The mind games of Molly Picklum: From ‘just couldn’t surf’ to a world title

3 weeks ago 9

Just three years ago, would-be world surfing champion Molly Picklum couldn’t surf to save herself.

The only real lull of her young career to date had her battling to even stay upright in small South African waves, the noise rattling around her head loud enough to drown out anything Teahupo’o or Pipeline could offer.

Picklum was trying far too hard. Beating herself up and according to her then-coach Glenn Hall, “Molly just couldn’t surf it, just could not complete a wave” because of anxiety issues.

Considering the 22-year-old’s current lot in life, the tale is instructive. So too, the impromptu, mid-season obsession switch to golf, “because you literally cannot grip a golf club too tightly”, that pulled Picklum out of her funk.

“I used to be in my head a lot, wanting to be ‘go, go, go’ all the time,” she says.

“I’m still in my head. But I’ve worked on accepting that. That’s who I am, that’s my brain. And it’s my strength if I can work with it.”

Right now, Picklum is killing time on island time in Fiji, waiting for the famed Cloudbreak wave to come to the party with a swell worthy of a WSL final. Next Tuesday looks like finals day, and what’s a few more to wait? Provided you’re comfortable in your own competitive skin of course.

Molly Picklum in the thick of a Teahupo’o barrel.

For the past six weeks, Picklum has had the prospect of a maiden world title dangled in front of her. A mid-year WSL rule change made it so that if she finished the regular season as world No.1, then a finals triumph and the title would be hers by winning just a single, 40-minute heat.

Molly Picklum, aged 14, with surfing icon Layne Beachley after attending her juniors camp.

Two weeks ago in Tahiti, Picklum dominated fearsome Teahupo’o barrels like few women have ever done to bring that scenario to life.

Ever since, the chance to join her own heroes like Layne Beachley, Stephanie Gilmore and Tyler Wright as Australia’s female world champions has loomed so very large.

Particularly given aside from a few days at home on the Central Coast, doing laundry and repairing boards, she and the rest of the top five have been waiting for waves.

A whole fortnight to dwell on that 40-minute heat. Three years ago when Picklum confronted her own mental misgivings in South Africa, she stepped back.

With a world title beckoning as she savoured a few days in the Central Coast house she recently bought for her and her mum Danielle, she stepped toward them.

“I’ve seen a lot of champions or winners in any sport really put that emotion and focus to the side leading into a title or whatever,” Picklum says.

“And then you see emotion and everything hits them afterwards.

“But I think I’m a bit different. I was wandering around my house seeing old boards and old photos, things would come back to me and I really got into this big reflection of the past couple of years.

“I just had these feelings of being really proud of myself and what’s happened, what I’ve achieved. It was a trip-out and surprised me a bit.

“And I realised I know exactly how it feels to have this in front of me. It’s everything I want. Thinking about a world title and some of the champions before me, it just makes sense when I look at where I’ve come from and the life I lead.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of the emotion and anticipation actually out of the way through that. Now that I’m here in Fiji, this is just fun.”

Even with all that waiting. When the swell does finally arrive, it’s touted as “the swell of the year”. The finals could well switch to nearby ‘Restaurants’ break to snag the best waves available. Either way, big, fast barrels are predicted.

And either way, Picklum will be watching and waiting a little longer. As the No.1 seed, the Australian star will watch her rivals work through a full day of heats to determine who she faces.

All the while, thoughts of ‘one more heat’, ‘just 40 minutes’, never too far away.

“Don’t worry,” she laughs. “I know it’s coming. Finals is going to be such a crazy, chaotic day because it’s all back-to-back heats, but I’ll be hanging out and watching most of it.

“I think previously, my mental approach and natural way of really focusing and constantly thinking about things, I’d treat it as a bad thing or a weakness.

“Now I try and take things at face value. I don’t get annoyed at myself for locking onto my performance.

“My life goes fast enough for me now that I can really cruise when I get the chance and treat a rest day or down time as actually that.”