Our November clip of the month is one of our all time favourites. It takes us back to the 1980s when the dream tour mostly consisted of Americans and Australians surfing against each other in mostly city surf beaches such as Huntington and Bells Beach. Tens of thousands would turn up to each event and watch. Each event was blown up into a massive festival with other attractions in order to get big sponsors on board - it didnt really work and trouble often started on some beaches leading to major companies pulling out and tv networks withdrawing from the sport.  

Probably the biggest rivalry during these times was between American Tom Curren and Australian Mark Occhilupo (Occy). Curren was born in 1964 and was from a surf family based in Santa Barbara in the US. He joined the ASP World Tour in 1983 and became world champion in 85, 86 and 1990. Tom left the tour in the early 90s - back then there was 25 events a year and he had had enough. He still competes as a wild card entrant and is a very popular musician with a few decent albums to his name. 

Occy came from a suburb in Sydney and is 2 yrs younger than Curren. He joined the World Tour age 17 in 1983! He was 3rd in '84, 4th in '85 and was favourite to win in 86 until Curren beat him to it. He was 9th in '87 but had begun to loose interest. He turned his back on the sport altogether and withdrew from the spotlight in the early 90s. Everyone had thought they had seen the last of him but in 1997 he requalified and finished 2nd to Kelly Slater. In 1999 he went on to win the world title, 16 years after he first event , not a bad comeback! He continued on the tour until 2005. He now commentates on the live webcasts and appears as a wildcard on some of the events.

The clip is taken from the semi final in 1986 at the Bells Beach Classic, South West Australia (Victoria). If Curren won the semi final he would become WCT Champion. It is regarded as one of the best ever heats in professional surfing. The moment when both surfers are riding a wave in the one shot, Curran riding regular in front, and Occy goofy on the wave behind,  is truelly awesome. Enjoy...