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Reigning world champion and ROXY-sponsored surfer Caroline Marks has a LOT going on this Summer but somehow found the time to sit down with me to discuss surfing, success, setting and achieving goals, and a whole lot more.
Caroline Marks just won a gold medal for Team USA during the Paris Olympics with the Olympic surfing competition taking place in Fiji. Caroline just launched the new Pro Surf Collection with ROXY, a line of surfwear/beachwear which she wore during the Olympics and which is now available to the public. And at 22 years old, she is mere days away from competing for back-to-back world championships with the Lexus WSL Finals taking place in her backyard at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California.
Caroline Marks On The New ROXY Pro Surf Collection Worn At The Olympics
“Yeah…. I think for me… I did have some say in it which was really nice. And for me, obviously I’m not, you know, only like sitting on the beach but I’m also out there performing and I wanted to make sure that’s it kind of does both.”
“And I feel like with the new Roxy Pro Surf Collection, you can be athletic in it and go in the water and, and feel comfortable and supportive, but also like cruise on the beach and look cute and feminine. And to me that’s really what I wanted is to have the best of both of those worlds and I feel like the new collection celebrates that, which is great.”
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Caroline Marks On Olympics food In Tahiti vs Paris And The Viral Chocolate Muffins
“I wish I could clone our (Tahitian) chef and bring him back to California with me. It was awesome. I actually did go to Paris and tried a chocolate muffin. (joking) I flew all the way there to try the chocolate muffin. No, I flew there for the closing ceremony and other stuff so I did try the chocolate muffin and it was good. I’m not a huge muffin person but it was good.”
The World Champion Caroline On Setting And Achieving Goals
“I’m a very goal oriented person for sure. I kind of do it in a couple of different ways. I have my big career goals… To me, my two biggest goals in my career were just to win a world title and become a gold medalist, but I didn’t really put a time stamp on it. I was just like, ‘that’s what I want to do and whether that happens this year or in three years, whatever. I just want to do those things and obviously want to win as many as I can.'”
“But then I have my everyday goals and that’s to obviously be a better person every day. And whether I’m going out surfing and I’m working on a certain maneuver, I have daily goals as well. And so little things like that, it’s really fun to kind of write it down and look back and be like ‘wow, I did that.’ You’re proud of yourself. It’s pretty cool.”
Caroline Marks On Her Partnership With ROXY And The Support She Receives
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“I think you know, having support on the road and everywhere I’m at in the world and meeting other athletes. To me like Stephanie Gilmore is a huge idol of mine and she was with the brand for a long time and I also made a lot of friends being on the ROXY team and traveled the world. I used to go to France when I was younger and got the wild card in the ROXY Pro event.”
“Just being around that (pro) environment at such a young age and continuing now with it and being on tour and now accomplishing my biggest dreams and goals, it’s been really fun to kind of have them be a part of all of that.”
“And I know I am a part of the brand but now it feels like family which is so awesome and I think as an athlete having that support is so huge. And like I said, just meeting people that have been a part of the brand for so long and having relationships with them and just feeling supported is really huge.”
“And I think just like having their support on the road. No matter where I am, whether it’s like ‘hey, I’m in Portugal and it’s cold and I need more wetsuits’ or like ‘hey, is there a place to stay here?’ Little things like that really help and make you feel comfortable, having support like that on the road. And whether it’s a team manager or just a friend you met through the brand, things like that really go a long way. And having a team behind you saying ‘hey, good luck, we’re with you and, we believe in you.’ It’s awesome.”
A Day In The Life Of A Gold Medal-Winning Surfer
“I think for me, obviously my life revolves around the ocean. So whatever the waves are doing, that’s usually that is the priority. So if the waves are really good, probably wake up and surf for a couple of hours and then yeah, go get some food and maybe do a little bit of training. I’d say train a little bit lighter on days that the waves are really good, and then I train a lot harder when, like outside the water training a lot harder when the waves aren’t as good. But, I do try to spend a lot of time in the water.”
“Sometimes when I come home from traveling I try to spend a lot of time in the gym because I was away from that for so long. So yeah, it kind of depends on the, on, on the waves and stuff. But still a lot of time in the water and a lot of time in the gym and, yeah, hanging out with my friends, love hanging out with my friends because I’m gone so much. So I come home and I like, really want to hang with my friends too.”
Her Focus In The Gym
“In the gym I’m kind of lengthening and strengthening things. I feel like as a surfer you want to be really strong but you don’t want to be like super built. The fit is to be light and limber as well. So I just try to just keep my body feeling nice and good. A lot of bodyweight stuff.”
