Joel Parkinson, Kelly Slater next two greats to wave goodbye to world surf tour
RETIRING world champion Joel Parkinson has revealed what he is most looking forward to post his competitive surfing career and it’s very different from being a top athlete on the world sporting stage.
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AS surfing great Kelly Slater prepares to join him in competitive retirement, former world champion Joel Parkinson said what he is most looking forward to post his world tour career is being a normal bloke and dad.
Father-of-three Parkinson, whose retirement announcement triggered Kelly Slater to confirm he will hang up his leash at the end of 2019, said he realised this year his teenage daughter had never spent an Easter at home due to his annual commitment to surfing the Rip Curl Pro Bells
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“My daughter (Evie) is 14 and has never spent an Easter at home. I want those things. I want those things for her,” said Parkinson, dubbed the “surfer’s surfer” for his style and technique, and who will bow out of the sport at the Pipe Masters in December.
“I might put some dust on my travel bag.
“This is a dream job, travelling the world, doing what you love. But sometime it doesn’t feel like reality because are living the dream.
“I just want to be a normal bloke, a normal dad.”
Parkinson identified his greatest moment on the world tour as when he realised a childhood dream — taking on the GOAT and beating him at Pipeline.
“That’s an easy one. My best ever moment was winning the world title at the Pipe Masters in the showdown with Kelly Slater,” Parkinson said. “It was one of the greatest things ever.
“I dreamt of it as a kid. Kelly was my idol. To have that showdown against him. That’s was a dream.”
Parkinson said he knew earlier this year the time was right to retire from the competitive arena but wanted to “let a little water go under the bridge” between his and Fanning’s retirement announcement.
“But it was hard at Bells Beach (Fanning’s final event) knowing I would never get back there as a competitor, walk up those stairs again. It was sad,’’ he said.
“It’s nice to know that from now on every time I compete I will be able to thank all my friends, all the people who have been with along the way.”
Just hours after Parkinson revealed he would retire from the world tour at the venue where he won his crown in 2012, Slater said he would do the same — but only after at least another year on the world tour — with his last hurrah planned for Pipeline in December 2019.
“My basic plan is to get myself really healthy, again, and get ready for April next year. And next year will be my last year on tour – and just be done with it,” said Slater, 46, to commentators at the J-Bay Open.
Slater won the first of his 11 world crowns at age 20 and the last at 39.