Surfing
Surfing
Meet surfing's newest world champion, Caroline Marks
Caroline Marks grew up in Florida, before moving to California in pursuit of a world title. After achieving her life goal at just 21 she now has her sights on Tahitian gold. Read on to learn more.
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To say American surfer Caroline Marks is getting the job done would be an understatement, but the supremely talented goofyfooter has been doing things on her own terms since she first taught herself to surf at the grand old age of seven.
Marks's crowning moment
© Pat Nolan/World Surf League
Caroline Marks, world champion!
From standing on a surfboard to standing on podiums at the highest level, Marks's trajectory has been stratospheric. She qualified for the WSL Championship Tour in 2017, won Rookie Of The Year in 2018, then took out two Championship Tour events to finish second in the world in 2019, before becoming surfing's youngest ever Olympian at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
In 2023 Marks surfed off in the Final 5 at Lower Trestles for the first time, after a regular season that included two more Championship Tour wins. While she had fought for a world title at the last event of the year once before – narrowly losing to five-time world champion Carissa Moore at Honolua Bay in 2019 – this was her first time competing at the single day WSL Finals. After finishing third at the end of the regular season Marks needed to defeat Caitlin Simmers, then beat two-times world champion Tyler Wright and Moore to earn her maiden crown.
The Caroline Marks hook that landed her a world title
© Cait Miers/World Surf League
Marks took the win in convincing fashion, defeating Moore in straight sets in the best-of-three match-up in front of an adoring crowd of Floridian family and new found friends from California.
Caroline Marks and a whole heap of Floridian love
© Thiago Diz/World Surf League
"There are so many people here who're supporting me and so many people who love me. No matter what happened, that’s so cool. That’s a win in itself. I just felt the mojo today. I’ve been surfing really well, and I feel like I did a lot of preparation for this day. I put in a lot of work."
"After my first few waves I just felt like I was in a good rhythm. Honestly, I just kept thinking, I’m surfing Lowers with no one out. I was focusing on that. And then before I knew it, I was in the final, and I took the win."
World titles are incredible achievements at any age, but at just 21 they're nigh on impossible. How did Caroline Marks deliver on the hype that her prodigious childhood suggested was real? Read on below for a brief lesson on the life and times of our favorite Floridian-turned-Californian new world champ.
01
Walking on water
"You started surfing on a Friday," Darren Marks tells his eldest daughter Caroline, about her exploits as a seven-year-old, "And by the following Sunday you went from barely being able to stand up to actually doing turns!
A young Caroline Marks takes to the high seas as father Darren watches on
© Courtesy of Marks Family
Caroline Marks isn't afraid of breaking new ground. At just 13 years of age the girl from Melbourne Beach, Florida surfed in the Swatch Pro at Lower Trestles as a wildcard, becoming the youngest Championship Tour competitor in history along the way.
A few years later Marks made history as the youngest surfer to qualify for the WSL's Championship Tour, before becoming surfing's youngest ever Olympian when she represented the Stars and Stripes in Tokyo, a year after turning 18.
Athough young, Caroline Marks quickly proved she belongs in the big leagues
© Trevor Moran
02
Greece is the word!
In 2017, right as Marks's campaign to qualify for the Championship Tour was gaining momentum, she and her family went on a surf trip of a very different kind. Rather than chasing points, the Marks clan were looking for connection, and it took them to Greece.
Caroline Marks, Origins
© Nathan Adams
Caroline Marks tapping into her Grecian origins
© Nathan Adams
Caroline Marks, on rail in the Mediterranean
© Nathan Adams
While the waves were challenging they weren't the sole focus of the trip; time with family, discovering her roots, and meeting fellow surfers from far flung corners were all equally as important to Marks and her family. And, when there were waves, they were even more rewarding than ever!
My mom is Greek. My grandmother was raised in Greece, and she recently passed away so we planned a family trip to honor her. It was one of the best trips of my life.
03
That's Caroline!
The Marks family’s incredible bond figures big in Red Bull TV’s 2017 film, "That’s Caroline." The short documentary showcases Marks's early days in Florida, and culminates with her rise to the upper echelon of her sport. With narration by her older brother Luke, Marks’s story unfurls through his lens.
“It gives me goosebumps talking about it,” said Marks, upon the movie's release. “I just really, really wanted to impress my brothers. They thought surfing was the coolest thing ever, so I was like, 'Well, I have to be really good at something that they think is cool.’”
21 min
That’s Caroline
Caroline Marks is just a normal young woman – who also happens to be the face of surfing’s future.
