Joel Parkinson

OPEN MINDS, FREE SPIRITS

Parko on the wall bank at D-Bah. // shortyphotos.com

You finished runner-up in the world title last year and made the last two finals. Did you take a lot out of last year?

I guess, sure. You can only take confidence out of finishing second in the world. A world title is still my goal and I’m still right in the mix, and finishing runner-up I should take a lot of confidence out of that going into this year. And anything could happen now – that’s my attitude – anything could happen because it’s surfing after all.

Did we see the best of your surfing at the back end of last year?

There’s always room to improve your surfing but some of the best stuff happened when it became mathematically impossible for me to win the world title. The favourite parts of my surfing happened at the back end. My surfing at the back end of last year felt free spirited, felt so good, it felt kinda right. I’d been putting a lot of pressure on myself up till that point but as soon as it lifted my best surfing happened. I had an open-minded end of the year, and this year I’m going to take that attitude with me. It’s not like I’m going in totally unprepared – I’ve been doing a lot of work on my surfing – but I’m going into 2012 with an open mind.

Is all the hype being directed at the new generation of young guys on tour a blessing in disguise for older guys like yourself?

Absolutely. I’m sure it takes a lot of pressure off Kelly and the older established guys. Those young guys are unbelievable with what they’re doing and their surfing is worthy of the hype, but I’m happy for them to have it. I think we all went through that when we were younger, the whole hype thing it comes and goes, but I guarantee this year or next year the Medinas, the John Johns, the guys coming through like Yadin, they’ll break the top 10 and be there quite a while.

How is your surfing evolving to deal with those guys?

There are probably a few points in my surfing that are still evolving, my aerials I suppose, but the thing is everyone has their strength and weaknesses and that’s the beauty of the mix of guys on tour. I think with the waves we’ll get on the tour this year, the stops we have, we might see some of the young guys discover they have a few weaknesses at certain places. Those guys are pretty good all round, but when you go to a new break you’ve got to get your head around it, and we haven’t seen either John John or Medina at the start of the year yet so it’s a little uncharted for them. J-Bay, Bells, we haven’t seen them there yet. Tahiti, Fiji, you know John John will probably be really good there. But it’s till their first time surfing an event there and you have to learn the wave while surfing it in a heat which is a different thing altogether.

Are you predicting a tough year for the judges?

For sure. I would have hated to be a judge down at the Australian Open at Manly. That was a really hard event to judge; it was tiny and every wave guys were throwing air reverses. It was hard to pick what air reverse was better than the other. This year on tour the judges will have it a bit easier at places like Cloudbreak and where good surfing wins heats and it’s pretty easy to say what that is, but at beachbreaks when it’s smaller and the surfing tightens up and there are more tricks and airs they’ll have to really have it sorted out, because sorting one air from another becomes really technical.

For the first time in a long time there is no clear world title favourite. Would you agree?

Definitely. There are guys who aren’t being talked about that much. Everyone talks about Kelly and some of the younger guys, but everyone seems to have forgotten about Jordy Smith in that equation. Jordy is a dark horse. A lot of people are talking about Owen because he went from strength to strength last year. He will be up there, and Julian Wilson is surfing amazingly and the thing is he really wants it. You can tell. And then you have the usual suspects. Mick has been training really hard and surfing really hard, and I’m sure Taj’s name should be in there too.

Does the world title keep you awake at night like it used to?

I sleep like a baby. I sleep fine. If the world title happens, it happens. If I’d never have given it my all I’d definitely be thinking about it too much, but over the past three years I’ve given it everything I’ve had and that’s all I can do. World title or not I sleep fine… unless the kids wake me up.

And the one big change to your regime this year is no Luke Egan on tour with you as coach.

Louie has given me so many awesome insights over those three years, so much knowledge and so many good ideas. He’s got so much confidence and insight into me and my equipment, what I can ride and when I should be riding it and what works for me. But I’ve got all that stuff in my black book now, all the stuff he’s shown me and we’ve worked on, so while I owe him a big debt of gratitude I reckon I’m ready to go out there on my own and see how I go.

Have you tweaked your boards at all for 2012? Anything radically different?

At Manly I was riding this little JS Rock ‘n’ Roll model with a little swallowtail. He shaped one for himself six months ago and I stole that off him and loved it, and he’s developed that board to the point where I can surf it in heats if the waves are small and fun. I prefer to ride a normal shortboard in perfect six foot waves, but we’re going to get heats this year where the surf might be pretty average so I know I’ve got a really good groveller if that happens.

You mentioned the intensity of the past three years and how hard you’ve gone at the world title, and you mentioned how liberating it was at the back end of last year once that world title dream was gone. How much of that mindset are you taking into this year?

