Surfing The Rising Tide With Pro Surfers Molly Picklum Caity Simmers

I want to start tonight by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land that we're

gathering on today, the Yugambeh and Konmeri people.

I'd also like to pay my respects to all who have passed and are present.

Massive thanks as well to Kira Beach House for hosting us tonight in this epic venue,

to Red Bull for putting on this amazing event, and the epic Red Bull athletes that are going

to be joining Bez and I up on stage very shortly.

And thanks to you all as well.

It's really, really cool running live events.

They make me really nervous and I don't sleep a lot in weeks in advance.

So to see people in the room is amazing and it's really, really special to have you all

with us tonight.

My name is Chloe Dalton and this is my co-host Bez.

She has a full name.

It's actually Erin Bez Morton, but she is Bez.

She is just Bez.

We are from the Female Athlete Project.

So I started the Female Athlete Project in the garage of my mum and dad's house on the

northern beaches in Sydney, New South Wales.

I'm a female athlete.

Myself, for those who don't know, I've played three different professional sports and I

got really, really frustrated by the lack of media coverage of women's sports.

So I decided to do something about it.

So I started a podcast.

I started originally as a podcast and it's now grown to an amazing social media platform.

We've got over 300,000 followers across our channels and an amazing community of people

who love seeing women in sports succeeding and just women succeeding in general.

So it's really quite amazing to do live events like this and see.

People's faces coming up and showing up to support some epic female athletes that we

have here for you guys tonight.

I'm going to hand over to Bez.

Yeah.

Just to echo what Chloe said, it is amazing to see you all in the flesh.

We do spend a lot of time, we feel like kind of shouting into the ether on social media

so to actually be able to shout to you in real life is really nice.

So I have the absolute pleasure and honour to introduce Katie Simmers to you all.

In 2021, Katie Simmers made global headlines.

By winning the iconic US Open of surfing at just 15 years old, the second youngest champion

in the event's history, despite qualifying for the championship tour after that win,

she made the bold call to not join the tour, continue to develop her skills and maybe get

an education, stay in school kids, that's what that message is there.

She officially joined the tour in 2023 and wasted no time winning the Mio Pro in Portugal

and the Rio Pro to claim Rookie of the Year in 2024.

Katie truly made her mark.

Taking out the Pipe Pro with a powerful performance and delivering the now iconic line that we

will get to later.

She followed up with wins at Bells and Rio, once again finishing the year as world number

one at just 18 years, 10 months and 12 days old, Katie Simmers became the youngest ever

world champion in professional surfing.

Next up, we're going to welcome to the stage the legend that is Molly Picklum, come on

up.

Molly joined the WSL Championship Tour in 2022 and by her second season, she was already

on top of the world.

She took the podium, claiming her first CT win at the 2023 Hurley Pro Sunset Beach in

Hawaii.

In 2024, Molly delivered a history-making moment at Pipeline, scoring the first ever

perfect 10 in the women's event for an unforgettable moment in the semi-final.

She narrowly missed the win in the final against some girl named Katie Simmers.

Her performance cemented her place among the sports elite.

She bounced back just weeks later, taking out her second consecutive Hurley Pro.

She's now in the final.

She's now in the final.

Or the final.

And her first ever singing Anchor printersOS is an unconditional winner of the World Series

Christom System aqui, she's no longer young at all, she's 13.

YOUR FIRST PARTNER FOR WSLников Vparu

3 Kimberley

Igood lancer

What a beauty.

What a incredible guest, Kimberley.

Thanks for being with us.

I know You got to like hang out at home with her.

So do I.

was called off for three days we've been I don't know sitting around and eating a lot of twisties

and not doing a lot what do you guys get up to as surfers when you have multiple lay days in a row

um try to figure out how to we were just talking about this right before this um just try to figure

out how to like do nothing I feel like because it's kind of hard I feel like because the reason

we're both here is because we can't do nothing and we have to like keep doing things and working

towards the next goal and whatever you're trying to do and we just like both try really hard so

when you're like have some free days and you know it's good to rest but it's pretty hard to do still

so just try to figure out how to do that yeah for sure I think um the common theme this year with

the schedule being so congested and tired it's definitely um we do and are trying to do nothing

on the days that we do have no competition just because there's so much flight and jet lag and

