Caroline Marks reflects on new documentary and the road to the Olympics

Surfing phenom Caroline Marks talks about her Red Bull documentary “That’s Caroline” and the upcoming 2021 Olympics. 

Surfing is back in full swing after a rocky 2020. Like all sports, surfing and specifically, the World Surf League, canceled the 2020 season in the spring. Not only was the WSL season canceled, but so was the biggest anticipated sporting event of the year, the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Surfing as a sport was set to make its debut at the 2020 games, and the United States was sending four of its top athletes to represent. Among them was 18-year-old Caroline Marks. Marks had an amazing 2019 season and finished second in points in the WSL championship tour, securing her place on the U.S surfing team.

Having to take the year off from competing didn’t really affect Marks and instead helped her continue polishing her skills. Marks sat down with FanSided to talk about the upcoming Olympic Games and her new Red Bull TV documentary entitled That’s Caroline.

“I actually didn’t really change much, to be honest,” Marks said. “Thankfully, surfing is a sport where you can socially distance and all the beaches have been open. I’ve just been surfing a lot and I have a little home gym, which has been great. So kind of just been actually keeping up with the same exact program. I guess what’s changed a lot is I haven’t been competing and haven’t been traveling, but other than that I kind of just kept on the pace, you know, and I was kind of like staying ready. So I didn’t have to get ready because I knew eventually we’d be competing again. And now it’s like all came up really quick. I’m in Australia competing.”

The WSL 2021 season is in full swing and the athletes are in Australia competing in four events over the next month. Next will be the Olympics if all goes well, and surfing will be featured for the first time. Marks is ready to show the world what she can do on the Olympic stage despite the one-year pushback.

“Yeah, I was extremely ready and extremely prepared for the Olympics to happen in 2020,” Marks said. “And I was really excited. I just had a great year, I got second in the world. I had a lot of momentum going into 2020. But now that I’m looking back, I’m super lucky because I got some amazing waves, and my coach lives really close by and I get to work with him a lot and got to work with my board shaper, Matt Biolos. So, there has been a lot of upsides. I got to graduate high school. So, I do feel that much better and that much more prepared. I think if anything, I’m just like that much more grateful when it’s been taken away from us for almost a year. So I’m just like, super excited and that much more motivated to be back.”

In the lead-up to her journey to the Olympics, Marks was followed by Red Bull for her very own documentary, That’s Caroline. The concept of the film shows Marks from childhood through her most recent WSL season and on to the Olympics. It shows her home and family life as well as her very quick rise up the ranks of surfing.

“The original plan was actually to film going to the Olympics,” Marks explained. “When we first started filming it, I guess the word documentary wasn’t really in, it was just kind of like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna film this and regardless, like it’s really cool to have footage, and we’re gonna put it out somewhere.’ It’s something that is different than something I’ve put out before. It’s different than just your typical surf edit. It’s more of a look into who I am and in my family. My family is so close to me and I think the film really shows how much they mean to me. So it’s really cool that my brother narrated it.”

That’s Caroline is available to watch on the Red Bull TV app or on the Red Bull YouTube channel.