Ep.4 / Occy

Start with fire, add oil, let it simmer. From the crew at 58 Surf and Stab, this isn't just a podcast, it's a sensory experience. Fresh from the coast, full of flavor, and prepared to perfection. Well, kinda. This is 58 Surf and Turf. Let's get cooked. All right, welcome everybody to 58 Surf and Turf. We are blessed today with the presence of a legend, Mark Akalupo. Aki, the Raging Bull, the 99 World Champ. How are we doing?

Doing really good, yep. It's been a quick trip. This is my second last day. I leave tomorrow, but... It's great to be in Portugal. We drove from Mundaka today, so I'm a little tired, but I mean, I didn't drive. I shouldn't be tired. It's just a quick 10-hour drive. It's all good, right? Yep. But I actually got in the water and I went to Aerosa and surfed with all the local kids.

And that sure did wake me up because the water was really cold. Yeah, it's colder down here. Thank that north wind for that. Right, yeah. Yeah, I remember nice. Well, we're posted up We have your raging bull model from JS behind you and we're gonna give that thing away

But first, we're going to spend about, I don't know, maybe 45 minutes of me interrogating you. And then I'm going to open it up to our audience here for about 15. Essentially, what I'm saying is that you're not just the audience, you're interviewers as well. That's seriously all you have to do for this job. You don't have to be qualified. This is who I am. So we're going to get there. We're also going to do a signing. But first, Aki, tell me, when was your first trip here?

It was a long time ago. Yeah, I don't want to show my age, but it was in the mid-80s, I'd have to say. My first time, you mean to Portugal or Europe?

Let's go Europe for now. Let's go Europe. Yeah, that's... Yeah, about 1985, my first contest in Lacanau in France. And I was pretty young, you know. Firstly, I was on tour and... i was about 16 or 17 years old but yeah it was a long time ago there wasn't many surfers like i remember i think the year after that might have been 1986 maybe a morris cole was living in Hosegore and he drove up to Lackanau and said you've got to come check the waves in Hosegore and and we stayed a few extra days and

surfed unbelievable Hossigor and there was no one surfing there. It was like all the beach breaks were empty. The Gravier, Cabreton, Esteno and there was no one out anywhere. We went to all those places and surfed. It was pretty cool. Nice. And when was the first time you came to Europe and made it down this way? I was not too long after that, I guess. Someone in the crowd might be able to tell me.

Anybody. You know, I've been competing here many times, you know, many times at Erasera and another beach in... Kashkais, probably. Yeah, he knows it. How do you say that one? He's showing me a t-shirt. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

So you qualified, like you said, you were a teenager. Everything happened pretty fast. What was it like just being 16 and just surfing against your heroes, traveling around the world doing it? It was pretty hectic back then. The guys were larger than life, you know, like the characters on tour then were a lot bigger I think than they are now like there was Mark Richards and

He had four world titles and there was like Tom Carroll and he was amazing and Shane Haran. They were all completely different people. Sean Thompson. It was crazy, you know, they were all... like superstars in their own right you know rabbit bartholomew and it was pretty crazy to be on tour with them you know i i got uh you know i was like going throwing in the deep end in the pool you know i kind of

there was a guy called Greg Day that was from the north side and I traveled with him and um but you know and then I even traveled with rabbit for a little while and Shane Haran actually I hung with him and he taught me yoga but all these guys were larger than life but You know, it was so cool meeting them. And, you know, just learning off them guys, because those guys are legends, yeah. Who was your favorite surfer growing up?

Tom Curran for sure, yeah. I saw him, came to my hometown in Cronulla. We had a big CT event back then. And I saw him win that. And that was the best surfing I'd seen. It really inspired me that he inspired me. I wanted to do that. I wanted to surf like that and be on tour after seeing Tom Curran.

Well, you got there and you and him had quite a few sparring matches, didn't you? Yeah. What was it like? OP Pro, Hindham Beach, a little bit of riot action. Talk us through that. That was radical.

You know, I met Tom Curran in the final and I think I won the US Open and then the next year I met him in the semis and there was such big crowds those years. There was like... big way bigger crowds I don't know like actually in like at super tubes I saw the crowd was pretty massive like I don't know how many people would you think would be there I think they said something like 50k I think they tried to

The US Open they were saying there was like 80,000 people there like here in the beach but in the semi-final all I heard was there was They were all drinking on the beach. In America, you know, like it's kind of they drink on the beach. I don't know if you're allowed to anymore, but this is way back. And the guys are drinking and there was girls taking their tops off.

And the guys were like yelling and the police came. And in America, like back then, it hasn't changed too much. The police are super aggressive, right? really over aggressive to the guys drinking and so that created a riot and I was in the water surfing and all I heard was heaps of noise and I was like what is going on and then

These guys tipped the police car over and set it on fire and it went boom and I thought it was like a bomb. This is before terrorism. I was like, what the frick's going on? And then they stun it to another police car, two police cars on fire. And then this was in, I was in the final because people thought it was because I beat Tom Curran and they were like upset, but it wasn't that.