I just don’t want to go back into how hard I was training there for a while. Some weeks I was training more than I was surfing, and this year I’ve tried to flick the switch and swap them around and do a lot more surfing. I probably won’t go into the new season with exactly the same headspace I had at the back end of last year – I want to surf smart and I don’t want to be blasé about it – but I definitely want to take some of that freedom I had late last year and channel it.

And onto Snapper, you’ve hardly surfed there at all over summer because there’s been no sand. What are your thoughts on what we’ll see there later this week?

There’s been no sand at Snapper at all, but a week is a pretty long time out there when they start pumping. There are little waves there but I can’t see it being epic Snapper. A week out it needs a lot of help. But D-Bah has a great bank on the wall and that’s pretty much where I’ve surfed all summer, but in a perfect world I’d love to see a big six foot east swell and have the contest down at Kirra like we did down in ‘09. If we got a good day down there it’d be amazing.

What do you think Kelly will do this year? Have you thought about it?

No, not really. He’ll surf at Snapper but beyond that who knows. It’s always good to have him there, but if he decides to walk away I’m sure he’s going to find some good waves somewhere else.

And Dane’s got the wildcard at Snapper.

He’s by far the most exciting surfer in the world right now and I’m really interested to see how his surfing has evolved in the past year because we haven’t seen that much of him. I just hope he doesn’t evolve too much in a heat against me like he did last time.

If you could surf a man-on-man heat at Snapper with one guy on tour, who would it be?

I’d love to have a heat with Kelly. I’ve never surfed a heat against him at Snapper. I surfed against him at Burleigh once but I’ve never surfed man-on-man with him at Snapper, so that’d be cool.

And give me the name of one guy who will surprise us on tour this year.

Brett Simpson. I really like the way he surfs and he’s hard to beat. It took him a year or two to mature into the tour, but he looked great at stages last year and I’m interested to see how he goes this year.

JOEL’S J-BAY INTERVIEW

Joel's last taste of J-Bay two years ago was a good one. //Shorty

Talk to me about the contrast between how you feel today, getting on a plane to J-Bay, and how you were feeling 12 months ago sitting on your lounge with a few dozen stitches in your foot?

My mind is pretty much the same – I think I dealt with the disappointment of the injury pretty well – but at least I’ve got a foot that’s not in two pieces. I’m so excited to go to J-Bay. I’ve wrapped myself in cotton wool this week and made sure I didn’t do a repeat of last year and got on that plane healthy.

Does it seem like 12 months ago since the injury?

Not really. I mean everything still feels kinda fresh for me, but so much has happened since then. It doesn’t feel like that long ago, but when you look back and realise what’s gone down since, there’s a bit in there.

How has your seven-week holiday from pro surfing treated you?

Awesome. I went to Bali for a Billabong boardshort shoot and got some amazing waves at Deserts, and I’ve just had an amazing week in Fiji. I had really nice Cloudbreak two days of epic waves, then the rest of the time just cruising and relaxing and enjoying island life with the family before I got stuck into 10 days of training at home getting ready for J-Bay and the rest of the year.

So your backhand tuberiding is probably going okay after Fiji, how are you going on your forehand?

I’ve gone right enough in my life for that to always be there. My backhand tuberiding is the one I love working on.

What’s the one thing you’re most looking forward to at J-Bay?

Everything. After two years everything about J-Bay excites me, but the one that’s in the forefront of my mind is that wave. I’m so excited about getting there and surfing that wave again after two years away. So excited, just the sensation of going so fast. My first wave when I get there I’ll probably just fly along it without doing a turn and just soak it all up. I‘m really excited about going back to J-Bay, but feeling really relaxed about going there at the same time, if that makes sense. Once you get there the whole vibe of J-Bay will take the edge off it and relax me.

Is surfing J-Bay instinct for you now after doing it for so long?

I guess so. The more you can rely on instinct out there and let the natural stuff take over, the better it is for your surfing. Better for me anyway. Trying to force something for me doesn’t work out there. It takes a little bit more time at J-Bay to assess the day – the direction of swell, the break between sets, which waves are hitting the reef just right – all those little things. But once you know in your head, which waves are the better ones, when you find the wave you want you can just go with it. Where you do your turns is the most crucial thing with J-Bay. Too early and the wave will take off without you. You just really need to be in a rhythm with that wave to surf it well.

What kind of surfing will win J-Bay?

That depends on the conditions, but in pumping J-Bay full rail surfing and monster turns with a couple of barrels will usually do the trick.

Given you’ve won here twice, how important is a result here at J-Bay for you?

