Good golly – Molly Picklum wins Sunset to become world No. 1
There’s a new star of Australian surfing who has rocketed to the world No. 1 ranking with a little help from Ash Barty.
Molly Picklum has two boards. The slick 6”3’ fibreglass board she rode to her first World Surf League title at a glistening Sunset Beach on Monday and the rock-solid 166cm sounding board she uses for advice on how to maximise her frothing potential and crack it as a professional athlete.
The first board doesn’t have a name. The second board is called Ash Barty. She became great and true mates with Australia’s eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore when they sipped beer and champagne together at a Melbourne Cup a few years ago. Gilmore and Picklum are close, and so Picklum has come to know Barty, which remains a thrill for the young surfer because the artist previously known as the world’s finest female tennis player was already a hero.
When International Women’s Day fell during an event at Portugal last year, the surfers were invited to put the name of an inspirational female on their backs. Picklum competed with BARTY stamped on her singlet – a singlet now in a frame and hanging on a wall of Barty’s Brisbane home.
Which stuns the 20-year-old, nicknamed “Pickles,” because if anyone should be hanging anyone’s stuff from a wall, she should have something of Barty’s up on hers. Now in her second year as a pro, Pickles has Barty’s number in her phone and permission to call her sounding board at any time of the day or night, from anywhere in the world, if she needs help in trying to do what Barty did so well. Forge her own path, create her own story. And win.
Pickles faced Californian Caroline Marks in the final at Sunset. It was her first time in a WSL decider. Gilmore lost to Tyler Wright in the quarter-finals, Pickles had beaten Wright, and there she was in the big time. From the small coast town of Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast, she’s the sort of excitable surfer who seems constantly stoked in the water – and never more than when she claimed her maiden WSL title to become the joint world No. 1 alongside Hawaiian legend Carissa Moore.
“I’m pretty baffled!” Pickles said. “The final was pretty slow but then there was a big flurry of waves at the end. You can probably hear it in my voice – I’ve got so much water up my nose and in my sinuses right now I can’t even see straight. But nah, I’m super-stoked to take it out. This event is so challenging and yeah, I’m just stoked.”
Pickles showed glimpses of potential in her rookie season last year – but fell just shy of making the mid-season cut. She returned to the Challenger series and requalified for the big show, sounding like Barty when she talked about her recovery from last year’s disappointment to become a genuine contender to reach this year’s five-surfer WSL Finals shootout for the world title at Trestles in California.
Barty used to talk about “chipping away” at her goals. Pickles said: “It’s about never losing your confidence and really believing in yourself the whole way, no matter what. Even if you’re on the Challengers, the level of surfing in today’s day and age for the women – you can be on the Challengers and then the next year you can be winning an event. I’m definitely proud of myself of chipping way and to keep trying. There’s so many emotions and mind games in it all. It takes a lot of work but I’m super happy because it’s moments like these that make it all worth it.”
Australian surfing is on a roll a year out from the Paris Olympics. Pickles and Moore will wear yellow jerseys at the next event at Peniche, Portugal, from March 8. West Australian Jack Robinson was beaten by Californian Griffin Colapinto in the semi-finals at Sunset – before Brazil’s Filipe Toledo ripped through the final – but Robinson is still atop the men’s world rankings after his triumph at Pipeline.
“It is just a jersey colour but I’m stoked to be at the top because it’s honestly where I want to be,” Pickles said. “It’s where I believe I can be. It’s just a jersey colour for now because the end goal is to be at Trestles so hopefully I’ll be wearing it for the whole year.”
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