Mike Parsons (born March 13, 1965, in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

) is an American professional surfer and surfing coach.

Early life

Parsons was raised in

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Located in Southern California along the Pacific Ocean, this seaside resort city has a mild year-round climate, scenic c ...

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 off California. It is southwest of San Pedro in Los Angeles, west of Point Loma in San Diego, and southwest of San Clemente Island in Los Angeles County. ...

, 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 surfers paddle into, or are towed into, waves that are at least 20 feet (6.2 m) high, on surf boards known as "guns" or towboards. The size of the ...

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 Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

. 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 British reference book published annually, listi ...

, 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 Portugal, Portuguese town and municipality located in the Oeste Subregion, Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura Province (1936-1976), Estremadura, and in the Leiria District. The municipality has a population of 1 ...

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

Kolohe Andino Kolohe Andino (born March 22, 1994) 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, becoming the youngest to win o ...

. 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, United States. The city was originally called Pacific City, but it was changed in 1903 to be named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 as of ...

in 2008.

Filmography

*Shock Waves (1987) *Overdrive (1993) *100-Foot Wednesday (1998) *

Step Into Liquid ''Step into Liquid'' (2003) is a documentary about surfing directed by Dana Brown, son of famed surfer and filmmaker Bruce Brown. The film includes surfing footage from the famous Pipeline, the beaches of Vietnam, and some of the world's largest ...

(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 Surfers from California People from Laguna Beach, California