Caroline Marks On Her Florida roots And Kelly Slater’s Influence
“I grew up in Melbourne Beach and he grew up in Cocoa Beach, so not too far. He was actually texting me during the whole Olympics and watching all my heats and kinda give me some advice on the lineup and what he thought, which was so cool of him.”
“He obviously didn’t have to do that. So yeah, anytime I’m around him, I feel like a sponge, like kind of absorb the information he’s giving. I’ve been really lucky to share a couple of years on tour with him and I was just in Fiji and he was there and so, yeah, I feel like we have a little Florida connection, which is really cool and obviously he’s one of my idols.”
Moving From Florida To California
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“I think as you know, being from Florida yourself, I think we don’t get much variety in the waves we get. And obviously the summertime is really hard (in Florida). It doesn’t really break sometimes. So living in California, obviously there’s better waves and a lot more variety of waves.”
“You’re also a lot closer to places like Hawaii and a lot of places we travel on the tour. LAX airport is right there. My (board) shaper Matt Biolos lives right down the street from me. My coach, Mike Carson, too.”
“For me I feel like it just made a lot of sense for my career to make that move and obviously love Florida so much and to me that’s obviously home in my heart. But now California is like a second home to me, which has been really cool, and I think having that balance of being out here mostly and then going back to Florida whenever I can has been really nice. But having Lower Trestles right there, which is now where we’ll compete for the the world title, has been super great for my surfing too.”
Caroline Marks Seeking Back-to-Back World Titles In Her Own Backyard
“Yeah, I definitely feel like it’s a bit of an advantage of sleeping in your own bed and being around your friends and family and surfing a wave that you’re really comfortable with and really familiar with.”
“And I’ve been competing out there since I was little and as an amateur. My first ever WCT event was there and my first world title was there. So I do feel like it holds a special place in my heart for sure. I’m really excited that it’s at Lowers again, it should be really good.”
Adjusting To Waves On The Global Tour
“I think the places with more heavy water waves… Places like Hawaii and obviously Tahiti and Fiji, waves like that, it takes so much experience to get really good at. I feel like I have improved a lot in that in waves like that, but I think it just takes a lot of time out there.”
“(With) waves like Cloud Break, Fiji, and Pipeline, those are really new for the women on tour. So I think we’re all still learning as we go but we are all getting a lot more comfortable and that’s really exciting too.”
Caroline Marks On Locations She’d Love To See World Surf League Events Held
“Cloud Break is back. That’s a really fun one. Snapper Rocks is somewhere that’s back on the Tour next year which is really exciting. So I’m really looking forward to that, and obviously J Bay. I know it’s already on Tour this year in the Championship but it would be awesome if we had Lower Trestles every year, even if it’s a regular Championship Tour event. Maybe somewhere in Indo. I think if we had Indo back would be awesome. Especially if we went to a right and to a left in Indo, we used to have an event that was really fun.”
Balancing Surfing As A Profession vs Surfing As Recreation
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“I think the thing is about surfing that I feel really fortunate to say it is so fun to me and I think even if it wasn’t what I did as my career, I would wake up and want to do it every single day. And that’s really why I started because I love it so much.”
“It is so fun. It’s my release. It’s my happy place.”
“And obviously, there are times where it’s hard. When it means so much to you, the result, and you have crazy thoughts where you’re just like, ‘I’m over this’ or whatever. But at the end of the day I love it so much and sometimes when I’m home after a big contest and I just want to decompress I’ll go ride a little fun board, go surfing with my friends, whatever, get on longboard, and just do something different and then I come back to riding a shortboard and being more “serious” and I’m more excited about it. But overall surfing is always really fun to me and that’s really cool.”
Misconceptions People Have About Pro Surfing As A Profession
“I think we kind of have a reputation where surfers are kind of laid back, and chill. That like we don’t really have a trainer and are not really into the nutrition or not like proper athletes, I guess.”
“And now with Surfing in the Olympics and reaching that level of professionalism, it’s sort of stepping in the direction of like ‘wow, this is a proper sport and these are proper athletes’ and that has been really cool to see.”
“But I think overall people believe surfing is really cool. And we are very chill. We have to go with the flow. We’re dealing with Mother Mature and I’d say we’re pretty chill as individuals. But I think the level of professionalism in the sport and among the athletes is kind of the thing that has been looked at in a different light, but it is definitely getting there and getting better for sure.”
Caroline Marks on 3 ROXY Items She Can’t Travel Without
“A bikini, my beach bag, and a sundress.” (The entire Pro Surf Collection can be found on Roxy.com).
