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PLANNING STAGES
Mick and Joel Reunite for the First Time in Seven Years on a Surf Trip with Their Mates.

by
Sean Doherty

It’s a still Tuesday morning, a degree-and-a-half south of the equator. Onboard the Mangalui Ndulu Joel Parkinson and Dean Morrison watch Mick Fanning making do with some lazy 2 footers at Macaronis. For the once-inseparable Coolangatta trio, it’s their first boat trip together since their teenage years. It’s the first time they’ve been able to clear their heads and catch up on life with each other, not to mention brainstorm for their upcoming roles as guest editors. To get the stories flowing, the boys were each given carte blanche to bring a mate along. Whoever the hell they wanted. Being that their mates define these guys, it’s not unusual for the boys to drag friends around the world on surf trips, often paying their way.

Parko has brought along his brother-in-law, Matt Skene. “Big Rocks” resembles a bleached, scaled-down Schwarzenegger, but, according to Parko, is more a “big poof-poof bear.” Marrying sisters brought the two together, but you get the feeling they may have gravitated toward each other. “The good thing about Joel,” says Skeney, “is if you’re a mate of Joel, you’re a mate for life.”

Mick has brought along an old flatmate, Dan Holt. It matters little that Holty mows lawns for a living these days while Mick is assembling a small empire on the back of his surfing. Whenever these guys hang out it’s 1997 all over again. They spend an hour that afternoon wrestling on the deck of the boat, eye gouging, punching each other, laughing hysterically like grommets.

FAMILY
Reflections by Joel and Mick

From Joel:
I was really fortunate to have a dad and uncles that surfed when I was growing up. There was never a question of whether I’d be a surfer or not. It’s amazing how much more I appreciate my upbringing now that I’ve got my own family. With two little ones I definitely don’t take anything for granted anymore, especially my surfs.

From Mick:

The tour is filled with 48 egos, and at the end of the day I’m just another one of them. It’s nice to be able to shed that part of my life whenever I can. That’s what home and family does for me.

COHORTS

by
Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson

Become one of the best surfers in the world and in addition to all of the perks you’ve got to deal with a whole new core of people wanting a piece of you at every turn. That’s when your everyday friends prove to be more valuable than ever—people who knew you when you were nothing, people who keep you grounded day to day, even some of those people who will be there when nobody else will be. For Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson, some are the mates they grew up with, others are friends they roll with on the world tour, and then there’re always the boys back home. Ultimately, these are their cohorts, and they’re irreplaceable. The following is some of their thoughts on some friends of theirs that you might be familiar with.

QANTAS FEVER

by
Dave Parmenter

Every year around the first of March my friends and I experience something I call a “Qantas moment” while driving the windblown coast of California. Realizing that the springtime surf will get steadily worse while in the budding Australian autumn it will only get better and better, I find myself struggling against an overwhelming impulse to drive on the left and call the postman “mate.” I succumb to the urge to refer to a surfing competition as a “connest” and baffle the delicatessen staff by ordering a “sanger” in my private reverie daydreaming about the Lucky Country.