Hometown favourite Joel Parkinson has scored the competition’s first perfect 10 to reach the quarter-final of the men’s world surfing championship event on the Gold Coast.

Not even the pain of a bluebottle sting could distract Parkinson as he grabbed the 10-point wave with five minutes remaining to leave fellow Queenslander Julian Wilson no hope of catching him.

Parkinson said his memory of the ride was a bit patchy.

“I couldn’t remember exactly how many turns I did and I heard the commentator say what score do you want to give it and I was like – `I’ll give it a 10′,” he laughed.

“I feel nice and relaxed and on that last wave I felt like some aggression finally came out and that’s what I wanted to feel.”

Parkinson comes up against Jordy Smith in the quarter-final in what could be a lively meeting – in their last meeting at Snapper Rocks in 2011 the South African eliminated Parkinson from the event in round five.

“But that’s what makes for healthy competition, they’re the ones you live for and you’re happy to get involved in a real rivalry,” Parkinson said.

The other quarter-final heats pit Gold Coaster Josh Kerr against the red hot Kelly Slater, Owen Wright against Brazil’s Adriano De Souza and Taj Burrow against fellow Australian Adrian Buchan.

With conditions forecast to deteriorate on Tuesday night a decision to put the men’s event on hold will be made early on Wednesday morning with competition unlikely to resume before the weekend.