Why surf champ Mark 'Occy' Occhilupo is on board for Dementia Wipeout

The 57-year-old one time world champion - who is affectionately known as 'Occy' - is a firm believer in keeping both body and mind active.

Mark will hit Bondi Beach on April 5 for the 13^th annual Wipeout Dementia event - an initiative aimed at tackling the escalating dementia challenge.

The former champion - who took out the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title in 1999, said he still surfs every day. He sees the sport as a good way of keeping himself sharp.

"In surfing you do have to think a lot on the go - looking out for sets and rips - you definitely have to keep aware," he said.

"I've got a really active lifestyle, I've got a lot of kids and I keep active in the water, so hopefully that helps."

Mark didn't come from a surfing family, but took up the sport at the very young age of five.

His older sister's boyfriend was a surfer. One day during a trip to the beach he borrowed his board, started surfing some small waves near the shore and has been hooked on the sport ever since.

"The best thing about surfing is it's always different. It's never the same surf twice," he said.

"It's just a very fun sport - it's almost a spiritual kind of thing, surfing on the ocean."

Throughout his childhood and teens, Mark's skills continued to improve. By the time he finished school after year 10, he had cracked the top 15 in the country and qualified for the pro circuit.

A major career highlight came a year later, when he won his first pro event - the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii at just 17 years of age.

They kind of threw me in the deep end. I got invited to the event, came second the first year, and then the next year I ended up winning it," he said.

While Mark relished the chance to learn from the circuit's veterans, his early days on the tour were far from all blue skies.

While he managed to crack, and remained in the circuit's top five, the "party" lifestyle of the pro surfing scene took its toll. Burnt out and suffering from depression, he ended up quitting the tour in the late 80s.

Billabong continued to support him by featuring him in a number of ads, but he gained a lot of weight and eventually the company's founder Gordon Merchant called him in for a heart to heart.

"He said if we're going to keep paying you, you've got to not so much get back on tour, but at least get fit so we can use you in ads.

"When I got fit again, I wanted to compete again, so that was the main catalyst."

Mark rejoined the pro tour in 1995, going on to win the rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach in 1998. The following year he won the Gotcha Tahiti Pro, Quicksilver Pro in Fiji and Billabong Pro in Anglet and Mundaka on the way to claiming the world title.

He said his best friends on the tour were fellow Aussie surf legend Joel Parkinson, and American champ Andy Irons, who sadly passed away in 2010 at the age of 32.

While he misses the tour, he has plenty to keep him busy these days. He hosts podcast Occ-Cast, which has seen him sit down for a chat with some of the world's most prolific surfers, including Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning.

He also has four children, while his partner Jessica Crawford has five - and the whole family loves to surf. Mark is currently working closely with his son Jay, who he hopes may crack the pro circuit one day.

As for Mark, he plans to keep surfing as long as he is able.

"Surfing's got a lot of longevity, you can still surf well into your 50s.

"I'm 57 now and think I'm still surfing almost as good as I ever did."

Mark and fellow surf champ Owen Wright will be joined by 56 surfers from the property industry for Wipeout Dementia. The initiative aims to raise awareness and advance Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) research centred around vascular dementia - widely considered a preventable form of the disease.

Mark knows how devastating the impacts of dementia can be from personal experience. He has been an advocate since his close friend's father passed away after a long 15-year battle with the degenerative brain disease.

"He was in a home for a long time, and it was very hard to see. I really felt for my friend and his dad - who really brought us all together," he said.

He said dementia was an extremely tough disease to deal with, for both the person living with it and family members who have to process someone they love not knowing who they are any more.

"It happened a bit to me, with my father. With my father it wasn't dementia, it was a brain tumour, but at the end, he didn't recognise his kids."

For more information on Wipeout Dementia click here.