all that sort of stuff but um to give you guys an actual outlook of

what it looks like still get up and um get into the day for me still keeping the comp routine going

um and then go surf burley or something and then um go have a good lunch cruise if the body feels

tired do something about it but if not kick the feet up and maybe go for a little fun afternoon

surf but um yeah it's it's a good life I guess it's interesting you say that I think a lot of

professional athletes struggle to switch off so it must be very hard

for you guys we'll start in regards to reflecting on your amazing kind of rivalry that's I think

you know developing as we see it which is just so cool so let's talk about the pipeline pro in 2024

so obviously everyone in this room knows that pipe is no joke the wave on the north shore of

Hawaii is a genuine wave consequence like let's be real that day it was pumping molly we'll start

with you in the semi-final of that event you scored the first perfect 10 by a woman at pipe

being spat out of an insane backdoor barrel take us through that moment yeah um firstly I was up

against Betty Lou and um being in Hawaii the Hawaiians just have such an advantage it's just

like they get to surf the wave they get called into waves and pipeline's known for its heaviest

crowds and the heaviest waves but um practicing is really hard and I think as us females being

out there we're really learning on the fly and um I think Katie and I have had some cool moments

where it's like well we're all in this deep end but it's so cool that we're like

going as a sport and as people all in the same time we're trying to burst each other and rip

each other's heads off but um yeah Betty Lou so she's like Hawaiian I just remember thinking well

this is like the final if I I've got to go big there's every minute counts and um I just remember

that this wave came in and um it didn't stand up on the reef the same as what every wave does it

kind of went underneath and I just thought like please I hope she's like waiting for the gem you

I was thinking just please sit in that for a little bit and the wave kind of came in and it sat under

but it had a nice line and I didn't have priority and um I guess it wasn't good enough for her to go

so I swung late and just gave it a crack and um obviously I'm so stoked I did

I love that it's really cool and Katie for you just reflecting on that moment Bez is gonna repeat

your quote because she loves it so much so we're gonna get to that in a sec but for you that moment

winning a pipe like just reflecting on the history and what that moment means for women in surfing

I was like oh my god that was a very beautiful wave that you got that was yeah I was watching it I was like I don't know um but yeah I mean I don't know like just that day was like

it was just pretty special because I feel like none of us like everyone was making a big deal

out of it after it happened but the day it happened no one knew it was gonna be like

or I didn't know it was gonna be like historical because you're kind of just terrified to go out

there because yeah it's one of the most dangerous waves in the world and you kind of it's just so

terrifying so when you wake up and you like go there and you see what's going on in the ocean

you're pretty just terrified and it puts you right in the moment and you can't really think of

any moment after that day so it's like yeah that's kind of how it is you're just you don't know

you're just like trying to get the courage to go out there I think

yeah that's I I remember genuinely watching that moment live in my lounge room um and I think you

captured that really well you're not thinking about you know what you're going through it's

it's just a really authentic reaction to we've done this first of all we survived like and

having it on the reef in pieces it's definitely survival yeah and yeah it's an interesting one

like Chloe touched on that that reflection piece sometimes it takes time to get toward

to that um so just obviously because I do love it I literally stood up in my lounge room and

punched the air when you said pipeline is the fucking girls that's all I have to say

yeah I'm trying to say less upwards yeah you know what you just bit you um I guess you probably

already answered that but from from your perspective was that something that you went

out there thinking about you know that it obviously has been such a male dominated territory

I guess in a certain way or was that just

an authentic reaction to what you guys have just you know served up I think it was a little bit

of both like I went into that heat definitely with that on my mind of like it's pretty cool

how the girls are just kind of taking over pipe right now because it doesn't like yeah when there's

free surfs going on like all the boys rule it pretty hard and it's very hard to catch wave and

I think probably I don't know if Molly would have the same answer but I've honestly I've never gotten

like a good wave

there other than in the contest hey but back to your point about the what she was saying do you

remember paddling out and you said whoever wins this heat has to say this yeah yeah he's gonna do

has to say and I was kind of like uh uh uh like I mean you won the last calm you get fine pretty

and I was remember actually kind of stoked that you won and you actually said it but no um but did

you actually plan it because you did come out and you said that to me no yeah I fully yeah that's

true

she was looking at herself in the mirror in the morning tell myself in the morning but I didn't

believe it and then by the end of the day I was I think I believed it pretty hard but yeah see it's

like crazy when you win something and then you don't really have time to process it and then

someone just comes up to you with a microphone and you just kind of have to spit something out and