Yeah, the girls are taking their chops off and not drinking. And then anyway, back then it was the best out of three. Like at our finals in our big events, you'd have to like the final five. you know best of three yeah um you know like uh so i'd won the first one and it was the second one when it happened and i came in And the contest director said, oh, the security brought us up into the contest area and the contest director said, you have to go back out. They told me I'd won. You've won.

but we can't let the people leave the beach because there's going to be riots in the streets. Oh, wow. And I was like, oh, shit. And then they're like, but just go out and act like it's a heat. And I was like... By then I was cold, I was surfing in boardies, but I had my steamer because I had the early surf in the morning. Yeah. So I put my steamer on and I just didn't really catch any waves. I was just watching what was going on from the water.

And going, wow, this place is wild. But yeah, that was definitely the most radical thing that had happened on the beach. Nothing's happened more radical since then, I tell you. Do you remember this situation in the heat when it... first started happening like were you like oh shit i really need a 6.17 and then all of a sudden you're like oh there's a cop car on fire yeah that's a good question no one's asked me that question because i've told this story a lot of times

I don't know what I was thinking about scores. I can't remember what time of the heat it was at. After that was happening, the schools were out the window. I don't know. How do you eventually leave the beach in that situation? Yeah, so we just waited. The security, you know, heaps of police came.

They all, like, there were still some riots in the main street of Huntington, but all in all they had it pretty much under control. We waited till the sun went down, I think, and the police took us away and then we went to our hotel rooms there.

Yeah. What else were some of the venues in your first few years on tour? I know the tour is a bit different than maybe there's still a bit of that focus on cities. What was like... Where are some of the other stops that you went to that might not be around so much anymore? Oh yeah, no, the tour, this is before the Dream Tour, right? So we had about 23 events or maybe 25 events.

And they were all, no waiting period, just all like Huntington or there was one in Florida. There'd be like three here in Europe. Like a couple in... Japan, you know, like a few in Australia. You know, there was even one in Israel, I think, back in the day. How many events like all up? There was like 25 events. Oh, wow.

But we had no waiting period. They'd start on Thursday and finish on Sunday. South Africa too. I forgot South Africa. Sorry. There was a few there. About three there. Durban. Cape Town. Yeah, it was really busy. Every Monday morning you're packing your bags to go somewhere else. Nice. Well, it wasn't that nice.

Not that nice. 25 events, going to Florida with no waiting period, maybe not so nice. Yeah, and the waves weren't so good and it was too busy, yeah. Yeah. Was it like, growing up, did you have the sense that like... pro surfing was a viable career like it's was it pretty grindy to get to 25 spots like with sponsorship money all right back then you could just cover it were you making money those early days kind of expensive i mean

I was lucky enough to have Billabong when I wanted to do the tour. My first place was South Africa and we needed money and we asked for... We rang Gorda, we were gonna ring all kind of, we were gonna ring around Rip Curl, Quicksilver, Billabong. We rang Billabong first, that was my favorite brand. I had no idea that they would say yes, but I had a manager and we rang Gordon Merchant, the founder of Billabong. I had not had many results, but we rang him.

He said, have you heard of Mark Ocluva or Occy or whatever? And he's like, oh yeah, I have kind of heard of him. And I'd actually met Gordon in a shop when I was about 10 years old in Cronulla. I don't know if he remembered me then, but... I was just, you know, a shop rat. Yeah. And he said, so, like, he wants to go on tour, and Gordon said, how much do you need? And, you know, we said, oh, $40,000 would cover it.

Gordon said, yeah, no worries, let's do it. And I almost, yeah, I almost fell off my chair. But it wasn't cheap doing it back then. But I had a sponsor. prize money wasn't great back then yeah 25 events you could make money you know every weekend so it wasn't actually too bad because the more events you know like yeah yeah you just get more chances at it yeah nice

What was the system of qualifying like back then with all those events? So yeah, there was the top 16 back then and you had to get on tour, you had to make the back 16. So there was two brackets, you know, how there's 16 surfers. The top 16 are seated there and the back 16 are here. And then there was the trials.

and like it's a really good system actually because all the locals could go in the trials the trials went for a few days and it might be a hundred people at least in the trials maybe even back then it was around 150 or maybe like it went for a couple days and then you had to make the quarterfinals that was 16 people that made the main event Some trials would go to a winner and the winner would get money, but all you had to make is the quarters.

And the top 16 would go seeded into the back 16, man on man. And then whoever won that heat would go in the top 16. And then it just went like our tour does, like 16-8, you know, all the way to the final. You get a lot of locals in the contest and it'd work really good these days because all the pipe locals and the Chopu locals and all the experts everywhere around the world has specialist locals that surf their break.

Better than most, not better than not most, but better than a few on tour and definitely can win events. All these locals and have proven that they have done over the years. It'd be a good system to bring back, I think. Yeah, interesting.

Big question for you here, and I have the sense that it's not going to be, the answer isn't going to be HB, is my guess. HB, what do you mean? What is your favorite wave in the world? I've never been asked that question before. Oh, it changes, you know, it really changes. At the moment, it's probably Cloud Break in Fiji. I had a really good trip over there recently.

