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I think it's one of the great sports stories of all time.' Kelly Slater

About the Author

Tim Baker is a freelance writer based in Currumbin, Queensland, Australia. He is a former editor of Tracks and Surfing Life magazines, and co-author of "Bustin' Down The Door," the biography of surfing champion Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew (Harper Collins, 1996, now in its sixth print run). He has also edited and contributed to an anthology of Australian surf writing, "Waves - Great Stories From The Surf," (Harper Collins, 2005). His latest book, "High Surf," profiles the world's most inspiring surfers (Harper Collins, 2007). His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Inside Sport, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, the Bulletin magazine, The Australian Way, Playboy, as well as surfing magazines around the world. He has received the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Media Award and been shortlisted for the CUB Australian Sports Writing Awards.

Reviews

"By going down so hard, by fully falling apart, he was able to give himself 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 too. Occy was the ultimate example of that." --Tom Carroll

"Occy was always a missile going hyperspeed, about to blow up at any moment--it's true of so many highly intelligent or gifted people . . . All of his passion was put into his surfing." --Kelly Slater, eight-time surfing world champion

By going down so hard, by fully falling apart, he was able to give himself 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 too. Occy was the ultimate example of that. --Tom Carroll
Occy was always a missile going hyperspeed, about to blow up at any moment--it's true of so many highly intelligent or gifted people . . . All of his passion was put into his surfing. --Kelly Slater, eight-time surfing world champion