I like didn't want to just it's hard to think of just like the generic answers in those moments

because you're feeling like you're going to win and you're going to win and you're going to win and

you're feeling so much different things and especially at pipe you're feeling the feelings

that all the feelings from a contest and then you're also feeling it from like surfing away

that could kill you kind of thing and so yeah it was a lot of emotions and then yeah I just said it

and it just came out and yeah before the heat I was like telling molly like whoever wins

has to say ends I like that molly's there just to fact check you just to make sure you're telling

the truth molly if we look ahead to next week we're going to be doing a little bit of a

next year the structure of the WSL tour is changing so the final event of the tour will

be the pipe masters and it'll be worth 1.5 times more than the other events the thought of doing

that maths makes my head a bit confused but as someone who surfed in that final does it add more

pressure to an event like that um yeah I think firstly myself and Katie's probably pretty excited

about that um obviously had so much success there and just what a what a wave to have a contest like

that um but the pressure I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't

know it's like the announcement of the 2026 tour and everything that's going to come for us is

so far you know we're still in the 2025 season and we've got to go to Fiji and win that but

um I don't it's not that much pressure I don't think um but I've never done it so I can't speak

I think we'll come back and ask me after you know let's see how I actually go how do you feel um I

also feel like because it's pipe it's like different than another event like you're almost

I just feel pressure to be out there because it's just terrifying so it's like you're not really

thinking as much about like the points and all the math and all that you're just thinking about

like right there it's a it's a it's a it's a crazy it is a crazy thought to think that you

are literally competing in a sport that could kill you yeah serious don't I mean insurance people

anyone and he just cover your ears you don't want to hear that um did you want to say something oh

I'll just say it's interesting like seeing Carissa and Steph um turn up to world title events that

they're comfortable in and you can see the inner competitor come out but when there's a wave where

like you feel scared and like the competition and your rival or something like a world title that

may be not big enough to get you over the ledge of some of these waves and I think um for a lot

of us potentially that's probably where the pressure will come in and really see how much

people want it and I think that's what we'll see there and um I think that's ultimately why it's

yeah that's another change that's a good point right yeah so another major change to the structure

is that they'll no longer be that finals day with the top five competing so for those of you that

weren't aware the champ will return to being awarded to the surfer with the highest amount

of points after all 12 stops um so Katie last year you had the most points heading into the

finals day at lower trestles and you went on to win the WSL finals anyway proving unequivocally

that you were the best last year which is amazing what do you think about the change to the structure

season in regards to you know how you prepare is there a different approach to how you look at the

contests leading into that um I think it's pretty similar just because at the end of the year you're

still trying to be first even if it's the final five or not but I think I'm I'm excited because

it's kind of like it's definitely exciting but it's definitely a little bit less fair to do the

back to the normal way but yeah it's definitely makes it exciting to watch like I've never not

watched the final five contests it's like pretty hard to pass up chatting Olympics for a second

Molly coming to you you guys got to both um make your Olympic debuts what did it feel like

um obviously you're competing in an individual sport but what did it feel like to wear your

country's colors and and go out and know that you were representing the green and gold like you would

know actually the same thing I got a tattoo here you made it except you deserve the tattoo because

you actually got gold it's like the craziest feeling obviously going around the world on the

WSL tour um competing for yourself but I do feel like I compete for my country on that tour because

we're such a like surf culture it's so rich here and um so I do feel like I'm surfing on behalf of

every single person in this room when I'm on that tour but the Olympics is so different it's just

like every single person gets behind you

on a whole nother level because I think people will look at the Olympics that it comes around

every four years and they just want to watch someone and get behind something and people

may not even know what surfing is or what the ocean is but they're just keen I don't know who

in the show that doesn't know what the ocean is but if they didn't that was still behind me and

they're like excited to like see me do something um and yeah it just like opens up a whole different

support system and fans for the sport and um I think I really felt that and it didn't add

pressure by any means I I just wanted to do them proud and yeah it was a

really cool experience and I think it gave me the fire to really want that

um in surfing it's like the world title is so historic and it's just iconic to win that for

