If you were to take a step back and closely examine the current state of the World Tour title race, you'd see all of the elements necessary for drama ripe enough to warrant itself a slot on daytime television. Joel Parkinson, who opened the year in an unstoppable form, laying waist to his World Tour counterparts with reckless abandon, has fallen by the wayside on the 99-yard line, a lame ankle biting into his title hopes with every top turn and rail laid. When news of Parko's injury first made its way into the media, his handlers attempted to assuage the hype, stating it was only a calf sprain.... We bought in. The ensuing months bore witness to a softening of Parko's kung-fu grip on the World Tour. At Trestles, he didn't look quite right, and then at France, it was clear that something was amiss. That injury that was supposedly nothing more than a mild calf sprain had proven itself a nagging and somewhat severe ankle injury. Despite a strong showing in Portugal, Parko recently reported in his blog that the possibility of going under the knife and having pins put in his ankle is not outside of the realm of possibility.
"The last few weeks it's felt really good. Really good. I kind of got over that stiff injury phase, now I'm getting flexibility back in it, so it allows me to do a lot more on it," said Parko in an interview on his website. "When I get home from Hawaii I'm going to have another round of MRIs to find out if it's 100 percent. I've got one little test to do to find out how much movement I have between my tib and my fib, and if it has a lot of movement I'll probably have to get a screw in it, but if it doesn't then I should be right."
Parko went on to say that he's currently geared up to compete in all three events of the Triple Crown, despite a doctor's recommendations.
"The doctor the other day recommended I should probably pull out of Haleiwa, but I'm still surfing fine and surfing without pain. I'm fit and healthy so I said to him, 'I'm doing it, mate.' I love the Triple Crown, I love Hawaii. It's surfing."
If Parko were to secure his first world title while nursing an injury at Pipeline, it would undoubtedly be the stuff of legends. It also wouldn't be the first time an injured surfer proved his worth at Pipe come crunch time. In 1982, Michael Ho historically won the Pipe Masters with a cast on his wrist, pioneering the pig dog in the process.
Can Parko comeback and pull off a miracle? Stay logged on to GrindTV to see how the 2009 Triple Crown unfolds.
