WAKING A GIANT
EAST COAST WAKEBOARDER PARKS BONIFAY BLAZES BOUNDARIES AT TEAHUPO’O

By Chris Towery

There’s no denying that the other boardsports have pulled off some incredibly heavy feats over the years: skateboarders dropping 20-foot from a helicopter into a vert ramp, skimmers charging 15-foot shorebreak death at The Wedge, snowboarders freefalling off the side of 50-foot vertical cliff faces. But because today’s surfers continually push the limits and defy death daily at lethal spots like Maverick’s, Cortez Bank, and Dungeons, it’s becoming harder and harder for the other boarding genres to really blow our minds anymore. However, top pro wakeboarder Parks Bonifay out of Orlando, FL, raised more than a few eyebrows this summer with his gutsy tow-in wakeboard attack at Teahupo’o, Tahiti. Scoring the cover of Alliance Wakeboard magazine with a balls-out barrel ride through a dredging 10-foot Teahupoo cavern, Parks is winning new respect for crossover proponents by tackling one of surfing’s most deadly arenas with an all-or-nothing charge even our best riders can appreciate. Outside of winning surfers’ esteem, the three-time world champion wakeboarder is opening doors to an entirely new aspect of waking which may drastically change the relationship between our two sports. ESM got up with Bonifay to find out more about his experience at Teahupo’o and how this brave exploit might affect the future of both our pursuits.

ESM: What was your surfing experience prior to Tahiti?
PB: I grew up waterskiing and jumped into waking at 12. After my experience in California at 14, I really started to get into surfing, too. I don’t do it a lot in Florida because the waves are so inconsistent, but for the past three years, I’ve been going to Hawaii for a month every December. I’m sponsored by Vans, so I hang out at the team house, watch the Pipe contest, and surf the North Shore with the boys.

ESM: The shots of Tahiti are unbelievable. How did you come up with the idea to charge Teahupo’o using wakeboards?
PB: I towed on a wakeboard in head-high waves at Oceanside, CA, when I was 14, but this time, Red Bull Australia organized a trip to get some real waves and eventually hit Teahupo’o. Aussie Josh Sanders was already going, and I ride for Red Bull, too, so I called him and asked to get onboard. Since I already had the experience from California, they were happy to let me go.

ESM: So this wasn’t the first time someone has ridden waves using wakeboards?
PB: Well, guys have done it off and on over the years in waves up to double-overhead, but most of them didn’t shoot photos, or they got pics in crappy conditions. There really hasn’t been anyone whose gotten shots in blue water and sizable, well-shaped waves.

ESM: How long did you guys spend in Tahiti?

PB: We spent 10 days touring around, and the last two days were at Teahupoo. We hit a bunch of reef passes with like six-to-12-foot faces during the first part of the trip, and the day we went to Teahupo’o, it was supposed to jack up to 12 or 15-foot. It would have been death using wakeboards in that, so me and Josh initially didn’t even bring our boards out. But when we got to the reef and it was perfect six-to-eight-foot, we were amping. I’ve surfed in waves that size, so I was pumped to use my wakeboard, on which I feel ten times more comfortable. Some of the locals brought our wakes out, and we got to hit it.

ESM: How did you set up the jet ski tow-ins for riding waves out there?
PB: It was really hard to figure it out because our driver Poto(Vetea David) is used to towing one way, and we’re used to another. At first, he looked at my board and was like, “Ah, what dis t’ing fo’? You going ride dis on de wave?” [laughs] He really didn’t know what we were gonna do, but we watched a video and explained it, so he got the picture. He would tow us down the line ahead of the peak, and if he saw a section bowling up, he’d either slow down so we could get pitted or speed up if we were late. Once he got the hang of it, Poto was the man. He gave us the sense of security to drop into anything because we knew he’d always have our back.

ESM: What was your sickest ride from the trip?
PB: I liked that wave from the Alliance cover because I got into it early and watched the whole thing wall up in front of me. It was so crazy. I really don’t know what was happening in the barrel, but the part of the ride when it was bowling up, I was just tweaking. I watched this huge mountain of water with a three-foot thick lip wall straight up and throw out in front of me.

ESM: We saw that sequence, but it looked like once you got high up in the pocket, you slipped out. Can you hold an edge in the pit with only an inch or two of rail?
PB: You constantly have to keep moving, because with that thin of a rail, you can’t really set an edge. Once I got that high up, even if I had pointed my nose down, I would’ve still gotten pulled up the face and sucked over. Basically, my board just disengaged, and I free-fell into the pit. I got so worked, my wetsuit and lifejacket ripped completely off. Even worse, the straps were still fastened and tangled around my hands. But luckily, I got out of them before another set hit.

ESM: And doesn’t being booted into a board make the wipeouts a lot worse than if you could ditch it?
PB: You get doughnuts pretty hard on a surfboard, but with a wakeboard, it’s fucking ridiculous. You’re getting tossed all over the place, and your board ties you into a pretzel. You can usually kick it off after a few seconds, but even then, you never know which way is up because you have no leash, and you’re down pretty deep.

ESM: How does that compare to your worst wakeboarding spills?
PB: On a wakeboard, I’ve gone face-first into rails and gotten knocked out. Some of the worst wipeouts are when you fall on gap jumps over roads and grass where you’ll cartwheel through mud and rocks and shit. One of my friends went to clear a 20-foot gap but tried to land it too soon and slammed headfirst into a two-by-four. It looks like he’s dead in the video, but luckily he walked away with just gnarly scratches and big bruises.

ESM: Did you guys actually make it out of any big barrels out there?
PB: At Teahupo’o, I only made it out of one that was pretty good. But at some of the other spots, I made a lot of really nice ones. I also did some tow-ins on surfboards, and that’s when I got some of my best pits.

ESM: What about airs?
PB: We did flips and stuff on the face, but mainly I liked boosting backside 180s on the rights. Other times, we’d whip it hard into the face, and launch huge methods. Those are hard to land, though, and I broke one of my boards doing that.

ESM: How would you rate this experience in your overall wake career?
PB: It’s definitely one of my favorite experiences. It’s on a totally different scale of gnarlyness. I’ve tried to do some of the shit I pulled out there while surfing before, but I always get my ass kicked. With this, I was so stoked to be able to get set up just right and feel 100% comfortable.

ESM: Wakeboarding has the skate angle down with wakeskating. Do you think this trip might open doors to a surfing side?
PB: For sure. There’s so much shit you could do—we were just scratching the surface. If you had bigger fins, the surfing angle could totally open up. In six to eight-foot waves, you’ve gotta have something that will hold in the wave face. But with a bigger fin, you’d probably be okay, because if the fin holds, then the rail will hold. A three-inch fin would be perfect, but they don’t make that size anymore because everyone wants that free feeling. But I’ll tell you, with those small skegs you don’t feel so fucking free in the pit [laughs]. Hopefully, when people see these shots it’ll make them want to explore the possibilities.

ESM: If you could make as much money traveling the world surfing as waking, which would you choose?
PB: Oh fuck, I’d go with surfing all the way. I’m not bitching about waking, but the surf tours travel to all these exotic places with insane waves—never inland with a bunch of rednecks [laughs]. Man, on the wakeboard tour we go to Oklahoma, Bumfuck South Carolina—you name it. So I’d love to do the surfing thing, and if there’s anybody out there willing to sponsor me, I’ll switch in a heartbeat [laughs].