assess conditions in the morning. Surfing Queensland event hotline, 07 3030 6388, will be updated each day by 6:30am with exact event location details.

The Billabong Occy Grom Comp is made possible through the support of  Billabong, Sony, Virgin Blue, VW, Surfing Queensland and Mark Occhilupo.

The events official website with heat draws, photos and news also updated daily - www.surfingqueensland.com.au   

www.billabong.com
www.surfingaustralia.com
www.surfingqueensland.com

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Steve Robertson

Groms - Surfersvillage

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