Yep, top of the mountain. Photo by Cait Miers//World Surf League
Championship Tour surfers don’t spend a ton of time at “home” throughout the year. Take 2025, for example, when the CT season kicked off in the last half of January on the North Shore. The league has visited more than a half-dozen countries since, including opposite coasts in Australia and its two U.S. events split between the North Shore and the mainland, all in the span of about seven months. Add in pre-event downtime athletes use to freesurf and familiarize themselves with the waves for each oncoming comp, and there is very little time to spend at home with family and friends.
It’s safe to assume first-time world champ Molly Picklum had a hectic year leading up to this week’s WSL Finals in Fiji. It’s also safe to assume life is about to get even more hectic now that she’s toting around a trophy and is back home in New South Wales. She’ll have nonstop media commitments, morning show appearances, and the list goes on. Who knows what that whirlwind will feel like compared to the nonstop travel of tour life? But one thing we all can relate to is getting off a long flight home and being greeted by a loved one you’re excited to see.
Picklum was given a fitting welcome at the airport in Australia this week.
“That feels so unreal. It’s still a bit of a spin out for us,” her mom said in the airport. “It still just feels like Molly for us.”
“When I’m doing interviews and they introduce me (as a world champion), I’m like, ‘Whoa, that’s me,'” Molly says.
New Australian world surfing champion Molly Picklum received a hero’s welcome in Sydney today, with the 22-year-old vowing to follow in the footsteps of Steph Gilmore and Layne Beachley. https://t.co/OF81oZXOfr pic.twitter.com/RZ4IhTkjAf
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) September 4, 2025