us and it's still a big thing the world title and I think the gold medal is right up there for me

that experience really taught me how big being an Olympic gold medalist really is and um that's

something I strive for and aspire to for sure um yeah I think for me I don't know if you had the

same experience but after the Olympics

it was like probably triple the amount of people that like came up to me and recognized me at home

and like just people that didn't surf I feel like even did so yeah I feel like that's like

in surfing it might be like yeah we've had the WSL for it and it's like the world title is kind of

like the goal but for everyone else they just like it's like a gold medal like there's nothing

bigger than a gold medal and so yeah I agree it definitely has become

one of my goals of like that would be pretty and like crazy to win a gold medal do you know

where they're going to be surfing in la yeah yeah it's going to be trestles yeah so that's great

so speaking about locations earlier this year you both made the final at surf abu dhabi so

obviously the ua isn't really known for its surf hence the wave pool um molly how do you prepare

for an event in a wave pool is it any different um yeah the wave pool is so different for sure

obviously we have sand between our toes or some rocks um but that was just like straight concrete

and then straight into water and yeah yeah it's way different it's like um but then coming from

hawaii i was actually really happy because you could only your preparation was set for you there

was no like

as a surfer there's always more waves to catch there's always more time you can put in there's

always like more more more but there it was just like cut you get your full like your few waves

that day and then go and find something else fun to do and i was actually lucky i had my boyfriend

there so we played that much ping pong and karaoke and like picked up all these new hobbies but um

yeah it is very different but it's actually refreshing and it gives me a lot of energy to

just attack an event differently and i think that's what worked well for me to just be able

to switch off and then switch on just for the

moments that we were needed and katie you're a really talented skater i was about to say surfer

yes she's a very talented surfer skater as well are there similarities in the preparation that's

how i picture it in my mind that it goes i'm not good at either of those sports can you tell

i've never done i don't know i've never done a skate contest i i don't know but in terms of like

just the consistency of what's there it's yeah it's exactly the same

it's like you're gonna get the same section you can kind of plan what you want to do so in that

sense it's very similar sorry it's interesting kind of contrast to surfing out there not knowing

what's going to come at you to a wave pool where you're like okay like you said you're gonna know

when the section comes and stuff yeah i feel like surfing is so spontaneous in that sense like

you're making these little decisions where it's like like half of a second decisions where it's

like even when a wave's coming to you and you're in a you're in a heat it's 30 minutes and you're

in like a decision you make in like three seconds is going to affect the rest of the 30 minutes so

there's so much that goes into a heat that's beyond just surfing on the wave and so i think

when it comes down to just surfing on a wave it like takes off a pressure but it adds so much more

of a pressure of like oh it just comes down to your surfing and so it's yeah it definitely adds

more pressure in my opinion to like just surf good because that's all it is

yeah i can see that like you said you you're able to plan it so you've got to be able to do

your best yeah did you plan it yeah i planned it a little bit i yeah for sure i think because you

won and i didn't did you plan it i guess a little bit i kind of worked on the tempo of the wave

because obviously the same speed but i will say when you're out there and it is dead quiet and

also we didn't have a crowd for the practice days and i thought it was going to be this big party

like oh it's so fun like we're here in town and whatever and there was no

one that was so quiet besides like the three surfers that were surfing with you

and um i just remember like you hear the machine coming down and as it's coming closer and closer

it starts as nothing but you can hear it just like start roaring down and then it just slowly

comes up and there's only one wave so it's not like in the urban surf when there's these heaps

of waves i'll miss that one go the next one and i remember being so stressed that i just like

miss the one wave and it literally tortures you for 45 seconds like anyways i didn't miss it so

in a heat that can happen like you can actually miss your wave or get your leg rope caught around

your foot and i just remember seeing the time tick down and just think oh my gosh okay just

make the takeoff and the rest is simple from there stand up first you'll be sweet yeah it's like a big

also to put the image in your head to paint the picture a little better there's like a huge

um i also like the fact that she mentioned that like my toes didn't even touch the sand at all

when i was there which was kind of weird

when i thought about it because i was like every event we're like either touching sand or rocks

and it was yeah just concrete um but yeah there's a huge like train looking thing that makes the