I guess it is. We’ve had a break, we’ve had a bit of time off, and so it feels like we’ve just come out for the second half. No one can say they’ve got momentum. You haven’t surfed a heat in months and your mind drifts away from competitiveness when you have seven weeks off, so you have to get back in that zone and in that routine of getting ready for your heat and building that confidence again.

And there are a few unknowns at the back end of year.

I guess so, definitely. New York, I suppose you can prepare yourself for some pretty small beachbreak stuff. You never know, it might get some waves but from what I’ve heard it’s going to be pretty hard to run a good contest up there. You might have some moments, but all up it mightn’t be so good. San Francisco I have no real idea. I’ve heard it can get okay. I’m not sure what we’re going to get at either, but the one thing I know is that we’re all in it together. If it’s ordinary we’re all surfing the same thing. It will be one of those things that whoever adapts to what we get the quickest will win.

Looking at the ratings at the moment, do they mean anything to you? Guys like Taj and Mick have surfed as good as they can at certain stages but sit fourth and eighth. Do you give any weight to the ratings going into J-Bay?

Not so much. I think Adriano has been surfing out of his skin this year, but I think Taj has probably been the best surfer in the world with Mick not far behind, but their results haven’t been there and so they’re not up there. But there’s no point in looking at the ratings right now. Once the routine kicks in and these back-to-back events start to go down, that’s when you’ll see some shuffling and you’ll see who’s going to make a challenge. They’ll be worth a look then.

BUSINESS TIME

Joel, wallet-dropping at D-Bah last week. //swilly.com.au

A good result for you yesterday at Burleigh? [Joel finished second to Taj Burrow in the Breaka Burleigh WQS event]

Yeah, for sure. It was the first time I’d entered the Burleigh contest and I did it for a little warm-up, to get the gears moving. I just wanted to surf a few heats, and to make the final was a bonus. We saw last year how Taj won at Burleigh and used it as a momentum builder for the Quikky, so hopefully I tap into that kind of feeling.

And you’d surfed a couple of good heats the weekend before when Snapper won the Kirra Teams title?

That was so much fun. It’s a lot of pot luck that event; you need your whole team to surf well, there are a lot of heats, you need a lot of heat wins. It was really well done by the Snapper boys. They’re always tight those teams events, and it came down to Clipper [Clint Kimmins] needing to win the last heat, which he did. You know what, I feel more pressure surfing for Snapper in those events than I ever do in a World Tour event because the club is so strong and has such a great record. I always remember growing up, Jay Phillips was the anchorman for the club and he never let the club down. He always performed and gave everything for the club and I try and hold myself to that standard.

How do you feel now about having to sit out last year with the foot injury?

I guess the benefit now is that I’m hungry; not only to compete, but just to surf. That’s one of the key things with surfing on the tour; you’ve got to not only stay hungry to surf throughout a whole event, you’ve got to stay hungry over the course of a whole year. The way I’m feeling at the moment, I’m going to paddle out for my last heat of the year at Pipe even hungrier than I was when I paddled out for my first heat at Snapper. That’s how I’m feeling, that’s how hungry I am to surf right now. And the thing now is that I’ve got three kids, so it’s not like I can go surfing five times a day, I’ve got to pick and choose my windows to surf in and I have to make the most of them.

After the injuries of the past two years do you feel your luck can’t get any worse?

I guess so. There’s always something that could be worse, I suppose. There’s always somebody worse off. I had a couple of injuries that meant I couldn’t go surfing, and compared to what some people have to face in their lives it was nothing really. Being the glass half full guy that I am I feel like there’s always someone worse off than me and I’m not about to start dwelling on how unlucky I am. I didn’t have a great run and I’m feeling things can only get better.

How’s your training regime been going?

It’s good. I’m feeling strong. I just got over the mountain, literally, and we’re on the downhill run into Snapper, tapering off toward the Quikky Pro. With 10 days to go we’re lightening my training up a bit. I’m not getting out of bed feeling sore from the day before, I’m waking up strong and full of energy. I’ve punished myself enough so I get the benefit of it now.

And you’ve been swimming some big laps out through the Tweed Bar. [Joel was a passenger on a fishing boat that recently capsized on the Tweed Bar].

[Laughing] Yeah, been doing a bit of ocean swimming. I’d been doing a lot of breath holding work in the pool with Wes and it came in really handy when we rolled the boat and I had to start diving underwater salvaging all the gear.

