Joel Parkinson

OLD SWELL MEET NEW SWELL

Pipe this arvo. New swell running over the old one, double-ups running over triple-ups. Hang on fellas, it's gonna be wild tomorrow.

KAUAI MEMORIES

It was Superbowl Sunday over on Kauai. I was over there camping up in the mountains with Andy, Shano and a few other crew, and it was bloody freezing. It was freezing. It was so cold it was like winter in Canada; only this was Hawaii. We had these log cabins we were staying in, the campfire, the full deal. Slept in big jackets. But it was some of the most beautiful countryside I’d ever seen. Shano had bought his bow and arrow and we went pig hunting. I wasn’t up for killing a wild boar, but there were wild chickens everywhere and I thought if I shot a chicken with the bow and arrow I’d pluck and cook it. The mighty hunter from Coolangatta. So I picked up his bow and arrow, this huge hunting bow he kills pigs with, and I’ve lined up this chook from across the campsite. I’ve lined it up and let it go and it’s gone between its legs! I was kinda glad actually. Pulling in a fish I can handle, I don’t know about putting an arrow through a chook. Then Shano got serious and got cans of dog food and put holes in them and threw them out into the bush, then we waited to see what came to eat ‘em. We were up till 10 o’clock that the night waiting for a boar but nothing showed up. Shano shoots on his property. He’s got a heap of acres on the Big Island and he’s got little hideouts where he baits and waits. He’ll sit some nights till two in the morning and wait for the right one. He’s the full bow hunter in his cammo gear and face paint… and here I am trying to shoot a chook. – Joel

THE NIGHT BEFORE

It begins the night before. You ring that number before you go to bed and start thinking, well, if the 5am buoy is saying 15 feet at 20 seconds, then the swells got to be here soon. You lie in bed that night and you can usually pick the first set of the new swell, you’ll hear it on the reef and you’ll feel a little shudder go through the house. It’s so quiet on the North Shore at night that the only noise is the sounds of breaking waves. Then you can hear it coming up the beach, and if it’s really big you can hear it hitting the rock wall under the house. You wake up early the next morning, walk out onto the veranda, and there it is. – Joel

Excerpt from Parko+Friends… check it out here.

THE TRIPLE CROWN

Just a quick note to let you all know I won’t be surfing in all three events of the Triple Crown in Hawaii this year. While I’ll definitely be surfing the Pipe Masters, and I might even surf the Sunset event, I definitely won’t be at Haleiwa which means I probably won’t be any chance of winning the Triple Crown this year.

I just plan to relax a little more in Hawaii this year, and for a couple of weeks anyway just focus on my freesurfing, my family and friends. I’m planning on taking my family across to Kauai to spend some time with Lyndie and Andy Jr. Of all the Hawaiian seasons I’ve done, I’ve never gone and been able to hang out to much on the other islands and with my friends over there for any long period of time, and I’m really looking forward to a week or two over on Kauai then coming back to Oahu and just freesurfing to focus on Pipe.

I’d love to win at Pipeline – every surfer would – and I reckon I’m giving myself the best chance this year by not doing the whole Triple Crown. The last few Hawaiian seasons – and the last few months in general – have been pretty intense, so I just felt it was a good time to take a couple of weeks to pull back a little and keep my surfing fun and fresh.

To win three Triple Crowns is such an honour and something I could never have even dreamed of as a kid, and I’ll be giving everything I’ve got to win another one next year. I’ll be watching on with interest this year and it’d be great if the Triple Crown went into Pipe with half a dozen guys all duking it out to take it.

Mahalo.

Joel

IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL…

Home to Oz at last. Never felt so good…