The Parkinson brothers also became keen and adept sailors, especially in their own “magnificent boat The Swan which was the love of their lives, and the envy of many”. The two Parkinson brothers made surfboards with fellow surfer Geoff Coker and “to this day the local surfers seek to find the Parkinson boards”. Ms Dixon said it seemed “out of place” to described Parkinson as aggressive “as he was always a compassionate and caring man to all”. Not boastful, but proud of his achievements and of the many friends he made in his surfing years.” A happy period in his life that he was proud of. “Michael became well known for his surfing abilities and was soon encouraged to enter many competitions, where he was a successful and aggressive competitor. “As with many peninsula boys it wasn’t long before Michael discovered the surfboard and the back beach,” Ms Dixon said. In reading the family’s eulogy, Ms Dixon said Michael Parkinson was 14 when his mother died “leaving the three boys to continue their life, caring for each other and uniting in an inseparable bond to face the world together”. In surfing terms, it’s called a paddleout, a farewell to someone who saw the sea and surf as filling an important role in their life.Īnd so it was for Mick Parkinson, whose life and times were eulogised on the beach that day. To scatter his ashes into the sea, inside a circle of people sitting on surfboards. On that sunny day of his funeral earlier this month, many members of his family and his friends gathered to say farewell. It was a place where he could paddle out for enjoyment, forgetting any problems he might be facing. Sorrento back beach was the home break for the keen and talented surfer that Mick Parkinson became. Ms Dixon, celebrant, friend and neighbour for many years to Parkinson, his partner Darlene, son Jason and daughter Georgia, hadn’t known him during his “surfing glory days”, but invited mourners to “take a moment to invite peace where there are troubled thoughts, and give thanks for the gifts he brought into your lives”.
The family sold fish they caught in Port Phillip and the shop was “conveniently located for Mick to host – after hours- some of the biggest parties on the peninsula”, according to Kerrie Dixon. The beach was a place that had loomed large in Parkinson’s life.įish and chips had also become a big part of his life as his parents, Des and Margaret Parkinson and grandparents Archie and Stella ran a family business, Parkinson Fish in Point Nepean Road. Beach farewell: Surfers in a paddleout for Mick Parkinson at Sorrento back beach, above, after a beach funeral service on Thursday 7 February. The glasses, tables with plates of sandwiches and chairs lined up in the sand facing the sea were there for the funeral of Michael Owen Parkinson, born at Dromana Hospital on 4 October 1954 and died 28 January 2019. The short sentence about advice given to a friend by Michael “Mick” Parkinson was just one of many entries in a memorial book left on a table of empty glasses at Sorrento back beach on Thursday 7 February. Sounds like good advice, but did it come from personal experience or have a deeper philosophical meaning? Maybe it was just something passed down as part of the Parkinson family law. Picture: Keith PlattĮat your chips first no one’s going to take your flake. Surfer Michael Parkinson tucks in at Avoca Beach, near Sydney in the early 1970s. On just the right swells, in just the right conditions, the three foot deep summit of this mile-high mountaintop produces the biggest surfable wave on the face of the earth.
'The object of my obsession for the past few years has been a sunken island 100 miles off the southern California coast called the Cortes Bank. Dixon draws on the knowledge of oceanographers and meteorologists as well as emulating his own experience as a lifelong surfer. GHOST WAVE is the result of extensive interviews not only with these surfers and those close to them, but also with psychologists who provide insights into their strange addiction to deadly waves. Along the way, he'll show how these pioneering wave-addicts changed our very understanding of the science of surfing, while giving sea-level credence to environmentalists' fears that the weather is indeed going haywire. In GHOST WAVE, Chris Dixon dives deep into the fascinating history of Cortes Bank and the motley brotherhood of argumentative, damaged, brave and quirky margin walkers who discovered and scaled the tallest mountain in the sea. 'A remarkable story that will appeal to those who ride a board and those who have never set foot in the water alike.' NEWCASTLE HERALD The incredible stories and photos behind the death-defying surfers who scaled the biggest wave in the world.
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