Could have been worse, I suppose, you could have swum in from Nine Mile? [The week before the interview a fisherman had swum in from Nine Mile reef off Coolangatta after his boat capsized]

I know. That wouldn’t have been fun. I’ve spent some time in the water out there at Nine Mile, surfing, and it’s not the kind of place you’d want to be swimming. It’s four or five miles out to sea and there are some big fish out there. Dangling on the end of a rope towing in out there is one of the eeriest feelings I’ve ever experienced. Surfing it was spooky enough, so I can’t imagine what was going through that guys head when he had to swim to shore.

Let’s talk about your surfing.

I’ve been surfing a lot and I’m feeling really strong when I do. I went on a trip with Mick and Koby [Fanning, Abberton] down to South Oz last week, which was great. Had some fun waves and met some cool people down there. The waves haven’t been great at home – I missed that one day at Kirra – but they’ve been consistent and I’ve been surfing every day.

How important is this first event in terms of your season?

Really important. There’s always a lot of hoo-hah about whoever wins the first event – they somehow always become the world title favourite – but for me it’s more about putting in a solid showing. If I surf well and feel like I’m going to be able to keep surfing well then that’s a victory to me. This event is one of my strengths though, and a win here would be a win I wouldn’t need to desperately chase at the end of the year.

Speaking of the schedule, the tour is going to be pretty frenetic in the back half of the year. It’s basically six events back-to-back.

I was looking at it the other day and the back half of the year is going to be full-on. And it seems like we’ve dropped a few good waves for some beachbreaks, the old Dream Tour is getting a few bums on seats again. I remember back to my first year on tour [2001] when it was one epic wave after the next – Fiji, Tahiti, J-Bay, Mundaka – it was the ultimate Dream Tour. But it’s also good to go to new places; it keeps things fresh.

In terms of your career, how important is this season?

It’s a big year for me, for sure. I turn 30 pretty soon. After what’s happened over the past couple of years, after the injuries and disappointments, if I can surf every event this year at 100 per cent fitness I’d consider that a victory in itself. And if I can do that I’m confident I’m going to be challenging. But I don’t dwell on what’s happened to me. I’ve learned to just worry about the 30 minutes of the next heat in front of me. It doesn’t even matter who I’m surfing against, doesn’t matter what happened last year, doesn’t matter that I’m turning 30. It’s all about those next 30 minutes. Then it’s all about stringing a lot of good 30 minutes together.

Who do you think will be challenging for the world title this year?

I think Jordy will be a lot more mature in the way he surfs heats, just on the back of the confidence he’ll take from last year. He’s an amazing surfer and he put together a really good season last year. And Mick’s surfing on the trip we just did blew me away. You can see he’s been working pretty hard on big airs and stuff the judges will really notice.

You got anything new in your repertoire to spice it up?

[Laughing] I’ve been doing some amazing nosedives and I’ve got a new bog rail I’m going to debut at Snapper.

Do you feel more pressure surfing your home event?

I used to, for sure. It used to eat me up, but now I just enjoy it more. I’ve learned to enjoy it and not feel the pressure. It’s actually easier, I’ve learned. I know how to duck and weave around the back streets and keep a low profile. Stay out of the limelight and really concentrate on what it’s all about.

How’s the bank at Snapper?

At the moment, shit. They’ve been pumping apparently at night, but I’m not really seeing it. The current is supposed to go southerly today and tomorrow; there won’t be many waves out of it but there’ll be a swing in the current to bring the sand around the point. They can pump enough sand, they can pump a heavy sand mix and bring enough sand around, they just need the current to do it. In 48 hours you can have a bank. I’ve seen it before; you’re looking behind the rock one day and it’s deep enough to fish in, the next day you’re getting barreled there.

STAYING UP IN THE DOWNTIME

Job's back on. //Swilly

Even the clichés have taken a break.

Gauging how absorbed a pro surfer is in The Game can usually be measured by talk of sprints and marathons. Talk of one heat at a time. Talk of the opposition knowing every grain of sand out there. Truth guarded and refreshing honesty hidden behind game-faces. But for all involved, right now the tour and its attendant hyperbole is a million miles away.

“Sweet f*ck all,” states Joel Parkinson of what’s been up to lately at home in Coolangatta. It’s the longest unbroken stretch of home-time Joel has had in a decade. There’s no talk of training. No talk of boards. No talk of the next contest. Instead there is talk of children’s parties, football games, and his long-held goal of one day dropping daughter Evie at school by paddling her across the river on his paddleboard.

The pro tour has gone into hibernation. The Tahiti event moving from its traditional window in early May to the end of August in search of better swell has created a 10-week black hole. A mid-season break longer than the entire off-season. The tour bus that had been travelling at a hundred clicks an hour has suddenly ground to a halt, and surfers have had to formulate strategic plans around doing nothing. The more cynical amongst you who consider the life of a pro surfer tantamount to a holiday at the best of times aren’t going to like what comes next.