It chased us well in there and it was solid. I hadn't been back for a while, but I did win the event there back in the year I won my world title and had really fond memories. I went there this year and I also went last year on a boat. My friend had a boat there, but this year I went back to Nomoto where we stay when we competed there. So I got a few of the same staff were there and I had a really good trip.

The waves were pumping and I think, and it's so close to home. It's only three hours from Brisbane near where I live. So that's my new favourite spot. I want to go there heaps more now. What else has been in that list? I actually put myself on the list there. There's a list. You can be a surf guide there. Oh, really? People can pay money and I can take them surfing for a week. And I haven't had any... hits yet but oh come on they'll get there that sounds irresistible uh well with that trip

Part of the reason why you did that was the launch of your collection with Google. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. Yeah. And you mentioned Gordon before and you're signing the deal and you're asking for 40K and being blown away. They'd actually fund you to go chase your dreams. 40 years you've been sponsored by Billabong? Yeah, over 40 years. It's getting up to about 42 or 43, something like that. It's a long time.

That is incredible. That is, especially in this day and age, it's so rare to see that. What do you think are some of the secrets to maintaining a relationship like that for so long? It's been a real give and take relationship. When I travel with Gordon, And the billabong was growing and he was actually even showing his range back then when I was competing in the US Open. And we'd travel to Florida and he would visit surf shops showing his range when I was competing.

And so it was pretty cool then how the company grew really big after winning the US Open a couple of times and, you know, the Australian product was super cool and it went really well there and then that triggered it going.

you know really well over the around the world yeah and then I stopped the tour after that I was telling you after those that period because I I stopped doing the tour for a few years and in between that time when i told you there's 25 events a year i stayed on tour for about nine years yeah and i was in the top five for a while but uh but then i had a few years off and um

and I even didn't surf much at all and actually put on a fair bit of weight and Gordon still paid me money, paid me the same salary I was getting when I was on tour which was really good money and I wasn't doing anything. So, so then, you know, he rang me up after a few years and said, I need you to get off the couch because I can't pay you to do that anymore. And I was like, shucks.

That's when I got sent over to Western Australia and started working with Jack McCoy on all the movies and I lost weight and became a free surfer for a while.

then yeah and then which is good Gordon like that he didn't want me to go back and compete so when I eventually wanted to he didn't think it was a good idea but I was um already back in top shape and i really wanted to do it and i convinced him that i wanted to do it you know and um and yeah the rest is history what was the landscape like for

free servers back then i mean was there many of you around there wasn't many there was a few yeah there was like you know guys that spent a lot of time in indo and um and some big wave riders that didn't compete too You know, I mean, Jerry Lopez was kind of the ultimate free surfer, even though he did compete at Pipe, but he didn't really compete anywhere else. He'd done the...

The conness at Uluwatu a couple of times. But he was a, Jerry Lopez was a free surfer and getting paid for that. And then there was like Peter McCabe, a good friend of his. A few guys in Australia, Cole Smith. I mean, there's more, but there was. Not as much as now, but it was always a thing, right? Yeah. Because, you know, back, especially in the olden days, I'm saying the olden days.

back in the 80s like you know free surfing it was all free surfing really like contests weren't that cool really you know um yeah so it was a bit uh yeah yeah yeah different era too because you know nowadays people can get information in so many different ways there's things in our pockets that can show us anything happening anywhere in the world at any point in time yeah whereas back then i was like if you wanted to

see hockey surfing you either had to buy a video or magazine so it feels like it was probably a different uh much easier to just pick where to focus and kind of work at it huh it's true yeah i mean the old surf movies you know were so cool um i remember going to see them when i was really young and and the music that they put to the you know and the way they edited it and um it was just had so much feel i mean and so much feel and soul to the movie and you know like

Dick Houle and then Jack McCoy and they all made them and you know particularly Jack you know I was lucky enough to work with him and his old movies really inspired me and Just to get that really good soundtrack. You know, sometimes it can be a bit expensive for people to get the good soundtrack, but Jack McCoy had really good contacts. You know, he got to know the Foo Fighters.

Got to know that some really good bands and they would give him the music for, you know, virtually free, you know, because they really respected him and they knew how much of a good would... water photographer he was you know and they liked having his footage in the you know in sometimes use them in their music clips and I think Paul McCartney did he knew him too but uh yeah so

Got really lucky, you know, to have Jack do my movie, the documentary, and some of the other ones, Green Iguana and that, and the music really mates the movie. You and Jack are still responsible for me doing Everlong when I do karaoke. So thank you for that. Karaoke, right. Okay. Yeah. We're not doing karaoke today. We might. Do you have a favorite?

Like when you look back at that era, do you have a favorite kind of film you're most proud of or even segment in a film you're most proud of? You know, people come up to me. I kind of gauge it on people that come up to me saying what's their favorite. I often get that movie Pump. There's a section of me at G-Land and it's like, I think the movie's Concrete Blonde. Don't quote me on that, but it might be that or...

You know, often it's Jack, you know, it could be the green iguana maybe. Yeah, iconic. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, my favorite. I mean, I can't say what my favorite is really because they're my movies. So let's just move on. All right, we will move right on then, Ach. Actually, I don't want to move on just yet because we're talking about Jack and we unfortunately did just lose him. Yeah.

