Fast Facts
- Resides: Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
- Born: April 10, 1981
- Height: 1.83 m
- Weight: 80 kg
World Tour Victories
- 1999 / Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay
- 2002 / Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast
- 2002 / Rip Curl Cup, Sunset Beach
- 2004 / Rip Curl Pro, Bells Beach
- 2004 / Boost Mobile Pro, Trestles
- 2006 / Quiksilver Pro France, Hossegor
- 2009 / Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast
- 2009 / Rip Curl Pro, Bells Beach
- 2009 / Billabong Pro Jeffreys Bay
- 2011 / Rip Curl Pro, Bells Beach
- 2012 / Billabong Pipeline Masters
- 2013 / Oakley Pro Bali
Sponsors
- Billabong
- JS Industries
- VonZipper
- Surf Dive 'n' Ski
- Da Kine
- Toyota
- Subway Surf Series
You get the feeling that every day is the best day of Joel Parkinson's life.
But while its Joel's sublime surfing talent that has taken him around the globe chasing perfect waves, it's his laidback groove that has seen him build a small army of friends and fans along the way. Always the lovable larrikin, Joel is simply a fun guy to hang around. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Monica, they were soon joined by two daughters, Evie and Macy, and their young bloke, Mahli, and the Parkinsons today travel the world together as a family as Dad chases the dream.
Parko's story is a sporting classic.
It's July 1999, and an 18-year-old kid from the Gold Coast is about to re-write surfing history on the hallowed walls of Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa. After scoring a wildcard start in the Billabong Pro, teenager from Coolangatta paddles out against the world's best surfers and proceeds to systematically dismantle them. He doesn't even really seem to be trying that hard, he's just doing what he does. The accidental prodigy wins the contest in a canter and a disbelieving surfing world has just been introduced to a kid known as "Parko".
Today, Parko remains for many the most naturally gifted surfer on the planet. The Gold Coaster possesses a smooth, hypnotic style that almost disguises just how seismic his surfing really is. His act is the product of some good surfing DNA, and a childhood spent surfing some of the finest pointbreaks on the planet. But in recent years however Joel has also become one of professional surfing's fittest, most dedicated athletes.
In surfing he's done the lot. He's won 12 world tour events at iconic waves like Pipeline, Sunset Beach, Jeffreys Bay, Bells Beach and California, in Bali and at his home break of Snapper Rocks. He's surfed perfect heats at Pipeline and J-Bay and Keramas. He's made the ASP/WSL Top 5 on nine occasions. He's won the Hawaiian Triple Crown three times in a row, featured in dozens of surf movies, had surf mag covers coming out the wazoo and had a million words written about him, almost every one of them glowing.
In a career where he'd pretty much done everything else, there was only one mountain left to climb - the world title.