This was a time when the waves at Cloudbreak and Restaurants were still exclusive to guests at Tavarua. A rowdy crew from Manhattan Beach, California, had their week-long spot on the island for years – still do. I earned their trust, and they always gave me two spots to bring a couple of pro’s who would fit in and not hog waves in the lineup. Parko was a hit, and they wanted him back every year. He could party with the best of them, but when the surf was good, he was on it. (On a side note, fishing is one thing that might sometimes have priority over surfing for Parko. One year Parko famously missed his Fiji Pro opening round heat at Cloudbreak as he didn’t think it would run and was on an overnight fishing trip).

This particular year he came with his childhood friend, Serena Brooke. Nothing too noteworthy about this late afternoon portrait except Parko’s youthful grin and the colourful portrait of Ben Harper with the words ‘Let us burn one from end to end. Then pass it over to me my friend’ on his board.

The tilted carve went down one morning when the surf was not particularly good, so I decided to shoot tight and put more emphasis on Parko’s incredible style as opposed to the wave quality. 

Joel broke both the boards he brought out for the morning sesh, so he borrowed a board from one of the boatmen, which happened to have Joel’s main sponsor logo on it. Anyways, the photo was a hit and ‘Surfer Magazine’ let us know they wanted to run it big. When Joel found out, he was adamant he didn’t want it published as most of his sponsor logos were not on the borrowed board and he ...