I just want to ask one or two more questions about him. I heard that he was pretty, obviously you're talking about transitioning out of that just first kind of hectic stretch on tour. He qualified so young, thrown in with the Lions, free surfing for a bit. I heard he... played quite a role in getting you kind of motivated to get back on yeah back into competitive surfing is that true yeah it's true i i touched on it earlier in the podcast where

when I was overweight and they sent me to Jack and his wife and there was a family called the Simpsons that lived in the bush and they sent me there first.

So I stayed with them for six months and Jack filmed me when I was really overweight. But he really did, you know, help me get back to shape, you know, and then... and then you know back then you know you like everyone's got their own filmer now and that and they can and which is really good way of getting good at surfing but back then we didn't really have that so to see

my own footage with Jack and kind of he was like you know look you're surfing pretty good but like you know this or that and and then to work with him and get really good clips and see that was really inspiring me to get back on tour. And if it wasn't for Jack, I don't know who he would have sent me to, but I don't think there was anyone else around that really would have done that.

put me back in the limelight you know as he did yeah because he really put me back in the you know in the limelight and then i was like i had the feeling like i could make a comeback yeah What would you describe or how would you describe your relationship with him? Or do you have maybe a better question is, do you have any moments or trips that really stuck out, like regardless of the outcome, regardless of the waves that you got or the section or movie it became?

Just when you look back on your time with Jack, that something that feels the most significant to you? You know, there's just so many. Like, I mean...

I was so lucky. I got to surf perfect waves with Jackie, take me to locations. I keep on saying with no one, but it's true, like with nobody out there, you know, like, I mean, we went to Sumba and there was... we surfed it perfect you know we were there with Sonny Garcia and um it was about three to four feet and and it was really good but then um but then a good swell came Sonny had to go home but

you know i was the only one out there and to have that with jack filming was so special and um you know and then and then the challenges came about and um and uh They, not really specifically one time, but I mean, but just, I don't know. I mean, pinch yourself moments, you know, like sometimes when you. When the waves are absolutely cooking and you're out there with Jack and Jack's filming. Not anyone, but I'm trying to...

Yeah, definitely Sumba was one of them. There's something happening there that just felt really special. That was really special, yeah. So let's just go there. There we go. I could rattle on heaps more, but there's so many. Sumba, lock it in. Yeah.

So that era kind of, you know, they wanted you to kind of get back to competing. Did you have that desire too? Did you feel like you had kind of unfinished business? Yeah, it was my decision. I definitely had unfinished business because I got close to a world title but I didn't get it and that was my mission.

The hardest part was re-qualifying because it was four-man heats like it is now but back then there was no priority in four-man heats and it was really tough because... you get hassled like the whole heat like people would sit on you and starve you for waves and and i hated it people knew i hated it so they'll do it more to me yeah um so i only just re-qualified back then I had to make the top 16 I think it was and I just made it and so I was back on tour but when I got back on tour

It was I'd already been there for a long time man-on-man situation. I knew that really well Yeah, yeah, I was experienced at that because it takes experience surfing man-on-man heat, so i was the first year back on tour i got second and it was to kelly and um then i knew i could win a world title so uh i think it happened um a couple years after that

Yeah, and so you got back and all of a sudden it was becoming the dream tour too, right? You had waves like G-Land popping up on there. Yeah, there was G-Land, there was Chopu, there was Fiji, there was Mundaka. Yeah, a lot of good laughs on tour. I heard you guys just scored Moondaka. Yeah, we did. I was just in Moondaka, my mate, really good mate, Craig Sage, and he's had the Moondaka surf shop for that long.

40 years and I met him about that long ago when I first ever went to Moondaka and it was the 40th anniversary for the Moondaka surf shop so we went. It was a big party. And the swell came to the party. It was pumping. It was like four to five foot, maybe six foot sets. And it was clean and it wasn't too crowded.

really that's uh i wouldn't have guessed that no it was really good really good yeah wow is there a certain event that you remember taking place in that uh that just had incredible waves while the event was actually happening, especially after coming from that era where it was no waiting period and it sounded pretty grindy.

when you got back on tour and again regardless of the result but do you remember any contest where you're just like oh my god this is this is next level oh man like the dream tour you can't there's there was every you know pretty much every event you'd be surfing perfect waves and um with no one other guy out i like Yeah, maybe G-Land, you know, that was amazing. The first year of G-Land? Yeah, the first year I think I got a 10 and yeah, just...

Thinking this is unbelievable because there was not even any commentary at G-Land. All they read out was the scores. That was it. No commentary. So it was pretty cool. Yeah. In the jungle. In the jungle. Getting the numbers. Yeah.

Cool, cool, cool. So, 99 you win the title. Yeah. Where were you? Were you surfing in a heat? Like, was it one of those years where you could win the title on land? Yeah. I was in Brazil, yeah. I'd won Fiji and I'd won Tahiti and I won at Mudaka and I had a really big lead but the next event was Brazil and I nearly had enough points where...

It would have been fun if they gave it to me in a dark era. I mean, it was fun enough winning there anyway, but I probably would still be there right now. Would have worked well for this campaign. It was hard enough to get out of Brazil, I tell you.

