Molly Picklum's Fin Setup: The Drive Behind Surfing's Heaviest Backhand

Cloudbreak was doing that thing where it looks fun until you realize the sets are stacking and the lefts are running down the reef like a freight train. Molly Picklum paddled into a Fiji bomb, set her rail on her backhand, and buried the whole board into a turn that threw more water than most guys manage frontside. Same wave everyone else was riding. Different result.

That was the 2025 WSL Finals. Picklum beat Caroline Marks over three heats to win her first world title, all of it on her backhand, all of it at a wave that eats hesitation for breakfast. And the surfing that got her there says a lot about the gear underneath her feet.

Because here's the thing about power surfers. They don't set their boards up for looseness. They set them up for drive.

What Molly Picklum Actually Rides

Picklum rides ...Lost surfboards shaped by Matt "Mayhem" Biolos. If you follow the tour, you know the outline. Lost boards run flatter through the middle with punch under the back foot, built to go fast and hit things hard. That's her whole game.

Lost pairs with Futures Fins, and the house template is the Mayhem. The current version is the Mayhem 3.0, a medium thruster with a wide base, a good chunk of rake, and a narrow tapered tip. In plain terms, that's a fin built to hold a rail and drive off the bottom, not to skate around and slide.

Futures rates that medium for surfers between 145 and 175 pounds. Picklum weighs around 137. Do the math and something interesting shows up.

She Sizes Up, and That's the Whole Lesson

At 5'5 and 137 pounds, Picklum sits just below the medium bracket. By the chart, she could ride a small. Plenty of women her size do.

She doesn't. And it's not an accident.

A bigger fin gives you more surface area in the water. More area means more grip, more drive, and more resistance to letting go when you load up a turn. For a surfer who wants to squirt down the line and throw quick, snappy tail slides, that resistance is a tax. For a surfer who wants to lean into a bottom turn and fire out of it like a slingshot, that resistance is the entire point.

Picklum is the second kind. Watch her backhand at Cloudbreak or Teahupo'o and it's all rail, all commitment, all power through the turn. A small fin would break loose under that load. The medium holds, so she sizes up past what the scale says and lets the extra area do the work.

We wrote a whole piece on why Caroline Marks rides a small fin on a 5'4, and it's the exact opposite call. Marks is quick and vertical and wants the tail free. Picklum wants it planted. Same tour, same podium, two surfers reading their own style and choosing accordingly, and that's the takeaway, not the specific fin.

Why Rake and Base Matter for a Power Backhand

Two numbers on the Mayhem template explain the feel: base and rake.

Base is the length of the fin where it meets the board, and a wide base is drive. When you come off the bottom and stand on the gas, that base is what shoots you forward instead of letting the board wander. You drop into a Cloudbreak wall, set your line, and the board just launches up the face with speed you didn't have to pump for. That's base doing its job.

Rake, sometimes called sweep, is how far the fin curves back. More rake means longer, drawn-out turns and more hold in the pocket. On a heavy backhand hack, rake is the thing that keeps the fins gripping when the lip is trying to blow your tail out sideways. The board holds through the whole arc, then releases clean off the top when you tell it to.

The Mayhem 3.0 stacks a wide base and heavy rake together, then narrows the tip so it still releases instead of feeling stuck. That combination is why it works for someone surfing as hard as Picklum. Drive off the bottom, hold through the turn, release off the top. Repeat until you have a world title.

If you want to go deeper on how these numbers change the ride, our breakdown of fin base length and drive covers the mechanics without the physics degree.

What This Means for Your Own Setup

You're probably not surfing Cloudbreak on your backhand for a world title. Fine. The principle still holds.

If you surf with your weight forward, drive off your front foot, and like long powerful turns, you want a fin with more base and more rake, and you can afford to size up a touch past the chart. If you surf loose and vertical and want the tail to break free on command, you go the other way: smaller, less rake, more release.

The scale is a starting point, not a verdict. Picklum proves that a number on a size chart is a suggestion your style gets to overrule. A powerful surfer on a medium fin will always beat a powerful surfer on a small fin that's washing out mid-turn.

Most surfers ride the fins that came in the box and never think about it again. That works until it doesn't. If you've felt your tail slide when you didn't ask it to, or your board feels lifeless when you try to put power down, the fix is usually more area, more base, or more rake. See our guide on how fins actually generate drive if you want the full picture.

The Honest Verdict

Picklum's setup isn't exotic. It's a stock medium thruster on a Lost board, ridden by someone who understood that her power style needed grip more than freedom. That's the whole trick: no secret template, no custom foil nobody else can buy.

The Mayhem 3.0 in a medium is genuinely one of the better drive-oriented thruster sets you can buy right now, and you don't need a world title to appreciate it. If you're a heavier or more powerful surfer stuck on a loose small fin, it's a legit upgrade. If you're light and skatey and love a free tail, it'll feel like too much fin. Know which one you are before you spend the money.

Key Takeaways

• Molly Picklum rides ...Lost boards by Matt Biolos on the Futures system, with the drive-heavy Mayhem template.
• At around 137 pounds she rides a medium fin, one size up from what the chart suggests, because her power backhand needs grip and drive over release.
• Wide base gives you drive off the bottom. Heavy rake gives you hold through the turn. Power surfers want both.
• Fin size charts are a starting point. Your surfing style gets the final say on whether you go up or down.
• If your tail slides when you don't want it to, more base and rake usually fixes it. If you want a free tail, go smaller.

Not sure whether your style wants Picklum's drive or Marks' release? That's the exact question our fin recommender was built to answer. Tell it what you ride and how you surf, and it'll point you at the right template in about a minute.