📍Coolangatta QLD 4225, Australia
1992 – 2000“Joel Parkinson was born in Nambour, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, in April 1981, and started surfing as a small boy at Caloundra, on his father's board, quickly showing a natural, smooth style. He was winning junior contests on the Sunshine Coast from an early age, and the region still calls itself the place where it all started for him. When he was a boy, his family moved south to the Gold Coast, settling near Coolangatta and the long point breaks at the southern end of the coast, where Snapper Rocks, Rainbow Bay and Kirra produce some of the best waves in the world. There he met Mick Fanning and Dean Morrison, and the three became inseparable, surfing together every day and going to Palm Beach Currumbin State High School, and they became known as the Coolangatta Kids. Joel's effortless, flowing style made him the most naturally gifted of the three, and he won the ASP World Junior Championship. He qualified for the world tour, and after years of near misses, he won the world title in 2012 at Pipeline, winning the Pipe Masters on the same day. Known as Parko, he became one of the most stylish surfers of his generation, and the sultan of Snapper Rocks. He joined his old friends in the Gold Coast Sports Hall of Fame, and the southern Gold Coast remains his home break.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
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