Good to be Aussie. Real Jaws in Malibu. Olympics Politics. Sound surf forecast.

Good time to be Australian—Molly Picklum is the world champ

Molly Picklum, a 22-year-old Aussie, sealed her first world title with an epic comeback win over Caroline Marks (USA) in the WSL Finals at Cloudbreak, Fiji.

After dropping the first heat, Molly scored some super scores (15.83 and 16.93—there’s a post on how this gets judged) to join legends like Steph Gilmore and Layne Beachley in the Aussie surf hall of fame.

Also, Yago Dora (Brazil) took the title for the men.

Fake Jaws at the movies, real Jaws in Malibu

As we’re celebrating the 50th-year anniversary of Jaws by Steven Spielberg, you can still catch it this week at the movies, in 4K. And just like on cue, the real Bruce (name of the mechanical shark from Jaws) has paid a visit at the Malibu Pier.

The guys behind @californiabucketlisters caught a gorgeous great white shark on camera just by the pier in Malibu. What a magnificent creature—just a dozen longboard lengths from the lineup.

Whaaaat… skiers are going after surfing?

Olympics politics, that’s what we call it. Who gets to control U.S. Olympic surfing at the 2028 L.A. Games?

It’s going to be either USA Surfing (kinda obvious choice), a grassroots organization based in San Clemente that helped get surfing into the Olympics in the first place, or the U.S. Ski and Snowboard—the Utah-based winter sports corporation that wants to add surfing (and maybe skateboarding) to its Olympic portfolio.

And the PR war is on. USA Surfing claims the other guys know nothing about surfing (there was a surfer riding a wave backwards in their pitch deck).

Of course, money is at stake, and influence, and impact on respective cities—San Clemente vs. Park City.

Why are we even in this mess? Because USA Surfing temporarily lost National Governing Body status due to some bad apples behaving badly. All is cleaned up, we hear, with new leadership and fresh funding.

The Olympic committee is holding a final hearing this month to decide. Guys. Boardsports or no boardsports—surfing is nothing like anything else in the world.

Surf conditions from… sound? Get outta here

Apparently, the ocean is loud in ways we can’t even hear.

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have been eavesdropping on the infrasound and seismic waves generated by breaking surf—frequencies below the range of human hearing—to understand coastal forces better.

By placing sensor arrays at Coal Oil Point Reserve, the team matched the low-frequency rumbles of waves (1–5 Hz) with video footage of the break. The result? A new way to “see” the surf using sound and seismic signals. These pulses, created by billions of oscillating bubbles in the break zone, reveal not only when a wave breaks—but also where and how strongly.

OMG, finally! To be able to hear when a wave breaks!

One wild finding: most infrasound came from a single stretch of beach, likely due to the underwater topography (aka bathymetry) causing waves to break in sync.

Their ultimate goal is to develop a way to characterize surf conditions solely from infrasound and seismic signatures. Good for when the cams fail.