wave so you're also just looking at this huge fast train when you're like also thinking about

every possible thing that could go wrong like oh my toe my leash could be in my toe i could fall

on the drop i could miss the wave like everything goes

so

you just try to be like all right just try to plan your run a little bit

so the the moral of the story is too much time to think is not good

so moving out of the water for a little bit um what do you do to look after your mental health

outside of the water so starting with you molly heard you quite the keen golfer is that something

that helps you unwind i've definitely had this golf story sung to me but i do love it um and

i guess back in the day back in the day like i'm real old and stuff

um but it's been like a couple years a few years um yeah we're not like came on tour katie

funnily enough our relationship started because she didn't want to go on tour and i thought sweet

i'll take it um so i stole her spot and went on and then i got cut but the the rebound after that

was really hard i think it was just like i felt like i had the ability and it everything matched

up my belief but in reality it didn't i was cut i wasn't good enough i got sent back and

um that was really hard to deal with and swallow and i think from that moment i hung on really

tight and just thought i'm gonna work harder and do more do more do more and um that didn't work

because surfing is a flow sport and you've got to be in the moment and reading what's happening and

my surfing went down a real deep hole and i didn't let it go down too far because i was willing to do

whatever to make sure that didn't happen so they said like um i was working with glenn at the time

a really good friend and coach and um he was like let's just get away from the water you know like

you gotta trust that you're good at it so just let let loose and um i went and played golf

um and the swing was so bad that it could only get better so i enjoyed chasing that

um bug and yeah golf kind of helped me but to go back to your point of the mental thing katie and i

like look at each other every few events like how you doing you know like this is this is tough it's

like we're kids we're learning we're now adults we're growing as humans but also trying to push

our bodies and run this crazy life around the world and um compete against each other

but uh it's pretty cool honestly what we have and how we can lean on each other at times and

then also like really compete and have fun with each other yeah i love that being able to be aware

of each other's pressures is super special and how about you katie katie how do you decompress

um yeah chase golf balls around or no no i don't i don't do much golf but it is a good point because

there's like not much people that do what we do so it's like really good to talk to someone that

you do to relate to because yeah i agree it's like when you can't surf good it's like seems like

such a small problem but for a person that it's their job and their whole life revolves around it

then everything else starts to fall apart because it sounds stupid when you're like oh i have a bad

session like everything's terrible but it's like that's how it feels when you're when everything

you've you have is like kind of from surfing and so once bad session can lead to like

having another bad session and then it just leads to so much pain even though it sounds like kind of

dumb but we just can't complain anywhere else besides between us like no one else wants to hear

being like i can't surf right now i'm trying to think of something i actually do what do you do

meditate you read i read i write i try to like organize my brain on like a piece of paper

i feel like that's good yeah like

you try to get like that that's the goal i like that see yeah that to simplify it is it actually

no i don't know just read write uh play music listen to music go in the ocean body surf

to i don't know yeah i like it bringing us back to the gold coast and the competition hoping

there's some surf tomorrow and it's on katie in the round of 16 you've drawn a wild card which i

imagine is usually like a

young kid you know like a local and then you get eight-time world champion steph gilmore

yeah it's sad i'm sad that's what that's all how do you prepare to come up against

someone as experienced and successful as steph um i just have to surf my

surf my best and yeah that's kind of it and i mean it's like an honor also to surf with her

i just wish it was kind of later in the contest but but i don't know that's kind of what just what

happens i don't know yeah it's a rough draw for you um yeah i agree there might be someone here

today that can sort that out surely um god so you guys as we spoke about you simply developing one

of you know the best rivals we've seen in women's surfing there's definitely no doubt about that

when it like what you kind of touched on before when you get out of the water you're going to be

the first to celebrate each other's win so a question for both of you what does that relationship

mean to each of you um yeah i mean i feel like i kind of just what i said earlier of like

no one really like i mean i have a lot of really good friends at home but they just

they don't have the same lifestyle as me and it's so like to have i guess we just understand each

other that i feel like that's like the simplest way to put it is because we kind of have like

the same minds we all tend to have the same minds we all tend to have different ways of thinking so

we like beat each other or not beat each other up beat ourselves up a lot because yeah we're here

so we're like really hard on ourselves and like perfectionists and so I think just to have someone