The Marks family lived in what appears to be a kid nirvana (dirt ramps, trampoline, swing set, pool), with the beach across the street, but it was horse stables that called to Caroline and she was a competitive rider for most her childhood. As she saddled up, her older brothers paddled out together, day after day, and it was the boys’ passion for surfing that eventually led Caroline into the waves and set her on the path we know and love today.
In "That’s Caroline," Marks’s father, Darren, describes her shift from riding horses to surfboards as a flip of a switch. Marks remembers the moment too – she was 11 and had just won her first national contest.
“The feeling I got I was so incredible, I was on top of the world and it felt so right,” she says. “I think that was my click moment right there, that's when I was like, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life and I never want to stop.’”
Caroline Marks in her element
© Nathan Adams / Red Bull Content Pool
Marks, of course, didn’t stop. She kept winning contests and kept beating surfers with more years than her and much more time in the water.
All this, everything that I'm doing, every win that I have or every big moment I have in my career, what makes it so special is that I get to share it with my family.
As it turns out, not every contest is a win and not every day on the road is dreamy. In both cases, her family and her outlook are keys to her success (not to mention preternatural talent and an impressive work ethic). Marks calls her family her “feel-good people," and it’s evident on screen and in conversation.
04
Rookie Of The Year
In 2018 Marks surfed her first full season as a card carrying member of the WSL Championship Tour. Three semi-final finishes highlighted her year, cemented her belief that she belonged, and were enough to finish 7th in world, and win Rookie Of The Year.
3 min
Caroline Marks Raw
Caroline Marks is your new Rookie Of The Year. Rate her ripping here!
"It's been the best year of my life," Marks said at the time. "I've had so much fun, with tons of good waves and great experiences, so I'm really stoked. I didn't expect to make the tour so young. When I did, I changed my goals a little to just try and surf my best, improve and be a sponge."
"I really wanted to absorb everything, take it all in, and learn a ton. I think that's a large part of why I did so well. I wasn’t worried about my results, I just wanted to surf my best and enjoy myself, and it all worked out."
05
When Caroline Marks met Mark Occhilupo
'80s prodigy Mark Occhilupo meets his modern counterpart, Caroline Marks
© Sam Moody
Growing up, Marks heard them all – "Carolupo" and "Occuline" the two most common portmanteaux for one of surfing's most unlikely pairings. Australian surfing icon and world champion Mark "Occy" Occhilupo not only shares a comparable physique and mane of hair to the young Floridian who was born three years after he won his title, but the similarities in their goofyfoot techniques just can't be denied either.
So, in 2019 at Bells Beach while shooting No Contest, we just had to introduce the pair, and Occhilupo was stoked."I love it!" says Occy of the comparison, at the 19:40 mark of the video above, "because I love her style, and it definitely reminds me of mine. Not a whole lot of moving parts, and it works."
"Watching guys like you inspired me," says Marks in return, "then hearing the comparisons convinced me I was doing the right thing. I was like, alright, that's sick!"
23 min
Bells Beach 2019
It doesn't get more Australian than this as the Championship Tour descends on Bells Beach, Victoria.
06
Facing Teahupo'o
To celebrate her 18th birthday Marks flew to Tahiti to surf Teahupo'o for the first time. "It was the highlight of my year," she told Red Bull's No Contest later, "and that was before I even knew Teahupo'o was being added to the schedule."
Marks meant the Championship Tour, but in a curious twist of fate a short time later Teahupo'o would also be added to the schedule for Paris in 2024, given France's association with Tahiti. "I'm excited by the challenge." said Marks. "Obviously Teahupo'o is one of the scariest waves in the world, but there are a lot of days that are 4-6 feet and are so rippable. It's such a perfect wave at that size."
Caroline Marks wins the Shiseido Tahiti Pro
© Matt Dunbar/World Surf League
"The level that the women are surfing at right now," said Marks's coach Luke Egan, "Naturally the next step is to take on some of these waves of consequence, and have a real dig."
Caroline Marks, late and committed at Teahupo'o
© Matt Dunbar/World Surf League
Egan's words would prove prophetic when Marks signed off from a stellar 2023 regular season with her first win at Teahupo'o, and set her sights squarely on a gold medal. After tasting success in Tahiti her hunger for gold on her second outing at the Games will be greater than ever in 2024.
Caroline Marks and her new favorite jacket
© Pat Nolan/World Surf League
"That was such a cool event to win!" said Marks afterwards, "out of all the events on the schedule Teahupo'o is every goofyfooter's dream."
"Winning Tahiti gives me a lot of confidence," said Marks, prophetically, in the lead up to Trestles, "so I hope I can keep the momentum rolling. Winning a world title would be a dream come true!"
Well, Caroline Marks, dreams do come true. Congratulations, you're a world champion!
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