But it was Brazil and there was one day where, and I had no idea, they didn't give me the math, but there was one afternoon where like a few of the guys lost it was I think it was Mick Campbell and there was Michael Lowe and Taj Burrow and they were losing and someone came up to me and said if I think it was Flavio Padarat saw someone loses. Or it could have been Mick Campbell, but someone said, yeah. And I remember it was Rione Montero had them in the heat.

They said, if they lose, then you're going to win your world title. No one can catch you. And I was freaking out and I couldn't watch. I went up to where they sell the beers in the little... thing and there was heaps of heaps of cameras around yeah I wanted to get a beer and I was like oh this might be weird and I got a coconut I don't know people might have saw the coconut but

I said, can I have a coconut? And they had vodka and I said, put some vodka in the coconut. Yeah. And the guy looked at me weird and I was like, yeah, go on. And I had the vodka, I had coconut vodka. It was pretty tasty, actually. It sounds delicious. Yeah, it was delicious. And then, so, yeah. So the guy lost and I was like, with my coconut in the air, everyone thought it was my world title trophy, but it was just a drink. I did not know that story. That is incredible. I'm not sure.

how many people are winning world titles these days while drinking holding the coconut yeah no i don't think it's ever happened again no well hey maybe next year it could happen you never know with the way they're restructuring the tour and pipe and all that so let's see um there you go yeah there you go good point uh so when you were first on tour you mentioned names

Like MR, Mark Richards. And then you just mentioned a name like Tajborough. Those are two very different servers of very different generations. Had the culture changed? Like obviously we talked about it going from this kind of... crowd city focused grindy tour to the dream tour had the culture around it changed ah definitely yeah the second time around the culture had changed a lot

Back then, you know, those guys were wild, like really wild when I first went on tour. And then we were pretty wild, our generation. I don't know if we were wilder, we might have been, I don't know.

it's hard to say but we're wild and then when i came back it was more mellow i like these days it's totally totally mellow yeah i believe i know there's one or two i'm not going to mention names that are still pretty wild on tour but um they'll go yeah they'll have a good go but uh but we're all wild back then

There was only a couple straight people, but we scared them. They would run away from us. Yeah, we were wild. Do you feel like there is any certain venue that kind of brought out the wildest in people? Any what? Any specific venue, like anywhere like Alokan and Fiji or something? I don't know. I think Europe can be big. California, man, like there's a lot of hot girls in California.

but you know we had the ball everywhere we had a ball here in France and Portugal and we you know back then it was like summer we follow summer everywhere like you know so that's why the waves weren't great either but the first time on tour every Every contest would be in summertime in the middle of summer so everyone's on holidays and everyone you know you get more people on the beach.

But yeah, so that's that kind of made it wild too. You know what I mean? Yeah, because you know once you're on the dream tour and you're in At the end of the road at Chopu or in Fiji or maybe not Fiji because here on a beautiful island there's cocktails right so hard to resist but but you know when you're you know in a you know remote locations it's more mellow anyway but but yeah

anyway yeah and they got some good coconuts out there too i heard where in brazil especially yeah yeah yeah yeah so did it take uh also i love that you got the title in 99 i feel like it would have been unfair for the world to have to wait two full millennia for Aki to win a title. It had to come, and the fact that it didn't have to take a full 2,000 years, I appreciate. After the coconut, how did you kind of process that? I mean, I'd imagine...

I'd imagine you weren't in bed by 8 that night. I was not, no. Maybe 8 a.m. Definitely not, no. Yeah, 8 a.m. I did get a couple hours sleep, but the thing was I had that much adrenaline in me. Billabong, they booked out a whole restaurant and so we had the party there. It was like downstairs, upstairs. I reckon I'd drunk at least 50 beers for sure. And I wasn't drunk. Just because of all the adrenaline flowing through? Adrenaline, yeah. And it wasn't until the morning.

Slept for a couple hours. I was still in the contest. The contest hadn't finished. Okay. No, yeah. And you still had a heat. Yeah, I had a heat to surf. And I remember. I walked down the beach. I felt great. I felt really good. Until I laid on my board and tried to paddle. And I was like, I am not going to get a score over three points. I could hardly paddle. And I paddled up to, I think it was Pedersen-Rosa. And I went up to him and kind of grabbed him by the leg and...

He said, don't worry, man, you've got this heat. And he gave me this weird look like I thought I was trying to psych him out. I'm like, seriously, man, don't worry. I'm still drunk. I cannot surf. And anyway. I came in, the party kept going.

The party went for a long time. Yeah. Not for Patterson and Rosalie. He still had some more heats to serve, I guess, after you gave him that one. Yeah, he did. I think he ended up winning the contest. There you go. You played a role in that. Yeah, I did. Because he wouldn't have got through you otherwise. True. And so was Pipes the finisher then? Pipeline was the last event so I didn't have to go there but I did. You know like the party went on like we got on the plane.

