Joel Parkinson

BASQUING IN IT

Mundaka today on the high tide... the bank is there, we just need some swell.

Drove down this morning from Hossegor and have just arrived in Mundaka. Sunday afternoon here and the bars down on the harbour were pretty well packed with local crew. I always love coming back to Mundaka… it’s such a pretty little place with all the cobblestone streets and bars.

Louie and I actually drove down during the week and had a little surf on the bank. Sagey gave us a call and told us there were waves so we decided to jump in the car and have a surf on the bank. It was only a couple of foot, but the bank here is about as good as I’ve ever seen it. The sand is unbelievable, so if we get any swell for the contest it’s going to be epic.

The waves this morning at Hossegor were the flattest I think I’ve ever seen it. There wasn’t even a little surge on the shorey, and it was pretty much the same when we got down to Mundaka. They’re calling for a little pulse of swell tomorrow so there’s a good chance we’re gonna run tomorrow, but we might be on the beachies instead of the rivermouth.

I’m feeling pretty psyched to get a result here. I’ve done all right here in the past and always feel comfortable here. I lost the final to CJ in the last 10 seconds last year, so I’d love to finally win this one. We’re starting to get into the home straight with the season so it’s getting interesting.

THE RED DIRT

Scoping out the world's best straighthander. //Frank

Just got back from chasing a swell up into The Desert. We scored. Drove up with Louie and Andy, and Occ flew in the day after we got there. It was so good to do that trip with a bunch of good mates, get away before the tour kicks off again.

I’ve been up there once before for four days with Jack shooting for Free As A Dog, stayed with George and Tracy Simpson up there. It’s not for every surfer on the planet, that trip. It’s for the surfer who wants to challenge themselves in the elements with no one around, big waves, just a few of the boys camping. I went five days without touching fresh water and just loved it. Just that style of roughing it, stinking of campfire smoke the whole time.

I love it that crew head up there for a month or six weeks and just live there between swells. I could see myself doing a month there easy. You know, you appreciate the little things when you’re up there camping. You surf two long sessions all day, and it’s not like you can go and sit down and have a pub meal and a schooner for dinner. I was that excited to sit down and have a cold beer from the esky as the sun went down because you realise how hard it is to lug everything there, bring the ice and pack the esky. You’ve got to earn everything up there. No free rides. You realise the value of things.

Eating is a huge part of life up there. I pride myself on good campfire eating and I tell you what, my campfire recipes were all time. The first night I cooked fish, steak, sausages, vegies and salad. Second night the same, then third night I did a tuna pasta with vegies and salad.

The right looked evil when we checked it. Ten foot closeouts. Andy was so keen to just throw himself into anything, and if he was going out there was no way that I wasn’t. And it was Occ’s birthday, so of course we went out and put on a show for him.

On the way home in the car just sitting in the back seat, Occ and Louie were in the front. I was just sitting there thinking as a kid how often I’d dreamed of doing a surf trip with those guys, my heroes, and here I was 10 years later sitting in the back seat with the two guys I’d watched on movies a thousand times. Like, how cool is this. We shot some epic footage on the trip, which is all going into Still Filthy. It’s kind of like the last footage they shot for it so it’s going to be a sick way to wrap it up.

The drive up there was long, but the drive home was longer. We did 12 hours in one hit. Punched it. I drove the whole way up there and drove the whole time we were up there. I did the first two hours coming back and I said, “I need out of this drivers’ seat.” I jumped in the back of Louie’s car, fell asleep, and I woke up 10 hours later outside the airport.

NORTHWEST X SOUTHEAST

You had time to make a cup of tea in some of these things. // Shorty

I got real emotional that day. Really deep and spiritual. I felt like Rasta with the dolphins. I came out of those tubes a better person… and hungry for another one. I was getting so into it. You could just stand there and let it all happen around you. You’ve got so much room and so much time in there. There’s times that day where I could have got deeper and been more in more critical spots, but I had so many that I was just standing there. The wind was coming up the face on that one and I just put my hand out in front of me to feel it. Totally at peace. It was just about the best day of waves I’ve ever had… and it was at home.

When I woke up that morning I didn’t have a clue we were going to get waves like that. We’d surfed five hours of perfect Kirra the day before and were pretty keen to back it up, but we didn’t have a clue what was coming. I knew it was big, that was all. It wasn’t dumb luck though that we got it on, we thought about it a bit. I woke up at 5am that morning and rang through and heard the wind was northwest up the coast, which is perfect for this place. Back in Cooly though the wind was southeast. I woke up and rang Louie and asked, “What’s happening? It’s south-east but it’s supposed to be north-west.” At my house it was just getting light and I could see to the south there were the biggest, darkest clouds, but when I looked to the north I could see this thin blue line on the horizon. That was the edge of the system, and on the other side the wind was northwest. I rang Deano and he was onto it, and I rang Louie and said we’re going. Louie had rang Mike Perry and asked, “What’s going on, is it north-west up there?” And he goes, “It’s north-west up there.” Louie’s at my place a few minutes later and we’re off.

It didn’t look real when we got there. It looked like this wave park, big peaks all over the place. It was a shifty lineup, but it was like towing into Sunset – big and slow moving, and you could position yourself really well. You could just line up the barrels and start toying with them because they were so perfect.

It’s a deepwater rivermouth, and there’s a really gnarly undercurrent. There’s so much water moving round out there. The river’s pouring out through there, and the water doesn’t stop moving. It’d be a really easy wave to drown on as I found out.

That was the hold down on the big throaty one. Shocked the shit out of me. Broke my board and I had a big cord and started climbing it. I was under for ages and it was that turbulent down there. I got to my board and it was broken and I reached out and grabbed the jagged broken fibreglass and just sliced up my hand, and then I went down again. I scrambled back up to the surface and got, like, a little pump breath in, just a quick one, and then the next one destroyed me. I had to just relax and let it do with me what it wanted. I came up from that one Louie was right there and he could see it I was fully spooked. I remember him yelling at me, “Take your leggie off!” I got on the sled seeing stars, and he got me out of the impact zone and into the channel. I was just drooling like a baby. I was still rattled. The thing cruelled me.

But I didn’t do a turn all day. Hang on, three cutbacks I did. We’d been out there since 7.30, and at about 11 I did my last turn. I went, we’re staying out here until the fuel runs out, so I wasn’t going for any manoeuvres to conserve energy. I shouldn’t have been out there on me 6’2” though. My board was humming. I needed a 6’6”, then I would’ve been back deeper in ‘em. My board wouldn’t go fast enough to get deep. Now looking back at the photos, I so should’ve been deeper. What was I doing? I shouldn’t complain though, should I? It was like a dreamscape… big and round and not that far from home.