Don’t Call it a Comeback: Joel Parkinson

Just over 4 months ago Joel Parkinson severely injured his heel while surfing at home in Australia and had his season literally cut short, less then a week before the Billabong Pro J-Bay was to start. In the time since his injury, he’s had surgery on his heel and has been working real hard to get back to competing with his friends and the rest of the world’s best.

Joel probably was feeling good enough to surf in the Rip Curl Pro Search Puerto Rico but with no chance at finishing high in the rankings this year, he made the right move to hold off and continue his recovery. One event he was not going to miss out on was the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. Being that Parko is the defending champion for the past two years, you know he wanted to be in top form for this event and try and make it 3 years in a row.

Well Parko is back and it’s like he’s never left. After a 4 month break, he let everyone know he hasn’t missed a beat when he opened up his first heat at the Reef Hawaiian Pro with a score of 19.87 out of a possible 20. That’s the highest score for that event ever. Joel scored a 9.87 and a perfect 10, both of which you can see in the video below.

“I couldn’t ask for a better place to come back after a long injury,” said Parkinson. “It’s a lot easier to surf when you have a wave that pushes you hard. It’s really hard to surf on small little waves so it feels really good to be back in Hawaii.”

“I didn’t hear till midway through the heat that I got a 10, and I was like, ‘I got a 10?’ I thought they might have misprinted the zero or something.

“For sure, I want to defend (the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing), but you have to take it heat by heat I guess. Wave by wave. The foot feels good. I didn’t think it was that good, but it feels good now.”

I’m glad to see Joel back in action and competing at 100%. It should make for a very interesting battle for the Triple Crown title.

The Reef Hawaiian Pro, which is the first event of three of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing had a lay day called yesterday but competition is on for today. When they do get started again, they will be running the Round of 32, where Parko will be in heat number 7 up against, Hawaiian’s Evan Valiere and Joel Centeio, and Brazilian Wiggolly Dantas.

You can keep up on the Vans Triple Crown at triplecrownofsurfing.com.

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