Quick story, my big billabong gave me a first class ticket, but I didn't even sit in the seat. It was back when you could drink beers at the back of the plane, you know, like this is before terrorism. I think it was terrorism when you couldn't. congregate they say at the back of the plane everyone had to stay in their seats stay in the seats but back then we could and we were drinking beers all the Aussie guys and we drunk beers and then the we were about we were from Santiago to

New Zealand and then about two hours out of New Zealand the hostess came up and she's like, don't you want to use your seat? I'm like, my seat? She's like, yeah, you're in first pass. And I'm like, oh.

And I went in my bed, it was a bed, and I was like, what am I doing? And I jumped in the bed and slept for a couple hours. And then from New Zealand to Sydney, I slept back in the bed. And then... I remember I was sleeping in the Qantas club in the airline lounge and I was like dreaming and my mum came and she was like shaking me and I thought I was still dreaming but then I got on the flight to the Gold Coast and

We were drinking beers again. Oh, you won a title. Come on. And then the plane landed and I didn't touch on the, I didn't step on the tarmac because the limo came. straight off the stairs on the plane into the limo. When we landed the plane the fire engines had the hoses going so we went through a barrel and I stepped in the limo and then yeah we done it like the mayor came and

Then went home, the party kept going. Yeah, right. That title's the title, brother. Yeah, it was good. It was really good. Nice. Did you feel...

was that like a weight off your shoulders type thing i mean yeah you obviously kept going on tour for quite a few years after that yeah but was that just something where you just yeah especially after your journey the ups and downs it's just hey you did it Yeah, real satisfied feeling, like in English it's sanctified, but I don't even know what that means in English, but I've heard that word and I use it sometimes. Which means really satisfied feeling.

I competed for about another seven, eight years after that. If you add wild cards, maybe another 10 years after that I competed for. But I wasn't... I was not getting I used to get really upset losing but that went away because I won my world title so I wasn't getting upset when I lost which is good because

when you get upset when you lose i mean my son's going through it at the moment like you get really depressed you know and um and you can't win all the time you know so it's a tough one but after winning the world title i was happy just to compete and be there so i stayed as long as i could yeah yeah and then during that era you got to see especially i'm sure through billabong you got to spend some time with andy i did i'm sure it was great being on tour in that era

getting to see those guys spar without having the you know the pressure you might have felt earlier in your career just witnessing that era of surfing firsthand must have been incredible with andy andy and kelly specifically oh yeah andy and kelly yeah for sure and andy and bruce um Andy Bruce done the tour with me for a couple years and stayed with me and him and Andy you know the heats they had

And the fights they had too on land were pretty radical. They loved each other but they hated each other. One year like it was in Hawaii and the Pipeline Masters went on hold. I think we all got through our heats, but it was the first round of pipe, but Eddie Swell came. I wasn't in it, but Andy and Bruce were, obviously, and we were playing poker one night.

and we were playing with Bruce's poker set and then Bruce came up and Andy wanted to take the poker set somewhere and Bruce wanted it and they had a full-on fight. They punched each other. And Lindy, I mean, oh no, everyone was screaming. I forget who it was there. And then the next day they had to compete at Waimea. And it was so big that year. It was like 30 feet closing out the bay. Bruce won. Andy, in one of his second round, Andy took the biggest wave I've ever seen.

We were all standing on the point at someone's house and I think it was Lindy was crying. Lindy was crying, saying don't go and everyone's like paddling out, trying to get away from the close outset and then... And he doesn't paddle. Because you think it's going to break, but it doesn't break. Yeah. And the braver you are, you can sit there and just freeze and think you're going to get cleaned up, but you don't.

And then you spin around at the last centre because you've got to be under it, right? And then you just sit there and everyone knows, I know he's going to go. And he flips around and goes and just makes the take-off but then just gets obliterated. Yeah. But still, he was sweet. Got his board, didn't break his board. No flotation, nah. Back out there.

And then Bruce wanted to go a bigger one. And then, you know, they were like... Was that year Bruce, well, I guess he probably only won once, but the year he packed that short break too? Yeah, Bruce packed the short break, yeah. Bruce movie kind of scene? But then, you know, seeing Bruce and Andy... Chopu like when it's really big just fruit like the year that Andy got that crazy side slip in that huge 10-12.

15 footer and then like bruce made him go that wave bruce is like you won't go this and then he's like watch this i used to be like that yeah yeah yeah i can only imagine so

What is life off tour been like for you? Did you feel like your relationship with surfing changed since uh? you know no longer being a full-time tour competitor do you feel like there's a transition or um definitely a hard transition i was lucky i mean i got some wild cards and then You know, when Billabong, when we were running our own events and we had our own broadcast team, I was like commentating. So I was still around it. So it was like a slow transition.

But it was hard, you know, and I saw a lot of friends suffer. You know, I wasn't too bad after having the world title. Like, I missed it for sure. I still miss it. But, you know, like... There was a few Masters events they used to have. The last one was in the Azores, right near Portugal, but I didn't go to that one. I'd like another Masters event.

event to be on i don't know why wsl don't do it doesn't do it maybe someone else can but um but yeah it was hard for sure you know you really miss competing uh and i still still do yeah yeah Did you feel like you still surfed as much? Did you have periods where you weren't as excited to surf? Yeah, I know. When I was...