“I’ve had two weeks of, hang on… [yawning at 3pm]… not much I suppose. I’ve been surfing on little fishes, hanging at the beach and the surf club. Just cruising. Haven’t been training, haven’t been surfing my contest boards. It’s been awesome not doing any of that. Just be a family man, be a dad, do the school runs every day. I’m picking Macy up from kindy right now.” The weather and waves have fallen into place; the kinetic summer long gone, replaced by lazy lines, balmy days, empty car parks. The only 12-hour days going down around here are all in the water.

After dropping the kids off at school, Joel’s daily ritual has only really extended to driving down to check Snapper. “It’s been so fun every day. It’s a phenomenal bank. At two foot it’s the best I’ve ever seen it, the best two-foot pointbreak in the world. The other day it was waist-high and too small to get barrelled, so I grabbed a boogieboard and got an eight-second tube out there. No shit. It’s been so much fun. The kids have been all over it. Jagger Bartholomew, Sunny Cohen, and Luka Stevenson, all these kids are on fire. It’s like what surfing Snapper in 2020 is going to be like.”

The break has also allowed normal transmission to resume with Mick Fanning, who’s also been at home for the best part of a month. After spending the back end of last year trying to avoid each other while duking out the world title, the two have been living in each other’s back pockets lately. “He faded me,” barks Joel of the wave he and Mick split at Snapper last week. “Don’t believe him if he tells you otherwise. I was riding his board, trying to fit into the same small barrel. It was such a fun little surf.”

The pair has even been daytripping down the coast together, invoking teenage days when Joel’s Commodore Vacationer with the leopard skin seat covers would be piled full of boards and blackguards and pointed south. “Yeah, it was kind of like the old days; me, Mick and Shags in the car going down the coast. We used to do a lot of trips down the coast in the old days, but in the past few years we’ve been so busy that we never have time to go down there,” recalls Joel. “It’s such a full day, you leave at 4am and get home at six that night. But we had a ball down there, got some really fun waves, got bogged. It seems like when we get together like that something hilarious happens.” The fact this time it was only Joel’s car bogged in the sand and not Mick’s ski being washed onto the rocks, as has happened during previous incursions, saw them drive home laughing instead of trying to get their stories straight for the insurance assessor. They even ran into Big Artie Beetson while getting a feed on the way home, the chance meeting with the walking headland of a man proving a good omen for Joel’s Queenslanders, who would go on to win the first State of Origin game two days later.

But while the surfers have had a break from clichés, rust never sleeps for surf writers. This 10-week spell is a false dawn, the calm before the storm if you like. The back end of the season is going to be frenetic; five events back-to-back between Tahiti and Puerto Rico where the world title will be won and lost. “It’s a hard year to prepare for,” says Joel. “It’s been so stop/start. If this was last year, my roll would have stopped after three events because the events stopped. This year no one will have any momentum coming into J-Bay. It’ll be like the first event of the season all over again. So I figure it’s the time to recharge the batteries now. With a break like this you’ve got to take it slow. You can’t rush into it and surf yourself stupid. You’ve got to have a program for your holiday. J-Bay’s not so far away I guess, eh?” I tell him it’s in six weeks. “I’m back training soon, doing a lot of paddling, back on my normal shortboards. I’m surfing my normal 6’1” this arvo. Then I’m off to Bali next week and I’ll be starting to fine tune. Come J-Bay you want to still be eager to surf and in good form. You don’t want to have surfed yourself into the ground in the break.”

Although Mick and Joel are currently holding down fourth and eighth places respectively on the ratings, neither seem too perturbed. As both found out last year, it’s momentum at the right time that wins world titles. “I think I’m in a pretty good spot,” says Joel. “I’ve had two decent results, and it’s the guys who get on a roll at the back end of the year who will fight it out. It’s all a matter of timing.”

“It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” says Joel.

Clock punched. Job on.

[For video from the boys trip down the coast click here, and for more photos from Joel and Mick's trip down the coast check out next month's issue of Tracks]

[Show as slideshow]

THE NUMBERS

Career win number seven, Kirra '09. //Shorty

To alleviate the boredom while we wait for something to happen at Haleiwa, here are the digits on Joel’s career so far. Thanks to our mate Mike Newman at RAS Sports for crunching them.

Debut// ’99 (Wildcard), ’01 (WCT)

Events// 92

Heats//349

Wins// 235

Win ratio// 67.34%

Quarters// 44

Semis// 26

Finals// 16

Wins// 9

Events per win//10.22

Favourite colour// Fuschia