Mike Parsons (born March 13, 1965, in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

) is an American professional surfer and surfing coach.

Early life

Parsons was raised in

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

and began surfing when he was six-years-old. In 1983, he earned second place in the Junior Division of the United States Surfing Championships.

Career

In 2001, Parsons was towed into a 66-foot wave at

Cortes Bank Cortes Bank is a shallow seamount (a barely submerged island) in the North Pacific Ocean. It is 96 miles southwest of San Pedro, Los Angeles, 111 miles (166 kilometers) west of Point Loma, San Diego, and 47 miles (82 kilometers) southwest of San ...

, CA, 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 The Billabong XXL is a global big wave Big wave surfing is a discipline within surfing in which experienced surfers paddle into, or are towed into, waves which are at least 20 feet (6.2 m) high, on surf boards known as "guns" or towboards. Sizes ...

competition which paid tribute to the biggest waves ridden each year. Parsons also surfed 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 A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...

. Parsons later broke his record on January 5, 2008, at Cortes Bank, when he was photographed surfing a wave that the Billabong XXL judged to be 77 feet, which put him in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

, officially, for biggest wave ever surfed. Nearly 4 years later Garrett McNamara improved on this record with a 78-foot wave off

Nazaré, Portugal Nazaré () is a Portuguese town and municipality located in the Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura, and in the Leiria District. The municipality has a population of 14,889 in an area of 82.43 km2, while the town itself h ...

on November 1, 2011. In 2011, Parsons became the full-time coach for surfer

Kolohe Andino Kolohe Andino (born March 22, 1994, in San Clemente, California) is an American surfer. Andino began surfing at a young age and holds the record for winning the most National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) titles of any male competitor, ...

. On January 20, 2013, Parsons suffered a broken C7 vertebra in his neck and nearly drowned while surfing triple-overhead surf at Ocean Beach, a beach break in San Francisco, California. Parsons was able to return to surfing four months later.

Honors

Parsons was inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame in

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

in 2008.

Filmography

*Shock Waves (1987) *Overdrive (1993) *100-Foot Wednesday (1998) * Step Into Liquid (2003)

References

External links

Video of the wave "Jaws" at Maui (Hawaï), for the World Cup Champion of Tow In
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Mike 1965 births Living people American surfers Tow-in surfers Sportspeople from California People from Laguna Beach, California