Kind of in that period I told you then when I wasn't surfing much when I was really overweight it was tough. I mean I was still surfing like once a week but I would go to a beach when there was no people that would see me. because i was really anxious but uh but not now like i i yeah i love surfing and i never really fell out of love with it and i hadn't fallen out of love with it then it was just you know my weight and it was just uh

Definitely a tough time in my life. I stopped drinking about six years ago and I surf way more now. I think I missed a lot of surfs when I was hungover. which was tough. Looking back at it, but I wouldn't change it. But definitely missed a lot of good waves, I reckon, when I was too hungover to surf.

doesn't really happen anymore yeah i do miss good waves now when i look gotta look after the little kids but um yeah but my my missus works on the weekend so if the waves are pumping on the weekend i don't surf really much anymore that's tough But uh, anyway. Well you squirt some waves for the film that Bilbong made to compliment this collection.

We were talking about it, but you went to Fiji, and then you got just classic bells. Yeah, I did. And you were fucking ripping, I have to say. Thanks, thanks. No, I mean, I still, yeah, I felt like we didn't have... time to do that like we had like a couple weeks we were gonna go to Sumba and then we couldn't go to Sumba for some reason and then he's like where do you want to go and I'm like we've got to be quick you know and

because we only found out at the last minute we couldn't go to Soomba and the range was coming out and he's like, where do you want to go? And I'm like, let's just go to Fiji. And, you know, it's hard to, Nemoto's booked out a lot, so. He's like, where are we going to stay? And I'm like, we've got to stay at Namotu. But Joel Parkinson helped us out because his mate manages Namotu.

Yeah, so he got us in there. We stayed in the staff quarters and scored a really good swell. I was only there for three days, so we got all the footage done in three days.

And then at Bells we were only there for two days, so we got the footage done in two days. If I had more time, I could probably have surfed better, but especially Fiji was pretty big, so it usually takes me a while to... get my eye in to start charging the you know the good ones but um but i still done all right and um and the music to it like yothi yindi was the same music as we used in um the documentary

And it was cool. I knew we were going to use that music, so I kind of listened to it before my sessions. I was trying to surf to the music and it kind of worked. you know they edited it really cool they edited it like jack would so it's like paying homage to jack yeah which is kind of you know ironic that he passed away was really sad at the same kind of time

But yeah, and they used Ganga Jang, this is Australia for bells and we had the good music. I like Yothi Yundi so famous now, like it would have cost us a lot of money to use that song, but... they said to us like you helped us out back in the day so you can have the music and we were like no way i was so stoked wow that's incredible yeah so it worked out really cool that and even knowing that you got those like that jack was just had so many connections that he was

able to get just incredible songs for free, essentially. I don't think that happens so much anymore. Well, you know what? These days... Everyone loved the clip because no one really does that these days. Like, gets a really good song. Like, you know, they cost a lot of money. They do. Get a really good song and put it to, you know, a clip that's edited really good. You don't really see it much.

I don't know. Someone said to me they hadn't seen it since Jack did it back, you know. That was like 20 years ago. Yeah, I think when people like just budget out surf. edits or films now they just you know they're thinking about trips they're thinking about getting everybody places and then it's almost like then it's like oh shit now we need an extra you know 50k for music and a lot of times that 50k is already uh yeah burned up somewhere yeah yeah yeah

Well, Aki, I only have three more questions for you. A little rapid-fire round, and then we're going to open it up to our lovely audience here, who, like I said, are as qualified as me. Question one. Raging Bull, what... is the origin of that nickname? The Ray Jim Bull is a commentator in Australia that wasn't a surf commentator. He was like a football, a rugby league commentator.

A real famous one in Australia. And one time, I think our mainstream contest that was the Coca-Cola surfabout was a real big one. It was on TV mainstream. And he was commentating. And he called me the raging bull. i don't know why he said i surf like a raging bull which is kind of weird but um and it's stuck really it's stuck yeah yeah all right i was always curious about that next question

I heard a rumor that you've never sent an email. Can you confirm or deny? I've never sent an email, no. Still? That's good. I was like, you can text, it's the same thing, right? Yeah. Well, I do it twice. I don't know. Good point. Good point. I love it. Last one for you again. It's kind of like what I'll call a little legend that I'd like to confirm or deny. One board, one wax job. Yes or no? Yes, definitely. Yes. I've never really taken my wax off. The grippier, the better. Sometimes it melts.

And if it melts, it kind of makes good grooves. I wax over that. It's nice and grippy. If there's sand in it, that's even better. Or not even better, but I think when it melts, it's better. But yeah, one board, one wax job. Incredible. I mean, people, if they want to get into this giveaway for your board, you have to spend 50 euro. There'd be quite a few wax combs, but...

Unfortunately, you don't need them anyway. Aki just disproved why you ever should change your wax. No, I like wax combs, yeah. Because one board, one wax job. My wax...

At the end, if it's a magic board, it's about that thick. I'm like, because they're podcasts, they can't see my fingers. So I'm thinking, how much is that, 10 centimetres? I mean, like a big... the bigger the knobs the better and then you get a wax comb on that and that's pretty cool too but i've usually got really long fingernails and i just use my fingernails i was just thinking for uh removal purposes but hey yeah you gotta scrape that in anyway don't change your wax i love it

And now let's open it up to the crowd here. So who's got a question for Mark Acalupo? Raise your hand. Yes, sir. Yep Oh, wow. It's too long of a story. We've got two hours. One time I was in a rubber ducky in a boat off an island in Hawaii called Molokai.

