Joel Parkinson Re-Signs With The Bong For Six Years

Joel Parkinson has been on the World Tour for 17 years and has been sporting Billabong upon his nose since he was 11-years old. Twenty-six years later, Parko has just re-signed the dotted line for a further six years with the Bong – icing on the cake after chipping into what many are describing as the best barrel ever ridden at Snapper Rocks. 

Parko won his maiden World Tour event at 18-years old, the Billabong Pro at J-Bay, making him the youngest surfer to ever win a Billabong event. He joined the World Tour full time in 2002 and then went on to win a further 11 tour events with his latest win being the Oakley Pro in Bali. 

A period in the early 10’s went by where a Joel Parkinson World Title seemed out of reach, after he just fell short of the top spot four times – 2002, 2004, 2009 and then in 2011. However, in 2012 one of the World’s most effortless surfers finally took home the World Title, redeeming his narrow Title loss to Kelly Slater in 2009.

And we’re certain he would have won more titles if only the judges realised the apparent effortlessness of Joel’s lines and turns wasn’t quite as easy as it appears.  

Now Parko is in the later years of his competitive career but he shows little sign of slowing down in the surfing department. He showed the entire CT schedule how to surf behind-the-rock Snapper in his Round 2 heat, he’d been driving through throttling Kirra tunnels over the Gita swell and just yesterday stood tall inside the largest Snapper tube to grace the sand-bottomed point. 

Parko will be a Billabong lifer and regardless of how long he wants to spend on the tour circuit we’ll be following his every step in and out of the jersey.