Six days ago, Molly Picklum celebrated at Hawaii’s iconic Sunset Beach, winning her first World Championship Tour event, her second North Shore triumph in as many months. She became equal world No.1 in the process.
A little more than six months ago, she could barely stay upright in two-foot South African swell.
Molly Picklum celebrates her first Championship Tour victory at Sunset Beach.Credit:Tony Heff/World Surf League
Belying the laid-back surfing stereotype and the seemingly perpetual sunny disposition of “Pickles” from the Central Coast, Picklum’s head noise in July could have drowned out a Banzai barrel at Pipeline.
Still slightly stunned and rightly proud of her achievement in winning the Sunset Pro last week, Picklum said it would take hours to unpack the toll taken when she was unceremoniously booted out of her first WCT campaign – a victim of the controversial mid-year cut that dropped the women’s competition from 24 to 12 surfers in April.
Her long-time coach and former pro surfer Glenn “Micro” Hall saw it first-hand in one fateful session north of Durban.
“There were these really fun little waves at a [Qualifying Series] contest in Ballito, just perfect waves,” Hall says. “But Molly just couldn’t surf it. It sounds like I’m exaggerating, but she just could not complete a wave: couldn’t stay up and finish her turns, couldn’t make manoeuvres she’d normally do with her eyes closed.
Molly Picklum takes flight in Tahiti last year.Credit:Domenic Mosqueira/Red Bull
“She was trying so hard, had pushed herself so long. You could just see that she cared too much; she was trying to improve her surfing and compete and go to another level. That’s where the mid-year cut, all the emotions of it just bubbled to the surface.”
In Red Bull’s revealing Molly Picklum: What it Takes doco, the 20-year-old is brutally honest from the opening scene.
“My friends on tour, they trip out [at] how much I think and how much I’ve got going on,” she says. “I’m pretty much in my head 24 hours a day.”
“That’s Molly’s biggest challenge,” Hall says. “She’s so eager to learn and so eager to get to where she wants to go that she beats herself up in her head: ‘I’m not doing enough’. Then she goes hard and it’s, ‘I’m doing too much and wearing myself out’.”
Molly Picklum and her coach, former pro surfer Glenn Hall.Credit:Brent Bielmann/World Surf League
Touted for big things since her mid-teens, by Layne Beachley no less, Picklum has no shortage of sounding boards. Mick Fanning, Tyler Wright and Stephanie Gilmore all have plenty of time for her.
Hall considers her more family member than student after being tipped off “by a couple of local groms” that there was a bleach-blonde 14-year-old making waves just down the road at Shelly Beach.
Given Picklum also has retired tennis champion Ash Barty in her phone, it’s not all that surprising that the simplest, most frustrating pursuit of all dragged her out of that South African funk.
“She came in that day and the convo was, ‘Just let it go. Trust that you’re an incredible surfer and your career’s on track – you don’t need to force this improvement’,” Hall says.
Molly Picklum and Ash Barty at Bells Beach last year.Credit:Beatriz Ryder
“We put the boards down and went and played some golf, even though she’d never played. And then this almost addictive side of her brain latched onto golf and, suddenly, it was all about her golf swing 24/7. It was amazing. Surfing became easy again and she got it back so quickly.”
Picklum now seeks Barty out whenever she’s on the Gold Coast and plans to play rounds for cash. But only once she can see herself matching Barty’s handicap of four.
“She’s not afraid to step up and ask anyone a question if there’s something to be learnt,” Hall says of Picklum’s enviable list of sporting contacts. “She’s fearless when it comes to, ‘What have you got? What can I learn from you?’
“There’s also this infectious personality that people are open to because of just who she is. People gravitate towards her, those chats and advice just happen organically around Molly. She just attracts people and their support.”
Picklum on her home turf at Terrigal.Credit:Brett Hemmings/Red Bull Content Pool
Hall and Picklum know that support, and the spotlight, can and will snowball with each performance.
It’s a daily conversation, in between “the planning, surfing and piss-taking”, either in-person or down the line as Picklum enters next month’s Rip Curl Pro in Peniche, Portugal, sharing the world No.1 jersey with five-time world champion Carissa Moore.
By April the tour rolls onto home turf at Bells Beach and Margaret River, the scene of the mid-year cut once more.
Only a minor calamity will make it an issue for Picklum this time around. She’s got bigger fish to fry. And be it Moore, Wright or Gilmore – who between them have swept the world titles since 2006 – Picklum is remarkably, refreshingly bullish about taking them on.
“Surfing-wise, I do feel like I can compete with the best in the world,” Picklum says. “And then competitive-wise, you’ve just got to make that shift when it’s your idols. They’re the best in the world and there’s a reason for it. It’s because they don’t want to lose.
“They’re not going to take it easy on you. Beating people like that, who are so intelligent when it comes to competition and strategy, and they’re also the strongest women surfers in the world, that gets me excited.”
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