PARKO+FRIENDS
Posted by Parko in Freestyling, Photos
A palm-fringed limestone reef. Boards in hand. The Telo Islands. Three pm. A Tuesday.
Joel: “I’m thinking about doing a book.”
Editor: “What’s your book about?”
“I dunno… a book.”
“What kind of book?”
“I dunno… stories, photos. A book.”
“That doesn’t narrow it down much.”
“I want a book about me that’s not all about me.”
“Hmm, a book about you that’s not all about you…”
And so Joel’s Book is born…
I’ve wanted to do a book for a long time now and I finally pulled my finger out and did it. Okay, when I say “I”, I mean the Flying Pineapple guys mainly, but putting up with them for a year while they did it was pretty hard work on my behalf, so they can’t take all the credit.
When I was a kid I loved my magazines, but I loved my surf books even more. I remember an old book called Surfing Wild Australia. It had a sunset on the cover, I think it was taken at The Wreck in Byron. It had all these incredible photos from around Australia… I think Gnaraloo was in there, Tassie. But Dad had heaps of surf books and I’d lose myself in ‘em for days.
But I wanted to do a book that wasn’t all about me. I didn’t want to do a bio, not yet. I wanted a book that was going to capture the people and places I go… and maybe throw a bit of myself in there for good measure. Most places I go to regularly I’ve been going to for 10 years now, and I’ve been lucky to meet some amazing crew and in that time share some good times and good waves with them. When you travel and stay with friends in other places around the world for long enough, it goes beyond having a roof over your head, you actually become family to these guys and vice versa. Some of my best friends today live half a world away, and I’m lucky that I’ve been given the chance to travel and hang with them at their place. It’s a very cool thing to have, and it’s something common to a lot of surfers who travel around. Surfing’s just got that power to bring people together.
So for most of last year as I travelling around we were catching up and talking story with my friends in Hawaii, J-Bay, Angourie, Tahiti and a heap of other magic little places. There’s some all-time stories in there; me and Rasta cruising through Europe in an old van, the tuna that almost cost me a heat in Fiji, Occy wrestling the seagull in Gnaraloo. And there are some pretty epic photos in there, the best photos of me from the last couple of years as well as photos of my friends and the places they live. Jonny Frank and Shorty did most of the photography, and there are some gems.
I just wanted a book that made people appreciate all the good times and good friends surfing has given ‘em.
PARKO+FRIENDS launches in Australia on February 18 and is available in bookshops or Billabong stockists. It will be launched in Europe and the US later this year.
7 COMMENTS
Tirso says:
January 27, 2010 at 2:43 pmWow! It looks amazing Parko!! I hope it arrives soon to Spain…
Mike @ RAS stats says:
January 27, 2010 at 9:03 pmLooking forward to having a read of that one…
Good luck in the commin season,
I enjoy watching you compete against ya mates.
Puts a whole different spin on things.
I am predicting that there will be many more seasons like this one just gone.
Where there are 10 -14 surfers still in the title race with two thirds of the season surfed.
The runaway championships may be a thing of the past… Hope so…
Aloha
Mike Newman
Stephen says:
January 27, 2010 at 11:22 pmHi Joel, hope you are having a great break back in Aus and congrats on the book! I just wanted to find out which charities you support or are involved in in any way. Hope thats not a weird question but we have some seriously amazing plans and we wanted to contact one of them and have a chat.
Cheers stephen
Luc (16) says:
January 28, 2010 at 12:18 amhey parko!
im from barcelona, Spain. i surf here when ever we get waves (mostly in winter) anyway im half south african and i go back to cape town every so many years to see my family.
i love all your vids you post on your website even if it has nothing to do with surf and your film `free as a dog`.i ride a quad fish 5`10 by mundaka surf co. and i was wondering if you could give me some tips as to balance and positioning when i try an air, because i cant land it yet. by the way i`v been surfing for 6 years now , to give you an idea, but you know how the mediteranian sea is, not very wavy…jaja.il buy one of your books as soon as it gets here in spain, its looks AMAZING!!
peace and love from barcelona
take care, Luc
Greedy says:
January 28, 2010 at 2:16 amlooks good mate… where the hell is that right in the middle row??????
Big Haydo says:
January 28, 2010 at 4:21 amFreakin sold… bring it out already!!
Damo says:
January 28, 2010 at 5:40 pmBetter have a signed copy of that waiting for me when I get to the Goldy.