to talk to about that kind of thing is like just important and so we understand each other even

though we have to like compete against each other and sometimes that sucks that you have to compete

against your friend but that's like I feel like we just understand that like when you're in a jersey

you're in a jersey and that's you're gonna try to beat each other and then outside of it you should

probably like celebrate each other because you're sure because we're friends our coaches tell us we

have to yeah I think though what Katie's saying is true like we just feel we're not alone and I

think that's a really important message from what I've learned in surfing but in life it's like you

never it's never as bad or as

good as it seems and I think we both hold the mirror up for each other in that

along the ride and yeah it's pretty funny though the whole rivalry thing it's definitely coming

about and I kind of lean into it sometimes lean out of it at others and it's kind of coming into

this whole story that it is cool but it's definitely like we're friends and it's not as

like rogue and raw and entertaining because we don't like punch each other on the beach but

yeah in the water though it's like our relationship like our funnest moments I think is when we're

versing each other and trying to beat each other

um almost memorable definitely in the water so um yeah the rivalry shall continue yeah definitely

I feel like we make each other surf the best I don't know I feel like you make me surf the best

yeah no for sure you can say that for both of us yeah I feel like we make each other surf better

and that's like what you want I feel like you want to surf better so and as you know friend yeah

I want to you guys are obviously great athletes but I want to take a moment as well to acknowledge

a couple of people we got in the room with us we know

Jesse Miley Dyer former surfer and WSL commissioner as well um and Pauline Mensah just here as well

uh 93 world surfing champ 20 CT event wins 2018 surfing hall of fame inductee and we know an

athlete like Pauline didn't get the level of respect and media coverage that she deserved

after an incredible surfing career how do you guys kind of balance um acknowledging greatness

that's come before you in women's surfing but also like as that next generation of young kids

what do you want to do and how do you want to lead the world in surfing and how do you want to lead the

way for the next gen coming through yeah for sure um I think like you said where you drew

inspiration from um with the podcast it's like you felt these defeats in life and you do something

about it and we are so grateful and privileged to have the pathways that we have because of

ladies like Pauline and the things they put up with put up with and just push through like

pushing through the boundaries that are created whether that's from being female or just being

new to a sport whatever it is in life and um we're truly grateful and we're getting to live

this amazing life because of what they've done and what they've persisted through and we're

forever grateful and all of us on tour really do talk about that and um and what they do it's like

the surfing that they did was wasn't different like in ways of consequence they charged probably

harder than us and there's some crazy clips out there and um yeah ultimately we're just so grateful

to take that and run with it you know and um just keep making the sport bigger and better and try

and go bigger faster stronger whatever that is and um yeah I feel like that's kind of how we feel

if you want to add anything yeah I feel like women's surfing has always been what it is

but it's just like there's I feel like there's just more eyes on it right now so then it's like

blowing up and but like it's always been there's always been girls that charge there's always been

like yeah so it's just like it's all happening now but it's all happening because of like yeah

like the women before us that kind of were paved the way yeah paved the way

and when you think about the kids that come after you Katie what do you is there anything that comes

to mind about the future that you want to see for them I think yeah I think it's in pretty good hands

I'm not worried like I think just like and me like 14 or 15 they're like so good and so I'm just

worried I guess I'm not worried I'm worried for myself but I'm not worried for them yeah that's

that's what I meant that's what I meant when I said

I actually could see how that could be taken wrong but I really meant that I'm not worried

for them for the future of the women surfing because yeah there's some really good girls

coming up they can boost some airs and get some barrels I love that um conscious of time we're

gonna wrap it there but I just wanted to say thank you to the two of you it's been really cool like

we've seen you from afar we obviously love what you do and the personalities that you have on

tour but it's actually really cool kind of just seeing you two interact with each other as well

you're such different personalities but the relationship that you guys have is really special

so thank you for sharing your personal stories with us tonight and then sharing so openly with

us I've loved it I imagine everyone in the room has loved it as well so can we please put our

hands together for Molly good talk I said good talk thanks so much for listening if you got

something out of this episode I would absolutely love it if you could send it on to one person who

you think might enjoy it otherwise subscribe give us a review and make sure you follow us on

at the female athlete project to stay up to date with podcast episodes merch drops and of course

news and stories about epic female athletes