COOLANGATTA, QLD/Australia (Wednesday, August 28, 2013) – It’s award season Down Under and some of Australia’s surf stars have been honoured with nominations for a range prestigious awards. Reigning ASP World Champion Joel Parkinson has been nominated for Sport’s Dad of the Year. Tyler Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons have had their names put in the running for Sportswoman of the Year with Stephanie Gilmore in contention for the Service to the Sport award.
“My family is awesome,” Parko said. “You always want to do the best for your kids. Every father in the world does. But for me my kids are a beautiful distraction. When I was surfing for the ASP World Title last year at Pipeline we had Mahli in Hawaii with us, and you’d come in from the gnarliest sudden death heat and he’d be there wanting to play with his skateboard and you’d drop everything and just play with him! It was perfect. It stopped me dwelling too much on the contest and just gave perfect perspective on what I was doing and why I was doing it.”
