10th March 2010

Review by Stuart Nettle

Joel Parkinson is endearingly uncomplicated.

I've no doubt he is afflicted with the same set of foibles that privately beset us all, yet Parko's public persona is pure WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get.

The same maxim also applies to the latest book by Sean Doherty. Sporting the self-explanatory title of Parko + Friends it contains inside what it claims on the cover - photos and words from the subject and his mates.

Some surf writers, and I consider myself one of them, have a habit of complicating matters; in the eternal quest for new stories and new angles, assumptions are made and theories proferred. Doherty, thankfully, doesn't push that barrow. Although, at 240 pages, Parko + Friends says a lot it really doesn't say much. This isn't a criticism however. Like a silver-tongued raconteur, it provides cursory information but delivers it in an entertaining way.

Doherty has sourced family and friends - many of them bona fide raconteurs - to provide short stories and anecdotes about Parko. Most are short bursts of words, no more than a paragraph, chosen by Doherty to illuminate singular aspects of Parko's life.

The table of contents reads like the ASP World Tour schedule - Coolangatta, Bells, Teahupoo etc - each chapter marking a destination on the tour and therefore a place that Parko has visited regularly since he stepped up to the World Tour in 2001. Some of the best contributions are made by the locals at the Tour stops: Giuseppe at Mundaka, Cheron at J-Bay, Alain at Teahupoo.

Although Doherty followed Parko on his 2009 campaign it should be noted that scant attention is paid to the world title race. No doubt Parko + Friends would have been a vastly different book if he won yet it also would have dated quicker. This is not a 'year in the life of' book. Stories are relayed from times past, Doherty more interested in the person than their diary.

The quality of the photos is also worth commenting upon. More than that, I consider them the highlight of Parko + Friends and the reason I've already paid multiple visits. While mostly taken by the keen lens' of Jon Frank and Shorty the editor also deserves praise. Shrewd selection ensures that the graphic element of Parko + Friends is not weighed down with the history of 2009 - there isn't a comp photo to be found. Instead we have timeless images presented as glossy, double-page spreads. The effect (and the quality) not unlike pictorial articles found in the Surfers Journal.

Parko + Friends is published by Flying Pineapple Media and distributed by Woodslane. Woodslane specialise in surfing books. You can browse their surfing titles here.