REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday March 12, 2009

THE king had spoken, and his first royal decree was ‘bring Kirra back’.

Joel Parkinson, the newly crowned ‘King of Kirra’ following his win at the Quiksilver Pro made an impassioned plea to revive the sand-choked point break.

Accepting his trophy on the podium after defeating Brazilian Adriano de Souza in the final, Parkinson added his voice to the thousands demanding the return of the world’s best barrelling wave.

‘‘I really want to thank Quiksilver for getting behind Kirra and helping to bring it back to its former glory,’’ he said. ‘‘Because right now Kirra sucks.’’

It was the first time an ASP World Tour event had been held at Kirra since the Billabong Pro in 1996.

Parkinson said he was at the event when Californian Shane Beschen became the first and only professional surfer to score three perfect 10-point rides.

‘‘I remember watching that, I was sitting just down in the hut,” he said.

“I never thought I’d ever get a contest at Kirra, let alone a 10.”

Parkinson managed two 10point waves yesterday including one in the final that sealed his victory.

Over the past seven years, 10 million cubic tonnes of sand turned the once mighty pointbreak into a desert. As a result the wave only broke under persuasion from huge swell and no longer fired perfect barrels.

‘‘The waves really turned it on today. I want to thank Cyclone Hamish,’’ said Parkinson. ‘‘He probably did some damage up the coast but he brought some joy to the Gold Coast.”