AS a 16 year old, Mark Occhilupo arrived on the world surfing scene when he beat champion Tom Carroll at Cronulla to win the Beaurepairs title. Shortly after, he took out the Hawaiian Pipeline Masters.
Now 41, "Occy" says he won't fully understand that he has retired from professional surfing until the world pro tour starts up again in a few months.
"It hasn't sunk in yet ... this is the beach where it all began for me," the surfing cult hero said, pointing towards a stretch closer to Elouera Beach.
"I guess it won't hit me properly until the boys start flying out. It really is a strange feeling."
Between winning heats at The Alley, being pipped in Saturday's final and catching up with his mates, the square-jawed goofy-footer with Italian parentage (Occhilupo means "eyes of the wolf"), who shocked the surfing world by dropping out then dropping back in to claim the world title, at 33, seems happy with his lot.
His long-time sponsor Billabong doesn't want him to quit the pro scene completely. "I've been given three wild cards: for Fiji, Jeffreys Bay [South Africa] and Pipeline. And of course other work," he said.
It transpires that "Occy" is not only No.1 with younger surfers. Still sporting trademark long blond locks reminiscent of the '70s, he is also being paid to take retirees surfing around the world. "How's that?!" he laughs.
And there will be plenty of video and photo surfing tours for Billabong, too.
It has been a colourful career for a colourful character who first learnt to ride a board, an old Woodstock, in a rare wave near his home at Kurnell Beach, aged seven, before walking over the sand dunes to ride the bigger waves off Green Hills [north of Wanda] with his mates, former world top 10 surfer Richard "Dog" Marsh and his brother Jason.
Occy won his first amateur schoolboys contest at 13 and two Cadet State titles, left home as an ASP trialist after finishing 10th grade at Cronulla High, sneaked into the Top 16 and secured a seeding for the next year.
Winning Pipeline at 17 and shooting to the top of the ASP ratings, he set performance standards over the next few years that still haven't been matched, turning backhand surfing into an advantage and earning him the title "Raging Bull".
While Occy doesn't compare himself to Tom Curren, the American champ of those years, the Americans did and still do even though the Aussie hard-charger couldn't crack it for an early world title from regular top five positions.
Then a bout of depression and years on tour burned him out. He dropped off the 1980s wave as partying, drinking and drugs things he'd avoided but part and parcel of life for many surfers of the day began to take over.
In the early '90s, he quit the World Tour, his weight ballooning and his mind not on competition.
"I went off the track for about five years all up," he said. "But looking back, I don't think if I'd not had the break, I could have beaten Kelly Slater at that time.
"He was at the peak of his power and what, he went on to win eight world titles."
Listing his greatest achievements, Occy rates the manner of his comeback from the "TV lounge" and shedding some 35 kilograms to re-qualify for the main pro tour as much as winning the 1999 world title as his most memorable.
Slater, he says, is the greatest surfer he has seen so far, but he raps fellow countryman Joel Parkinson and the "younger brigade" coming through one of whom, one day, could include his son.
Living with his wife and two boys on the Gold Coast, Occy's biggest thrill of late was seeing four-year-old Jay Occhilupo ride into second place in an under-6 grommet comp for his Gold Coast club, Snapper Rocks.
"The dads and mums paddle them out to the wave area and let them go," he said, before adding proudly: "And Jay rode a five foot one inch JS [Jason Stephenson] board, just like his dad except it had rubber fins."