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Carissa Moore and Stephanie Gilmore are having time off, meaning plenty of world tour opportunities for younger surfers such as Australian Molly Picklum
The GOATs will soon be gone and that means an ocean of possibilities this year for Australian surfing star Molly Picklum.
At 21, Picklum is a prominent member of the new guard among the World Surf League women highlighted by last year's world title winner, Caroline Marks.
The American, also 21, beat five-time world champion Carissa Moore in the final.
Moore has scaled back her competition dramatically this season - she will only surf the Pipe Pro, the opening round, then the Tahiti Pro and step away from the WSL after the Olympics.
Australian legend Stephanie Gilmore, the eight-time world champion, is having a sabbatical for the season.
Picklum also made the five-surfer final last season, finishing fifth, after missing the mid-season cut in 2022.
"Now the GOATs are gone, it's an interesting one - we're just going to do the same thing. We're just hungry, we want to give it a go, we want to win," Picklum said of Gilmore and Moore.
"We want to push surfing. I'm a little bit older, I guess I have been front-running a little bit. I just enjoy the challenge of seeing where I can push and where I can get better.
"Last year I probably felt like I started really strong and then I got lost there in the middle. I wasn't loving it as much.
"Then I tried to come home strong. This year I probably feel more sustainable in my mental game."
Missing the cut in 2022 was a bitter blow for Picklum, but making the final showed her what is possible.
"That's why it is so hard, when you do get knocked off tour, because it's not where you think you belong," she said.
"Now obviously being final five, I've had a really good shot at the world title and got a little bit (of a taste) of how it feels.
"I really do feel I'm where I belong and I want to push a bit harder."
The waiting period for the Pipe Pro, at the iconic Banzai Pipeline break on Hawaii's North Shore, starts early on Tuesday morning (AEDT).
Australian Sally Fitzgibbons, who is back on the world tour, will have Hawaii's Moore and Brisa Hennessy of Costa Rica in her round-one heat.
One of the highlights of the men's opening round will be Australian Jack Robinson, who won the Pipe Pro last year, against 51-year-old American legend Kelly Slater, the 11-time world champion, and Rio Waida from Indonesia.
Picklum starts her 2024 campaign against Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb and American Alyssa Spencer.
