Little cousin parko
Meet Joel Parkinson's little cousin Mitchell, next in line to take the Australian surfing throne.
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"Oi Burkey," shouted a raspy voice more accustomed to an habitual Marlboro Red smoker, "lend me a dollar. I would if I was a millionaire."
The irony was that this little bugger is more than likely going to be one than me. Whether it be using his impressive genes lineage to become a pro surfer; his glowing charisma as a game show host or simply hard graft as a tradesman, the cocky thirteen-year-old that is Mitchell Parkinson is sure to have his name in lights one day.
"We are off to Lenox Head all the way along the coast to Ulladula in the Billabong bus tomorrow, then dad and I are off to Indonesia for six weeks," he tells me from the car park of Duranbah beach. Just before jealousy sets in he ends with "oh, and at the end of the year I am going to Hawaii for ten days!"
But you would be hard pressed to go a day without seeing Mitty, as he is known affectionately around the beaches of Coolangatta on Australia's Gold Coast, in the line up. He claims to have spent a solid five years of his life down at the beach. And with a name like Parkinson - think World Championship Tour surfer cousin, Joel - is it his responsibility to become a champion surfer?
"Nah, I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't like it,” he dismisses. “I mean I surf because I have fun. Sure, the goal is to become a pro surfer but if that fails I'll just become a tiller, I'm dumb as dog shit."
But while he may play down his pursuits at academia (he says favourite subject at school is 'home time’), his charisma will surely ensure a career in the industry somewhere. And let’s not forget the surfing, he's dropped in on me a few times and has been known to fling himself off down the line at the Superbank with sheer nonchalance, so who is the most famous surfer you have dropped in on Mitty?
"Ummm not sure, I've never really looked back."
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Little cousin parko (text) by Kieran Burke is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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