Parsons Got Head Start on His Winning Ways : Surfing: San Clemente resident, who grew up in Laguna Beach with several standout athletes, earned more than $100,000 last year.

SAN CLEMENTE — Mike Parsons grew up in Three Arch Bay, a small community nestled near the ocean, south of Laguna Beach. It’s an area also rich in athletic talent.

A look at the boys from Mr. Parsons’ Neighborhood:

--Damon Berryhill, his longtime friend who’s now a catcher with the Atlanta Braves.

--Another neighbor, Scott Fortune, played volleyball at Stanford and is now captain of the U.S. national team.

--Adam Johnson, who grew up in nearby Bluebird Canyon, played volleyball at USC and is now one of the top pro beach players.

“There were a lot of talented guys in that neighborhood,” Parsons said. “We hung out at the beach together, playing volleyball, surfing, whatever. It was a pretty tight scene.”

And Parsons has been right in step with the successes of his former Laguna Beach High classmates, winning the Professional Surfing Assn. of America’s surfing championship last year.

It was Parsons’ first year on the U.S. tour after seven roller-coaster years on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour. His stint on the world tour included six consecutive top-30 finishes, but only one career victory.

Still, Parsons has found a niche in life, practicing a trade he began learning as a first-grader.

He owns a townhome in San Clemente and has five sponsors, including a three-year contract with Op. He earned more than $100,000 in prize money and endorsements last year.

All because of surfing.

“I’ll try to compete as long as I can,” said Parsons, 27. “I think I appreciate the sport more now that I’m older. When you’re younger, you just fly around to contests and not worry about anything.

“But as you get older, you realize how much you enjoy this. And now I want to stay healthy and extend this as long as I can.”

But surfing was part of Parsons’ lifestyle long before it was his livelihood.

Parsons was 6 when he started in the sport, riding on the front of a longboard while his father, Bob, surfed.

By age 8, he was competing in local contests. By 13, he was competing regularly in the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. contests.

He surfed whenever he could, going to the local break at Three Arch Bay with Berryhill during the week, and riding at Salt Creek and Lower Trestles with his father on the weekends.

Parsons, a lanky 6-footer, also developed a knack for volleyball, playing in pickup games with Johnson and Fortune on the beach, and later joining the Laguna Beach club team.

Parsons was a back-up setter to Rudy Dvorak on Laguna’s 14-and-under team that won the Junior Olympic championship. Johnson, Fortune and Leif Hansen, now a pro beach player, also played on that team.

All his neighbors became top athletes at Laguna Beach. Johnson starred in volleyball, soccer and baseball and kicked for the football team one season. Fortune played basketball and volleyball. Berryhill was a terror on the baseball field. Parsons surfed.

Many figured Parsons would follow his brother, Doug, through Laguna’s athletic programs.

Doug, two years Mike’s elder, was a football, basketball and volleyball standout at Laguna before landing a volleyball scholarship to UC Santa Barbara.

But after his freshman year at Laguna Beach, Parsons gave up volleyball and basketball to concentrate on surfing.

“I knew that if I wanted to make a living at surfing,” he said, “I had to surf every day.”

Parsons tore through the amateur ranks. He was the top-ranked NSSA junior by his sophomore year. By the time he graduated in 1983, he was top-ranked in the NSSA men’s division.

In 1982, he was part of the NSSA team considered the all-time best. His teammates included Tom Curren, Chris Frohoff, Huntington Beach’s Gary Clisby and San Clemente’s Jim Hogan.

Parsons turned pro in 1984, and competed in his first Op Pro that year, and he has been in every one since. He’s the captain of the U.S. team that will meet Japan Wednesday in the first round of the Op’s new team competition.

His best Op finish was fifth in 1989, just after coming off knee surgery. He has finished ninth four times.

“I kind of got stuck on ninth for awhile,” Parsons said.

His string of six top-30 finishes has been equaled by only four other Californians--Curren, Richie Collins, Joey Buran and Brad Gerlach.

Parsons became known as an iron man on the world tour, missing only two events in seven years, despite undergoing arthroscopic surgery on both knees.

He also earned a reputation as one of the tour’s best big-wave riders. Although he learned to surf in Orange County’s ankle-slapping waves, he had been surfing regularly on Hawaii’s 15- to 20-foot walls since 1980, as well as in Mexico.

Parsons was a consistent top finisher from 1984 to 1989, but had never won a world tour event. He came closest in 1987, when he lost to Australia’s Gary Elkerton in the finals of the 1987 World Cup of Surfing in Hawaii.

Parsons made another final in November, 1990, at the BHP Steel International contest at Newcastle, Australia.

This time, he won, beating Australia’s Barton Lynch.

“I was really psyched up for that contest,” Parsons said. “I had spent a month surfing in Australia with Dave Macaulay. He finished third in that contest. Everything just came together for me that week.”

The victory boosted Parsons to 20th in the overall standings. His highest finish had been 15th in 1987.

So what did he do next?

He quit the world tour and joined the U.S. tour. He went from flying to Japan, Europe, Australia and Hawaii for contests to driving to Imperial Beach, Huntington Beach, Malibu and Ventura.

But Parsons insists the move wasn’t a step down, just a change in goals.

“The timing was right,” he said of the change. “I had moved up from 28th to 20th in the standings, and had just won the BHP. I was just putting together my contract with Op, and I could set it up around the U.S. tour and the goals I had there.

“And I knew the U.S. tour was going to be tough with guys like Mike Lambresi, Shane Beschen and Dino Andino.”

Parsons maintained his consistency on the new tour.

He won only one event on the U.S. tour last year, at Malibu, but his three second-place finishes helped him win the overall points championship.

“I like having the pressure of being a defending champion,” Parsons said. “There was a lot of satisfaction winning the title, but I won’t have any trouble getting motivated to win again.”

Still, Parsons misses his days on the world tour.

“I miss surfing against the very best,” he said. “I feel I’ve matured physically later than most, and that I’m still getting better.

“I’ve improved in the last few years, and I want to prove it to the best.”

And to the guys back in the neighborhood, although all of them are keeping pretty busy this summer.

Johnson now lives in Capistrano Beach, just up the road from Parsons. The two frequent the same San Clemente restaurant, occasionally bumping into each other at breakfast.

Parsons catches most of Johnson’s beach tournaments on a regional cable network that also televises his surfing contests. He’ll also watch Fortune in the Olympics this summer in Barcelona.

But it was Berryhill with whom Parsons was the closest. They surfed together as kids, and still do if their schedules allow. They double-dated at their senior prom.

And whenever the Braves are in town, Parsons makes the hour-and-a-half trek to Dodger Stadium to see Berryhill play.

“Damon’s a pretty good surfer,” Parsons said.

Just not the best on his block.