Meeting Her Surfing Coach/Big Wave Surfer Mike Parsons
“I was competing when I was young. I was like 13 at the USA Championships at Lowers. He just came up on the beach to me and my dad and introduced himself and was like ‘hey, I’m Mike’ and obviously my dad knew who he was, I was just getting into surfing.”
“My first memory of Mike is… I saw a photo of him pulling into a huge barrel at Rock Piles and I think he got a cover shot maybe and I was like ‘oh, you’re the guy that surfs really big waves.’ And he explained to me that he’s a manager and that he coaches. At the time, I think he was coaching Lakey Peterson and Kolohe Andino. And so he just introduced himself on the beach to me and it’s crazy to think how he’s been such a huge part of my life. (Points off camera) He’s standing over there right now, so it’s been really great to have him in my corner and have his knowledge has been awesome.”
Caroline Marks On Mentorship In The Surfing Community
“Luke Egan has been a really big part of my career. He is like my full time coach now. When I’m home I work with Mike a lot and he’s also my manager, but then Luke Egan I travel with him on the road and he’s been a huge part of my success and accomplishing my biggest dreams and goals.”
“And Matt Biolos is my board shaper. They say it takes a village to get to where you want to get in life and I really believe in that. You have a full team. And so all those people are on Team Caroline and I’m just really thankful to have a lot of really good people in my corner.”
Some Things Surfing Fans Might Not Know About Caroline Marks
“I used to ride horses. I used to be a barrel racer literally up to the second I started surfing, I competed in barrel racing events in Florida. I have the ribbons at my house in Florida to remind myself about that time and that I used to really love riding horses.”
“I remember my grandpa was gonna buy me a horse and he was like ‘hey, you’re getting serious with this’ and I just went ‘I’m gonna start surfing’ and I just like just completely cold turkey quit riding horses and started surfing. So I feel like that’s something people might not know about me. I’m also one of six siblings.”
Importance Of Family And Confidence
“I think having six siblings is like a built-in best friends network.We’re all very close. My family raised us to where, basically no matter where I’m at in the world, I talk to them all the time and and yeah, we all really support one another, which is, which is really awesome.”
“But yeah, I definitely like having six siblings. You have to have very thick skin. I’d say it definitely helped my confidence as far as like having good social skills and just like being confident because you have to be because you will get run over if you’re not.”
Caroline Marks On Coming Home After Winning A Gold Medal For Team USA
“It was pretty amazing. I only had like 24 hours at home so I had a really quick turnaround. I had like one day at home, went to New York for media, then went to Paris for the closing ceremony, and then came back home for one day and then went to Fiji. So it was pretty quick.”
“But I had one dinner night celebration with my friends and family. And when I walked in the restaurant everyone was standing and clapping. It was pretty amazing.”
“And the city (San Clemente) wanted to organize a parade for me but I haven’t been able to do yet. I think we’re gonna try to do it after the Lexus WSL Finals which is cool. And Florida has a ton of ideas as well. So there’s a lot to look forward to after the finals, I think it’s gonna be really fun.”
Will We Ever See A Pro Surfer Who Grew Up Exclusively Learning To Surf Wave Pools?
“Yeah… I think, for sure, with the amount of wave pools that are popping up, especially with the different kinds of wave pools, if that makes sense. For them to learn how to surf different kinds of waves. I think there definitely is a chance (we see something like that) with the amount of wave pools that are popping up.”
“I think a big part of surfing is reading the ocean and being in touch with mother nature and stuff like that but I definitely wouldn’t say ‘no.’ I think there are already people that are mastering wave pools that have never surf in the ocean, which is pretty wild to think about. But it makes sense, you know.”
Caroline Marks On If She’s Feeling Ready To Win Back-To-Back World Titles
“I do feel ready. I feel really excited. It’s obviously coming up really soon. I feel like I’m really carrying a lot of momentum from the gold medal and throughout the whole year. So I feel ready, I feel excited and I’m really looking forward to it.”
This interview was made possible by ROXY who just released the Pro Surf Collection which was worn by Caroline Marks during the 2024 Paris Olympics. These pieces can be shopped/purchased right now on the ROXY website, including the Roxy Pro The Overhead Long Sleeve One-Piece Swimsuit, Roxy Pro The Tilt Shift Bra Bikini Top, and the Roxy Pro The Snap Turn Cheeky Bikini Bottom. Based on my conversation with Caroline, there was an inordinate amount of thought and planning that went into this collection and the results speak for themselves.