Caroline Marks set for World Surf League's Final 5 stepladder finals beginning Sept. 8
"Barbie" will just have to wait. So will Billie Eilish and, possibly, even Taylor Swift.
You see, for the past six months, Caroline Marks has been busy — really busy — creating her own brand of entertainment, conquering most of her competition on five continents to establish herself as the No. 3-ranked women's surfer in the world.
Now, in what shakes down as a potential winner-take-all Rip Curl Finals day, the Melbourne Beach native needs just one little half-hour heat win (if at all) to qualify for the 2024 Olympics and three victories from achieving legendary status (if she hasn't already) with her first World Surf League championship.
"It's crazy," said Marks, 21, in a one-on-one interview last week from her home in San Clemente, Calif. "It's like every single heat of the year comes down to these moments; every single heat working toward the Final 5 and the Olympics."
Pressure? You bet. But, she's handled it well already.
After placing ninth in two of the first three events of the season, Marks showed amazing consistency, never finishing below fifth place the remainder of the summer and claiming victories in El Salvador and Tahiti, where competition resumed at the picturesque, challenging site after a 16-year absence.
"It's been such a great and fun year, and winning 'Chopes' (Teahupoʻo on the French Polynesian island, also home to the 2024 surfing portion of the Paris-based Olympics) was a dream event, definitely a highlight," she said.
It's the first time Marks has qualified for the WSL's Final 5 stepladder finals, which was introduced in 2021, and will take place anytime between Sept. 8-16 when officials deem the conditions to be epic.
Simply put, as the No. 3 seed, Marks will face the winner of the Molly Picklum-Caitlin Simmers heat. If Simmers, who lives in Oceanside, Calif., about 25 minutes away, wins that heat, the Marks-Simmers duel will be for the second spot on the USA Olympic team (if Simmers loses her opener, Marks goes directly to the Olympics).
The winner of that heat then faces Australian Tyler Wright, the No. 2 seed, and that winner will battle Hawaii's Carissa Moore, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist, in the Rip Curl Finals grand finale.
The event will be broadcast live onWorldSurfLeague.com and the WSL’s YouTube channel.
"It hasn't really sunk in," Marks said of last month's Tahiti victory, her fifth major WSL title in five seasons, although she took some time off in 2021 and 2022 to pump the brakes on a career she launched as the sport's youngest qualifier at age 15. "To me, there are more goals out there ... and a lot of work to be done.
"But, I'm feeling good — really, excited, is the right word — and really happy to get that opportunity to be here at Lowers. I have a chance!"
The famed Lower Trestles wave break is about "a 10-minute bike ride" from her home in Orange County, an area the family decided to move to several years ago.
"It was a really good decision," Marks said. "Matt Biolos, my shaper, lives nearby and my (previous) coach, Mike Parsons. ... We always came out here (as an amateur) for the summer anyway, since Florida is not the best (for waves) in the summer time. ... It was an easy decision."
Living just a little more than an hour from Hollywood, Marks said she really hasn't come in contact with "celebrity" types.
"Matthew McConaughey came to the event at Sunset (in Oahu, Hawaii). I knew who he was, but he wouldn't know me," Marks said, jokingly.
However, among the global cadre of surfers, Marks has become one of the most visible athletes, with a bubbly personality and an ever-impressive eloquence about her (for the record, not once did she use the word "stoke" during our interview).
Marks has extended her glossary of surfing maneuvers as well.
Known for her consistent, lethal backhand take-offs she first crafted on the peaks at Sebastian Inlet, where she won the only two Florida Pro women's events in 2018-19, she now embraces any type of wave (even man-made) with a deeper arsenal of attack.
Those include the smaller, right points in El Salvador (where she defeated five-time world champion Moore in the semifinals) to the arching barrels in Tahiti, where she dominated eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore, 2016-17 world champion Wright, and Simmers, the 17-year-old California prodigy, all during Finals Day.
"It's been fun surfing on all of the different types of waves on tour; it makes for a well-rounded surfer," Marks said. "... They're all unique waves in different sorts of conditions. I'm definitely more experienced at that, but it's something I want to continue to improve on."
Earlier this week, the WSL provided an analysis of Marks' season, showing all of her highlights, which have been numerous.
Perhaps one reason for the surge is that she turned her full-time coaching duties over to Australian Luke Egan, a four-time winner from 1997-2004 on the men's world circuit.
But, if Cocoa Beach's Kelly Slater says something, she said she's listening.
"Of course, I've seen him at the events and sometimes at Lowers," Marks said. "He's always super nice, and that's cool, too, because he doesn't have to be ... maybe it's just that Florida bonding thing, you know? But, anything he says, I'm there to soak it in."
Slater, an 11-time world champion, is now 51 and still competing at the highest level, something Marks finds hard to fathom she'll be doing 30 years from now.
"That's a really big ask," she said, laughing, pondering the possibilities. "That's a big call. What he's done has been so incredible. It's crazy, wild."
Marks feels her timing has been perfect to launch a career in surfing. This year, for instance, she has cashed in on $436,000, with each of the two victories worth $100,000 in "equal pay" distributions from the men's side. In 2011, women were earning just $15,000 for a victory (and competing in less events), while in 2018, Gilmore first collected a then-high $65,000 when prize money increased, while her male counterparts were already at $100,000.
"I do feel it's good timing," Marks said. "I mean, you look at equal pay, and now the Olympics (she was fourth in Japan in 2021) ... I thank the girls in the generation before me, like Carissa and Steph, who paved the way for me to have this amazing future. For sure, things keep getting better, especially with more eyes on women's surfing."
Her laser-focused efforts this year have prevented her from enjoying some otherwise fun, off-time, but she's ready for a break.
She hopes to watch the movie "Barbie" in October (Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie are two of her favorites), and she'd really like to see a concert by Billie Eilish, her current favorite singer, and perhaps one by Taylor Swift, whom she calls "the queen."
But, first, Marks has a chance to rule her own sport with one big day, especially with her "rather large family" of four brothers, a little sister and her parents on the beach offering support.
"It'd be a special one to win," she said.
"I'm feeling motivated, I feel like I've put the work in ... Let's do this!"
How the Final 5 format works
As the No. 3 seed, Caroline Marks will face the winner of the Molly Picklum-Caitlin Simmers heat. If Simmers, who lives in Oceanside, Calif., abut 25 minutes away, wins that heat, the Marks-Simmers duel will be for the second spot on the USA Olympic team. The winner of that heat faces Australian Tyler Wright, the No. 2 seed, and that winner will battle Hawaii's Carissa Moore in the Rip Curl Finals grand finale.
The event will be broadcast live onWorldSurfLeague.com and the WSL’s YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Caroline Marks set for WSL's Final 5 stepladder finals starting Sept. 8
