The year, 1997.

It was an all time building 4 to 8 foot swell roping into bells bowl. Stiff offshore winds blew the stacking walls into ideal conditions to showcase true power based combo surfing.
The format for this even was fresh. modeled after a golf skins tournament.

Only one score counts per man-on-man heat, and the best score takes not only the win, but 5 thousand dollars and keeps advancing through until he’s knocked out. That equates to balls out, high risk ripping, as instead of trying to build two decent scores for a heat win, a surfer can go for broke, and if he makes it, claim the wave for the single score.

ASP and WSL World Tour rivalries go back to the beginning, but very few have been as exciting as Occy vs Slater.

The raging bull, Mark Occhilupo, riding a full volumed Dahlberg six channel, went on to win 11 straight heats, taking out Kelly Slater with a legendary performance Mick Fanning called the “best surfing he has ever seen”, taking home $55,000 and a new Jeep Wrangler.

Surfers:
Mark Occhilupo
Kelly Slater
Tom Carroll
Sunny Garcia
Matt Hoy
Pancho Sullivan
Luke Egan
Richard Dog Marsh
Barton Lynch
Todd Prestage
Jake Spooner
Shane Powell
Beau Emerton
Munga Barry
Nathan Webster
Damian Hardman
Myles Padaca
Danny Wills
Kalani Robb
Rob Machado

Footage: Jon Mills

Music: INXS (The Farriss Bros)