With 20 minutes to go in semifinal one of the women’s Hurley Pro Sunset Beach 2024, Molly Picklum drops to the bottom of a large well-groomed blue canvas, bides her time patiently as she waits for the section to rear its head and with full aggression and no hesitation she hits the oncoming vertical lip. Fully extended, clinging onto her board with nothing but her toes, she airdrops out the sky and somehow avoids being detonated by the whitewater.
She passionately punches the air and is unfortunate to only be given a 9.67 for the turn. However, her counterpart Brisa Hennessy has no answer and Molly moves onto the final.
The 21-year-old Australian went onto win the event and in doing so picked up a number of accolades.
She heads into Portugal in the yellow Jersey after a second in the first event of the season at Pipe, she is the first woman to claim back-to-back victories at Sunset since Layne Beachley in 1999 and 2000 and she may have just won the subjective award for the best turn ever completed by a woman.
“This was probably one of the best, most critical turns that has been laid out by any of the women all event,” said Felicity Palmateer in the commentary booth.
According to social media, Flick’s comment and the judges’ 9.67 were an understatement, as many took to the comments section to declare Molly’s efforts as the best turn in women’s surfing history.
It seems the WSL have got a tight hand on those Yeti coolers. However, the league’s social media team also went onto describe the turn as the ‘biggest hammer in women’s history’.
Nathan Florence labeled the turn as “crazy”, Tom Carroll described Molly as “freakin gold” and Jacko Baker said “Pickles is a beast”.
The ladies had already been commended for their show-stealing performance on finals day at Pipe last week when they were given an opportunity to surf in pristine Pipe conditions.
The day was a watershed moment for women’s competitive surfing as the Gen-Z contingent of Molly, Brisa, Caity Simmers and Bettlylou Sakura Johnson led the charge by hucking themselves over the ledge into numerous Pipe caverns, proving that they belong at one of the most dangerous waves in the world.
Three of those four also appeared in the semi-finals at Sunset, with Caity losing to Brisa in the Quarterfinals during a wave-starved heat in which Caity waited over 20 minutes to catch her one and only wave, which came in at a mere 2.00.
While there wasn’t quite the same drama and number of excellent scores as there was at Pipe, Molly’s hammer acts as another stand-out moment in a season which has seen the bar of women’s competitive surfing raised once already.
The turn was so critical on such a vertical part of the wave and the level of difficulty in air dropping back down and riding out of the turbulent white wash is like nothing that’s been seen before from the ladies.
To do it at Sunset should also be commended given how tricky it is to surf due to the random nature of the lineup and unpredictability of each wave.
On the other side of the draw, the men also displayed a series of heroics as they man-handled their way through the large open face walls that Sunset had to offer.
While local Hawaiian John John Florence looked like he was going to be unstoppable in the earlier rounds, he eventually ran into a South African brick wall in the quarter finals as Jordy Smith used his combination of man hacks and tube riding ability to knock John John out of the event.
You could be forgiven for thinking the 6”3 power house would ultimately be the favourite to carry on and win the event, but he was ousted by Kanoa Igarashi who surfed smartly and predominantly within the seven range throughout the day to make the final.
However, sevens were not enough to beat Jack Robinson in the final who combo’d Kanoa for the majority of the heat, with a 8.17 and a 9.87, which, similar to Molly, was arguably deserving of a Yeti cooler.
Having already questioned what lay ahead after some phenomenal performances at Pipe from both the women and the men, it seems I could find myself writing more articles about rewriting history if this level of surfing continues throughout the season.