And so in the Hawaiian island chains there's a fair few islands and there's Molokai and it's mostly pure Hawaiians there. A few tourists do visit that island but not... two different, an island called Nihihau, which is only pure Hawaiians, and you never hear of it, it's a really, it's not even on TV, and it's, I've always wanted, interested in about it.

but it wasn't on that island. It was on an island of Molokai. My sponsor was a pure Hawaiian and he shaped my boards back in the day, a guy called Kaui Hill. Oh, well, he's not pure Hawaiian, but he was Hawaiian enough to live there. And I went on a boat to a place called Halawa. There was cliffs, really tall cliffs. I think they filmed Jurassic Park there and there's waterfalls that come down the cliffs but they don't really reach the ocean because it's so high.

and you can catch a boat and people lived in a beach bay called Halawa Valley and they used to grow weed there and like hunt and just live off the land and he wanted me to pick up his mate. And I don't even... I'm really bad with cars and boats and everything. That's why you ask a question. And I'm like, oh, this ain't going to be great. And it was two rubber duckies and one motor work and the other one didn't. And then...

So, and then one gas tank and he swapped it over and the throttle was like getting stuck, like it was stuck on full throttle and we tried it and he's like, just use that one. And it was like kind of wigging out and I'm like, this is going to be sketchy. Because we did go over by jet ski and I was like thinking, I was like, what would happen if you conked out? And I shouldn't have thought of it because we were like halfway there.

and we're going down a big swell because there was a big, it's the North Shore of Molokai, same, get the same swells as the North Shore of Oahu. A big swell was predicted and I was like I want to get there and back before the swell gets too big.

the waves just crashed on the cliffs but we went out i went out really wide and i was going down as well and the boat flipped and we got flipped out of the boat oh and plus he said he wanted he wanted us to catch a fish so we had a fishing pole in the thing and um the boat flipped like this but it kept on going it didn't turn over the boat was going it was stuck on full throttle And then I was with a Hawaiian kid called Ja, what was his name, Jilai or something, Eli.

and he grabbed the fishing line and I'm like, what are you doing? He's like trying to get the boat back and then the lure like went into his arm and he's screaming and I had to pull the lure out. And the boat kept going. And he's screaming. And I'm like, oh, he's like, it's tiger sharks. And then we had a board in the boat. And the board got tossed out. And I went for the board.

And he was freaking out. I had to slap him. Just go and snap out of it. We can do this. And we can do this. And like it was a big longboard actually. It was like a 9-0. And I got up the front and he got up the back. And like. you know like you're doing a long board and we both could paddle i'm like we can do this we paddled paddled took us a couple hours to get there but once we got there

It was like huge waves on cliffs. And I'm like, then I started freaking out. And he's like, oh, I'm just stoked where we made it. We got washed up on the cliffs. And then Cook is like. we had to keep high like we could get high when the big sets came and then we'd go and then high and it took us i came back and all my toes were all all gone like all bloody At one point we had to actually swim for a little while and time the sets and then I got back in the Hawaiian Kaui.

He's drinking beers, watching American football. He's like, where you guys been? It was like 10 at night. And I'm like, where we been? I'm like, your boat's gone, man. We didn't even get you, mate. He's like, what? It was really scary. I went to the North Shore. I had to add Pipeline that year. It was about my third year at Pipe.

And I was not scared of big waves that year. I was like, take out none of anything because I thought I was gone. Yeah, yeah. Incredible one, Aki. What else we got? Questions for Aki. I remember I was a kid and I went to the movies to see you. How was acting for you? Do you remember? No show. No show, yeah. Well, that was a crazy time. I had to act myself and I didn't even do a good job at that.

We thought maybe we'd be actors after that, but the phone never rang. But it was really fun doing it. In Hawaii we had our own trailers. It was full Hollywood production. It was pretty fun. It was fun doing it, yeah. yeah incredible iconic film yeah north shore yeah nice another question for aki what do we got

I think that's about it. Two questions sounds like good to me. All right. These people might just want some. Okay, there we go. When what? When are you going to leave? Oh, when am I going to leave? Oh, yeah, no, I leave tomorrow. Yeah, it's my birthday tomorrow. Actually, I'm going to be on the plane the whole time. Oh, thank you. I shouldn't have said that. Well, that actually... There's all my presents, right?

Actually, speaking of which, Ock, it is Ocky's birthday tomorrow. We knew that. And we've got a little surprise for him here. I shouldn't have said anything. We're about to sneak up with him on. You would have forgot, maybe. I don't think so. We have proof of that.

So we're going to sing happy birthday to Aki, everybody. I guarantee you this is... I didn't ask for everyone to sing happy birthday. This is the only time in your life you're going to get to sing happy birthday to Aki, so let's do it. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Aki! Happy birthday to you. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

Aki will be signing some posters for you now, and shortly after we'll be giving away this surfboard. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thanks, Aki. Great question. Thank you. Oh!