Caity Simmers on Surf Fame, WSL Finals, and Female-Driven Surf Content

Caity Simmers is one of the best surfers in the world, but she won’t let on about it. Her goal for her rookie year on the Championship Tour was to make the mid-year cut and “maybe do some roundhouse cutbacks.” Now, as the Ripcurl WSL Finals approaches, the 17-year-old phenom will compete for a shot at the world title.

Her strategy for the big day? “I’m just gonna try to not think about it that much, I guess. Just do what I normally do for each event.”

Thus far, Caity’s level-headed strategy has served her well. It’s hard to overstate her impact on perceptions of women’s surfing and performance potential. At the forefront of a generation of hard-charging girls who defy expectations and possibly even the laws of physics, she’s done things that were previously unimaginable. And she’s doing them on her own terms.

We caught up with the pride of Oceanside about staying in love with surfing when it’s your job, the literary inspiration behind her new edit, traveling the world, plans for her off-season, and the weirdness of becoming a surf celebrity. 

This interview has been edited for clarity.

The content you’re putting out via Toasted Media is really refreshing. I think a lot of us grew up wishing there were more edits like that, just girls ripping to good music. How did Toasted start?

The goal wasn’t to fill the void of the lack of women’s surf film and media, ‘cause yeah, there definitely is a huge void in it. I just want people to be inspired by it, ‘cause that’s what I feel when I watch a surf video. And yeah, there definitely was not much women’s surf films out there. So it was really cool to get to bring some of my friends on some trips and kind of put it out there. To see little girls come up to me and tell me they watched it…it’s pretty amazing.

I heard you do a lot of the editing yourself.

The music is the biggest part of a surf movie for me. The inspiration that sparked the recent one I’m trying to make was just listening to a song, and then I was like, I have to go edit to this. Maybe it’s a little bit of a curse: whenever I hear a song, I just picture how I’m gonna edit surfing to it.

I had this plan to make a surf movie and then we were gonna have someone edit it, but then I got carried away. I kind of became a nine to fiver for a while, just editing all day. I got sucked into my computer, but it's kind of just like a thing where If you're on if you're on a roll with it, and everything's working, you kind of just have to keep going. So there was a lot of days where I spent like, eight to ten hours on my computer just editing. 

You have a new edit premiering that’s named after The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. What’s your inspiration for titling it after the novel?

I guess the reason why we called it Bell Jar is because it's a cool name. I learned about [Sylvia Plath] in school, and I was like, oh, this chick sounds sick. So I ordered one of her books. And then, yeah, I just really liked the book. It's a pretty dark book. But the way she kind of pokes fun at dark things is pretty different from a lot of things that I read.

There's a quote in the book about the protagonist feeling as though she's in the eye of a tornado. I was wondering if being on the tour sometimes feels like that.

Yeah, it definitely feels like you’re in the eye of the tornado sometimes.

The first year you qualified for the Championship Tour, you decided not to do it. What were the factors that led to that decision, and what impact did it have looking back on your first season?

It’s weird when the thing that you just do because you love it becomes something that you have to do. It’s definitely a hard thing to wrap your mind around, because it's just a lot happening. And it happened really quick. 

I made that decision because I wanted to spend time with my friends and my family. I didn't really want to completely sacrifice my life to surfing yet. And then I had the idea that I wanted to make a surf film, too. I was still doing the Challengers, so I kept competing, but there was not a single time that year where I was like, I wish I chose to do the tour. I was really content with my decision.

How do you stay in love with surfing when it becomes a job?

Yeah, that's definitely something I've been trying to deal with this year. I don't want to say I'm trying to escape from it, but something that you use to escape becomes something that you almost try to escape from. Sometimes, driving up to North Jetty, there's a bunch of old guys like, whatever, trying to tell you their opinion on things. And I just wish I could go surf without that sometimes. Now, every time I surf, there's at least two or three people that come up and try to talk to me.

But it definitely helps to find separation, and also just try to appreciate it. Because it's pretty dang lucky for people to think that what you do is cool. So that's a sick thing. But it's just weird for me, because I guess it's just the type of person I am. Nothing about it seems natural.

You said in a WSL interview that your goal for the season was just to make the mid-year cut, and here you are in the Final 5. What’s your headspace going into Trestles next week?

Yeah, I just wanted to make it to the next half of the year, so I was hyper-focused on that. [This year] was a lot of mixed emotions. As an athlete, it's like your confidence is based on your last result. So when I got last, I was bummed and didn't have much confidence. And then when I won, I was on top of the world, and then I would lose the next event. So just going up and down. 

Into next week, I don't really know. I'm just gonna try to not think about it that much. I guess just do what I normally do for each event, and not try to think it's for a world title.

Pop quiz: has anyone ever won the world title in their rookie season?

I actually found this out the other day. Yeah, Steph did, right?

She was also the fifth seed going into the Finals last year, like you, and she won. It’s a lot of heats.

It'll be a long day if I make it all the way. But yeah, I guess the fact that it's been done before makes it seem more achievable. So that's cool. She's also my favorite surfer. So just watching her is pretty inspiring.

What excites you about competing?

I’m just competitive, so I like to win. And getting to travel with my family and just sharing some moments in between heats is pretty cool. Sometimes, you're just experiencing something in a different country and you're like, dang, I wish everyone could experience this. [I’m] pretty dang lucky to travel and experience different cultures and places and things to look at.

Do you have a favorite memory from this season on tour?

My mom traveled with me in Tahti, and it was really fun to have a little vacation with her. It was so beautiful and scenic snorkeling with my mom.

You've said before that your mom is your biggest life mentor and hero. I'm obviously a fan as well because she follows Sea Maven on Instagram. Tell me about her.

That’s an honor to be followed by my mom on Instagram. My mom, she's been through a lot of stuff in her life. So she’s just really accepting to everyone's situation. And she really doesn't say anything bad about anyone, because she knows there are too many things to think about in this world. Whenever I am feeling a little unsure about anything, I'll just tell her and she has a pretty good answer. She brings me down to earth. She prevents my mind from melting sometimes.