OK while most of America was snuggled into their warm beds sawing logs like Paul Bunyan in tales of fable, I stayed up to watch the Quiksilver Pro France eventually witnessing one of the worst travesty’s of the year go down.. After losing in round 1 with what could only be described as a dismal performance, Parko drew local boy Marc Lacomare in heat 3 of round 2.
Lacomare started the heat off with a solid 7.67 bringing out ear drum popping cheers from the raucous French fans. Before Parko could even get a decent wave Lacomare secured another good wave of 7.27 points and was sitting on a 14.94 total in the first 5 minutes. Lacomare surfed both of his waves with nice forehand carves and snaps demonstrating power and flow and I thought his rides were well scored by the panel.
After 7 minutes Joel catches a set wave right hander and starts off with a couple of soft cutbacks which required hopping and weaving to connect the sections, after reaching the inside he laid down a lipper, a vert snap, a tail slide, and finished off with a quick bank on the shore pound. Once again I thought the judges did a great job scoring when the wave came in at a 6.93.
Lacomare maintained his lead for the majority of the heat and looked like he was going to take down a well deserved win but at the 21:40 mark good judging was thrown out the window and what could only be described as a criminal assault occurred.
Parko caught a nice sized right but the wave was really soft and offered no vertical sections. He did 6 really slow standard cutbacks and finished off with a credit card air on the closeout section and was given an 8.00 FOR FUCKING CUTBACKS. If you compare that 8.00 to Mark Lacomare’s 7.67 there is simply no way it should have come in higher.
HERE IS WHERE THE REAL TRAVESTY HAPPENS. Immediately after Joel receives an 8.00 for cutbacks Marc Lacomare takes a right holding Joel Parkinson off. He proceeds to do 4 vicious back hand snaps in which announcers Jake Patterson and Damien Fahrenfort called EASILY the best wave of the heat. Joel took off on the very next wave and did a cutback and 2 decent snaps and never finished the wave off after falling on a white water bank.It was clearly worse than the 8.00 he just received but WHAT WERE THE SCORES you ask? Lacomare received a well deserved 8.23 on what for him was beautiful backhand surfing. But then Joel Parkinson receives an 8.50 FOR A FUCKING CUTBACK & 2 STANDARD SNAPS in what was and has to be called the RIP OFF OF THE YEAR.
Thank God for heat analyzer because it always tells the truth. No matter how big of a Parko fan you might be there is no way you can watch the heat review and say Parko won that heat. IT WAS A BLATANT RIP OFF.
There is so much chatter about how Zo-Sea is going to make the sport better, if they want to make it better FIX the judging. The majority of surfers I talk to on tour are in support of implementing a system that hold judges accountable for their actions. I have said it before and I will say it again, having cameras with sound monitoring them at all times will allow for a committee of officials to review what was happening and being said during these questionable heats. Like any other job in the world If any wrong doing is found the persons involved will be held accountable for their actions. What they are doing is criminal and equivalent to stealing considering there are thousands of dollars on the line.
To sign a petition against corrupt ASP judging and the rigging of heats click the link below. I don’t agree with a lot of the comments in there but what the hell it’s a start.
To read what public opinion is on the outcome of the heat click the link below
https://www.facebook.com/FantasySurfer/posts/10151565784775771
Being a Parko fan or having him on your fantasy team does not mean he deserved to win, the only way to draw that conclusion is if you are biased, stupid, or blind. Check out the heat analyzer and watch for yourself because it never lies.
http://quiksilverlive.com/profrance/2013/heat_review.en.html#quality=med&round=945&heat=953
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