Posted in Photos, World Tour
Team Parko planning an assault on Trestles... and an assault on several local burger chains. //Breeza
Your feelings being back in California?
I just feel like it’s the start of a huge leg, the start of something big. Like, the end of the four-event leg in Portugal is only five weeks down the track, but it seems so far away. The travelling part of the next few weeks I’m not looking to so much, but the contests themselves I’m excited about. Actually surfing heats and the chance to get good waves and compete, that’s what I get excited about. It’s time to work. But we always have a really good time with the kids and the family on this leg. I had my first In And Out burger yesterday, which is always my Californian highlight. Got my fix. I like California. It’s really easy to live here, everything’s available. It’s the freedom man.
So the Parkinson tribe is travelling you for the rest of the year?
One in, all in now, mate. I did so much time away at the start of the year that from now on it will be one Parkinson in, all in.
How’s the past three weeks at home been?
The waves have been flat at home so I haven’t surfed too much, and I didn’t want to travel and chase waves cause I’m going to be doing enough travelling in the next couple of months. I just got my ankle right and had a big recharge. The way I see it I get home from Portugal then we have two weeks then it’s straight into Hawaii, so I see it as all one long haul and I wanted to be ready for it. I’ve been doing a lot of gym time… oh, and Wes taught me how to swim. Believe it or not at 28 years of age I was doing swimming lessons. This time last year Wes taught me how to run long distances – how to break them down to small goals. And then he always said he was going to teach me how to swim. I’ve always been able to get myself out of the impact zone at 10 foot Sunset, but I thrash like a tiger shark. My stroke is terrible. My strokes still terrible, but it’s a hundred percent better than it was. I don’t breathe like a guppy now and I don’t thrash and I have a lot better stroke now. I can’t wait to get home and do more. It’s a pretty boring sport. It’s ridiculously boring, but you do feel amazing after a pool session, your lungs and your whole body just buzz.
During contests you’re really conscious of how your energy ebbs and flows between heats, between days. Do you have try and manage your energy in bigger blocks, like weeks? Do you give yourself slow weeks when you’re at home?
Physically, not really. I’m almost the opposite. Emotionally, yes. I’m recharging. I try and avoid doing things that are too draining on me and my time, I just try and do the stuff I like doing. Those three weeks were all about family, surfing and training and that’s about it. Emotionally, what’s coming up is going to be pretty draining, so I want to make sure I don’t feel drained before it even starts. Physically, whatever happens in the next few weeks will be nowhere near as hard as what I’ve done over the past few weeks. I’d rather do the hard work away from the event.
You’re one of the few high profile guys who hasn’t said anything publicly about the proposed Champions Tour. Nothing turn up in the mail?
I’m just worrying about the tour I’m on right now. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know the guys who are trying to do it and they’ve had no contact with me. I’m just worrying about the tour I’m on right now, not next year’s. But I actually think the ASP is doing a pretty good job. In every sport there are things you can work on, but I think it’s moving forward, I just think the wheels have been moving a little slowly over the past few years and that’s probably what has fired up the idea for a new tour. But I think the wheels are starting to move a little faster with the ASP as a result. It’s hard to bring in a new tour when the current one goes to all the best locations in the prime windows. I’m not sure how that could be matched in a six month tour. I think you need all four seasons in surfing and you need the northern and southern hemispheres to get a full year and get the right waves. In theory it’d be unreal to surf for six months then have six months off, but it’s not going to happen. You’d sacrifice so many good waves.
A hundred grand first prize for Lowers.
A hundred grand for Lowers, eh? I didn’t know. That’d be nice. How many In And Out burgers could you buy with that? I’d take the points over the money at the moment though.
Your thoughts on Trestles, the wave?
It’s a good wave. When it’s proper good and glassy it’s a really high performance wave. It’s a really easy wave to surf; its soft and easy to destroy. Its not like a French beachbreak or a Bells where you’re hanging on by your toes to get through turns and anything can happen with a wobble or backwash. Trestles is mechanical, it’s like a skate park. It’s an easy wave to throw your fins out the back. The swell looks like it might be pretty small though, with maybe something at the end of the waiting period. I’ve done well here in the past, won here in 2004, and if you’ve had success in an event you’ve always got it in the back of your mind that you’re a chance to do well there again.
Looked at a ratings sheet?
Nup. I haven’t looked at one, haven’t looked at one scenario. I’ve had two people tell me this and that, and I wish they’d never said it. I wished they’d left it alone. They told me I need this and that and it’s done, but for me the world title is all the way to Pipe. Till the fat lady sings. Anything’s possible, and that’s the way I’m thinking.
Anyone in particular you’re keeping an eye on?
For sure, and he’s already won one this year and he’s won here before. Everyone knows who he is. But Trestles can be a pretty open event and throw up a winner from leftfield, especially if it stays small, so there’ll be no easy heats.
