OCCY'S CAMEO IN PUBERTY BLUES

Hurling Abuse In Cronulla By Tim Baker

Puberty Blues was released in 1981 and includes a very quick cameo by future world surfing champion Mark Occhilupo ...

I have been working on Occy's biography, to be published by Random House in November this year, and in my research came across this clip from the 1981 film Puberty Blues, shot in six weeks around Cronulla and directed by acclaimed Australian director Bruce Beresford (Don's Party, Driving Miss Daisy, etc).

Look closely and at around the 1:00 minute mark, one of the grommets who walks by and writes the girls off is none other than Occy himself as a very young grom, probably 13 or 14. He reckons him and his mates just walked past and hurled some abuse spontaneously and the director liked it so much he asked them to do it again and included it in the film.

(For more on Occhilupo's biography stay tuned to bytimbaker.com)