Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Molly Picklum has already achieved surfing’s greatest accolade, but Australia’s reigning world champion has unfinished business at Bells Beach.
The 23-year-old is looking to start her world title defence with a bang, with this year’s World Surf League tour getting underway this week – the first event at the famed Victorian surf break.
Picklum said the Rip Curl Pro was an event she desperately wanted to win.
“There’s always a little asterisk next to the Bells Beach event and ringing that bell,” Picklum told AAP.
“I just think so many people talk about it and how iconic it is and just the value on it is so high for us surfers.
“Just the names that are on the stairs when you’re running down, I’d love for my name to be etched in those stairs.”
Picklum came closest in 2023 when she finished runner-up to Tyler Wright, but the NSW Central Coast surfer felt it wasn’t meant to be.
The final was decided at the next break – Winkipop – but Picklum wanted to savour a victory in the iconic Bells bowl.
“I was so close, but I think everything happens for a reason and winning over at Winki, how it was, wouldn’t have felt like as iconic if I got to win out here on the bowl, so hopefully we get waves throughout here,” she said.
“There’s a lot of challenges that I’ve faced around this event and just the wave, it’s quite hard, I don’t think it suits my style of surfing that I typically like, but it’s good, it’s a challenge.”
The start of the 2026 tour was pushed back from January to April, with three events in Australia to open the season.
Among other changes, there’s no longer a five-surfer winner-take-all final to decide the world title while organisers have also done away with the repechage round, meaning surfers can be eliminated from the opening heat.
“It’s like that home-ground advantage and then other people probably have an opposing opinion to that of saying ‘Oh the hometown pressure’,” Picklum said.
“I don’t know; I’m so grateful to be around my people and so proud to be Australian, so to stay on land as much as possible is nice and hopefully do my country proud to start the season, and obviously that benefits me personally leading into the rest of the season.”Five surfers gathered for the media day, including defending men’s Bells champion West Australian Jack Robinson and five-time women’s world champion Carissa Moore, who is returning to the tour after becoming a mum.
But Stephanie Gilmore, who is also back after a two-year hiatus, was an obvious no-show despite being seen in the water earlier in the morning.
Organisers weren’t sure if it was miscommunication or whether the eight-time world champion wanted to avoid the spotlight as she makes her return to competition.
Picklum expected Gilmore and Moore to return to the sport hungry for more success.
“I don’t know what they’re going to bring, and I bet they don’t too, you know they haven’t competed for a while.
“But I have a little inkling that they’re going to be pretty fired up and I don’t believe you lose things from time away from the water and I think you can find motivation and it makes you hungry.
“That’s why it’s so exciting, like we have the really young kids coming in that are pushing the level of women’s sport and then we have the veterans who undoubtedly know the ins and outs of this tour.”
