Mike Parsons
Encyclopedia
Mike Parsons is a surfer sponsored by the Billabong
company who famously successfully surfed a 66-foot wave at Cortes Bank
, CA in 2001, for which he was awarded $66,000, the highest prize ever awarded in the history of professional surfing. This money was awarded by the Billabong XXL competition which has run since 2001 paying tribute to the biggest waves ridden each year. He is actually more famous for riding a 64-foot wave during competition at the Jaws break on the north shore of Maui. It was filmed by helicopter and used as the opening scene of the 2003 film Billabong Odyssey. A usually-uncredited clip of this sequence has gone on to become a viral video, attributed to a number of different surfers, locations, and in many cases, a Tsunami. Parsons recently broke his record on January 5, 2008, at Cortes Bank, when he was photographed surfing a wave that the Billabong XXL judged to be 70+ feet, which should put him in the Guinness Book of World Records, officially, for biggest wave ever surfed. Unofficially the biggest wave ever surfed remains Ken Bradshaw
's wave at Outside Log Cabins, Oahu on January 28, 1998, at about 80 feet.
He was inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, California
in 2008.
Billabong (clothing)
Billabong International is a clothing company traded on the Australian Securities Exchange since 11 August 2000. Billabong was founded in 1973 by Gordon and Rena Merchant....
company who famously successfully surfed a 66-foot wave at Cortes Bank
Cortes Bank
Cortes Bank is a dangerously shallow chain of underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean, about 115 miles west of Point Loma San Diego, USA, and about 50 miles south-west of San Clemente Island, Los Angeles County....
, CA in 2001, for which he was awarded $66,000, the highest prize ever awarded in the history of professional surfing. This money was awarded by the Billabong XXL competition which has run since 2001 paying tribute to the biggest waves ridden each year. He is actually more famous for riding a 64-foot wave during competition at the Jaws break on the north shore of Maui. It was filmed by helicopter and used as the opening scene of the 2003 film Billabong Odyssey. A usually-uncredited clip of this sequence has gone on to become a viral video, attributed to a number of different surfers, locations, and in many cases, a Tsunami. Parsons recently broke his record on January 5, 2008, at Cortes Bank, when he was photographed surfing a wave that the Billabong XXL judged to be 70+ feet, which should put him in the Guinness Book of World Records, officially, for biggest wave ever surfed. Unofficially the biggest wave ever surfed remains Ken Bradshaw
Ken Bradshaw
Ken Bradshaw is an American professional surfer and winner of the 1982 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship....
's wave at Outside Log Cabins, Oahu on January 28, 1998, at about 80 feet.
He was inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach, California
Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 189,992; making it the largest beach city in Orange County in terms of population...
in 2008.