Masterful effort puts Parkinson in top 10

JOEL Parkinson reached his goal of making the top 10 in this year’s WSL Tour after a quarter-final finish at the Billabong Pipe Masters.

Parkinson entered the final stop of the tour ranked 11th but his finish at Oahu, Hawaii, was enough to push him past Sebastian Zietz and Filipe Toledo and into No.9.

“I was really trying to make that top 10 early in the year and top five was a dream,” Parkinson (pictured) said.

“The ocean actually liked me again. I have been having the worst run of waves. Out here it felt like things were starting to flow again.”

The 2012 world champion fell short of winning a second Pipe Masters after being edged out by Brazilian Ian Gouveia, who outscored the Gold Coast surf star 9.70-8.40 in their quarter-final heat.

Parkinson said he was relieved to avoid matching up against world title hopefuls John John Florence, Gabriel Medina, Jordy Smith and fellow Australian Julian Wilson, who all remained in the hunt for the No.1 ranking going into the event.

But while the 36-year-old was happy not to influence who was crowned champion, he played spoiler after beating Wiggolly Dantas and Miguel Pupo in Rounds 2 and 3 respectively to rule out their chances of finishing in the top 22 and automatically qualifying for next year’s CT.

“The amount of energy involved and being a spoiler – it’s an awesome thing but you feel really bad,” Parkinson said.

“Taking Wiggolly off tour, and Miguel too ... it is what it is – surfing is competing.”

Florence went on to win back-to-back world titles after making the final of the event, where he went down to French surfer Jeremy Flores in the dying stages.

Flores recorded an 8.33 with his last wave in the final seconds to outscore Florence 16.23-16.16 and win his second Pipe Masters title.