Caity is definitely the youngest world champ of the modern era, however. Photo: Pat Nolan//World Surf League
On September 6, 2024, after a tense third finals heat against Caroline Marks, 18-year-old Caity Simmers won the title of undisputed world champion at Lower Trestles in California. That much is clear. What happened afterwards, in terms of claims made surrounding Simmers’ new title of “youngest” world champ, wasn’t so cut and dry.
When Caitlyn Simmers walked up to the WSL Finals stage after her heat, WSL Commentator Joe Turpel, mic in hand, said to Caity, “you are the youngest world champ. Carissa Moore held [this title] for a very long time. You actually beat it by just a few days. If this contest went late in the waiting period, it couldn’t have happened.” Then, Turpel asked, “how does that make you feel that you hold the record now as the youngest ever?”
Caity paused, then said, “uh… good.” She did not elaborate.
Turpel seemed to believe this was just another classic Caity Simmers moment: responding in short answers, often refusing to answer questions she doesn’t care about.
The reality is that this statement, made by Turpel and countless others, is not true. It’s unclear if Simmers was aware of this at the time, but it does not change the fact that she’s not surfing’s youngest-ever world champion. Margo Oberg (then, Margo Godfrey) claims that title.
Let us start with the facts at hand. Simmers was 18 years old when she was crowned the WSL’s world champion at Lower Trestles last week. Carissa Moore was also 18 when she won her first world title in 2011, making Simmers the most recent 18-year-old woman to win the WSL Championship Tour. Caity Simmers, and Carissa Moore before her, are the youngest women to win a championship title during the professional era of surfing. But they are not the youngest champions to win a world title in surfing’s history.
Some spectators watching the event (and witnessing the claims that ensued) had words of their own to share due to these facts. Joel Tudor, a known critic of the WSL, posted a historic photo of Margo (Godfrey) Oberg surfing to his Instagram, reminding his followers that it was actually “Fifteen-year-old old Margo Oberg [who was the] youngest female world champion in history!”
Tudor detailed that Oberg (then Margo Godfrey) won her first world title “in 1968 in Puerto Rico on a Mike Doyle-shaped mini model. Margo would go on to win four more world titles that spanned from the longboard era into shortboarding, making her the third most winning lady champ behind Layne Beachley’s seven world titles and Steph Gilmore’s eight.”
Tudor is correct that Margo Godfrey is not only the youngest world champ, but also the third most winning women’s surf competitor. Furthermore, Godfrey was a strong contender against not just her own women’s groups, but also against surfing’s men. As young as 12, Godfrey beat an all-boy surf heat to win the 12-year-old division of the Windansea Surf Club menehune contest.
Importantly, as other icons in the surfing world such as Cher Pendarvis, noted, setting the facts straight is not a jab at Caity Simmers — far from it. Pendarvis thanked Tudor for his post about Margo and “this conversation supporting Margo’s brilliant surfing and world titles!” Pendarvis, in the same comment, added, “I’m also a fan of Caity.”
As Pendarvis points out, we can criticize a lack of surf history knowledge without criticizing Simmers herself. Caity Simmers is a strong contender, a young surfer with a bright future, and a young champion of the sport. She is not to blame for the media mishap. However, claiming that Simmers is the youngest of all time is blatantly wrong, and we owe it to Margo Godfrey to set things straight.
On the bright side, not only are people not taking a jab at Simmers, people are actually comparing Simmers and Oberg (Godfrey) in their surfing styles, such as artist and surf historian Rick Blake who joined the conversation writing, “Great historical observation… Simmers reminds me a bit of Margo.”
The question has to be asked: why are people, the WSL in particular, making this error? Most likely, it can be attributed to the history of professional surfing’s governing bodies, making the situation at hand confusing to spectators who may not be aware that the governing body of professional surfers was not always the WSL. Plus, the WSL has a long and winding history, with leadership and name changes across the years, resulting in what we now know as the WSL today.
The WSL documents its start as an organization as 1976, according to the history page on its website. The page notes that, in that year, Hawaiian surfers Randy Rarick and Fred Hemmings organized “a collection of disparate, unaffiliated pro surfing events around the world into the first world championship tour by developing an international ranking system and encouraging the world’s best surfers to get involved.” This organization, known as International Professional Surfers, or IPS, is “the original world governing body of professional surfing.”
This, then, explains why Margo’s win in 1968 is a blind spot for WSL historians, although all surfers should be aware of the surf contests and surfers who came before the mid-70s.
It’s surprising that commentators glossed over this fact. However, in the case of Simmers’ fans, many are around her age, likely teenagers, and have largely only witnessed WSL contests during the course of their lifetimes.
If someone was born in 2005, they were only 10 when the WSL became the WSL. Personally, I don’t recall much of my life before 10, and I don’t hold it to others to remember what they were doing at, say, six years old.
Breaking this down even further, the WSL has only officially been known as the WSL since 2015 (when many of Simmers’ friends and fans were about 10). Before 2015, the WSL was the ASP, or Association of Surfing Professionals. Before the ASP, professional surfing’s governing body was the IPS, or International Professional Surfers, founded by Hemmings and Rarick, as mentioned, in 1976.
Out of all of this history, what is perhaps most relevant to note here is that before 1976, there was no singular governing body. While competitions occurred, they were not linked together in the same way that they are today, with points contributing to a singular, end-of-tour win, crowning two surfers overall champions of one, defining contest.
When Margo Godfrey/Oberg won the world title in 1968, competitive surfing was still finding its footing. An article published by Surfing, written by Dick Graham and Duke Boyd, in 1968 was even titled, likely with a chuckle to match, “World Championships 1968 (whatever that means).”
The 1968 World Surfing Championships was decidedly different from the format we see today in terms of heats and a cohesive season and tour, where the surfers in the finals are determined solely by their points and previous wins.
There’s no question of “who is surfing’s youngest world champ?” The answer is clear. Caity Simmers is the youngest professional-era world champ, still a coveted and impressive title by any standard. However, we must respect that the title of surfing’s youngest ever world champ goes to Margo.
