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Comment: Jeff Ayliffe
Jeffreys Bay - Billabong Pro defending champion, Australian Joel Parkinson, will not be in J-Bay attempting back-to-back wins.
"Parko" went down heavily during a session at Snapper on Australia's Gold Coast and suffered a severe cut under the heel, which later required surgery.
Photographer Andrew Shield was in the water and saw the incident.
“He tucked into a super dredgy one and just disappeared inside, then showed up bobbing around in the whitewash. He was definitely in a lot of pain. There were no rocks where he went down so he must have gotten mixed up with his board.”
American Andy Irons (who broke his board hours earlier) assisted Parkinson up the beach and waited with him for an ambulance.
Parkinson is already seeing the positive side, saying that he was happy that the incident occurred when he wasn't involved with back-to-back events later in the season.
Parkinson said he knew immediately that the damage was bad.
“I pulled into a barrel then was taken out by the foamball and pretty well straight away I felt the board hit me," said the current world number eight.
"I knew immediately it was a pretty serious cut. I didn't want to look at it when I came in because I knew it wouldn't be good."
Joel Parkinson (Photo: Jeff Ayliffe)
Jeffreys Bay - Billabong Pro defending champion, Australian Joel Parkinson, will not be in J-Bay attempting back-to-back wins.
"Parko" went down heavily during a session at Snapper on Australia's Gold Coast and suffered a severe cut under the heel, which later required surgery.
Photographer Andrew Shield was in the water and saw the incident.
“He tucked into a super dredgy one and just disappeared inside, then showed up bobbing around in the whitewash. He was definitely in a lot of pain. There were no rocks where he went down so he must have gotten mixed up with his board.”
American Andy Irons (who broke his board hours earlier) assisted Parkinson up the beach and waited with him for an ambulance.
Parkinson is already seeing the positive side, saying that he was happy that the incident occurred when he wasn't involved with back-to-back events later in the season.
Parkinson said he knew immediately that the damage was bad.
“I pulled into a barrel then was taken out by the foamball and pretty well straight away I felt the board hit me," said the current world number eight.
"I knew immediately it was a pretty serious cut. I didn't want to look at it when I came in because I knew it wouldn't be good."
Joel Parkinson (Photo: Jeff Ayliffe)
