New WSL women’s surfing champ Molly Picklum says she left surfers at Raglan stunned at her performance when she was in this country last summer.
The 22-year-old wasn’t able to stand up on her board when she visited Aotearoa with her boyfriend after suffering aninjury during the last off-season.
“I injured my foot a week before and I was in a boot. I got out at Raglan because I wanted to get amongst it,” she told the Herald after winning her maiden world title in a finals showdown in Fiji.
“I was kneeboarding – it was pretty funny. Everyone was saying ‘she’s meant to be pretty good at surfing but she’s not even getting to her feet’.”
From the New South Wales Central Coast, Picklum had 10 weeks out before the start of this year’s tour after fracturing a metatarsal while surfing in Indonesia.
She made a full recovery and went into the WSL finals at Cloudbreak in Fiji this week as No 1 seed.
Molly Picklum: "This is the cherry on top of what I've done to my career." Photo / World Surf League
In building surf at Cloudbreak, she came back after going down in the first of the three-heat title match against Caroline Marks, the American Olympic gold medallist and winner of the title in 2023.
Picklum went back-to-back in title match two and three to claim her maiden world title.
While not at its barrelling best, Cloudbreak offered plenty of size with 2m waves for the finals.
“I really feel like this is the cherry on top of what I’ve done to my career and my personal life, really turning things around. It’s such a trip and something you can never take away from me to be a world champion,” she said at the prize giving at the nearby Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay.
The day after the big win, Picklum had some advice for women surfers in New Zealand.
“I’m stoked to hear that there’s plenty of female surfers over there in NZ. It’s the most beautiful thing – surfing is a bucket-list thing, you’ve got to try it, and feel the glide.”
For those wanting to break into the competitive ranks, resilience is key.
“It takes a lot of resilience to achieve anything great in life; it takes a lot of setbacks and [then] rise time after time. Just keep chipping away.”
In the men’s event, Brazil’s Yago Dora, who had also been very consistent this year, claimed victory at Cloudbreak to become the 2025 Lexus WSL Finals Fiji winner and world champion.
It’s Dora’s first world title and he beat hard-charging Griffin Colapinto, from the US, to take the crown, only needing one match-up to do it.
