Twenty-one years ago today...
Makes you realise how much pro surfing has changed when a title contender doesn't even know he's in the running for it.
Then again...Occy.
Apparently Mick Campbell was in the running that year and lost all his boards before the event started . Either lost or destroyed by the airline or stolen in Brazil , can’t remember which. But you’d have to think that’d ratchet up the pressure you’d be feeling going into such an important moment. Not to having to ride strange boards.
Twenty-one years ago today, Occy was standing on a Rio de Janeiro footpath sucking on a coconut bought from a street vendor, as Flavio Padaratz got the better of Mick Campbell in windblown Barra Beach waves, when a reporter came up and told him he'd won the world title.
Mission complete. The fairy tale too.
Old footage but let's roll the projector one more time: