The Tap Is Back On At Snapper

Interview by Jed Smith

Seven days ago, Mitch Parkinson, Prince of the Parkinson dynasty (Daryl and Joel being the other two) told us the Superbank was the best he’d ever seen it. Well, another week, another swell, and the Superbank has churned to life once more. We needed to know just how good this run of swell has been (there’s barely been a flat day since late December last year) and whether the world’s most famous sand bar is gonna hold in for the Quik Pro (spoiler: probably not).

Stab: What’s going on up there? Looks like Groundhog Day?
Mitch: I was down in Newcastle yesterday for the contest (QS) so I missed the morning session. I was surfing a half a foot onshore closeout in the morning for my heat and that didn’t turn out so well for me so I jumped on a plane and came home and got barrelled. It was pretty pumping.

Throw the heat? (Laughter). Nah, I didn’t throw the heat.

What are we talking here, good as last week? Um… different. I guess a little bit bigger, maybe a little more people (laughter), but yeah, I guess it was good. We were all getting barrelled.

Photo sourced from Instagram: @monts_pix

This is some season you guys are having. Endless swells. Yeah, it’s been sick. I reckon I’ve only done a couple of turns this year (laughter). It’s just been perfect. Everyone’s been getting barrelled, everyone’s been smiling.

What sort of time are you putting in in an average session? Shit, when it’s pumping, you’re talking two to four hour sessions and by the end of it you’re just fucked. You surf as much as you can.

How do you get yourself up for day two, and three, and four? You wake up pretty tired, but then you get your coffee, have a look at the surf and see waves barrelling the whole way down and you don’t even feel tired anymore, you’re just sprinting out again.

According to the footage we’ve been seeing, Mick is reading it like brail… Yeah definitely, he’s the fucken guru out there. He’s got some sort of magic that goes on. He’s always in the best spot. He’s the guy out there at the moment for sure.

Joel Parkinson and Jay Phillips in position. Photo @juan_medina_jcm

Does anyone work up on the Gold Coast? I was asking that same question yesterday, like, holy shit, does anyone go to work? Then you look around at all the high rises and see how many fucken people can fit in here.

The Quik Pro is coming up. What should we be expecting? It depends if that bank stays here. It doesn’t look like it will. It might even be like last year. If the bank stays it will be incredible but we’ll see what that next swell does. It will probably get washed away. It doesn’t like it any bigger than five or six feet. This swell is chewing away at the bank already. There’s a hole behind the rock now but a couple days of pumping (sand) and it will be back.

Your favourite for the event given what you’ve seen these past few swells? If the waves are pumping it’s hard to go past Joel or Mick. Joel’s been getting crazy ones out here too. Fuck, if it’s pumping those boys are pretty much unbeatable.