This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Caroline Marks ditched a horse for a surf board on her brothers’ urgings a decade ago and says they have since helped drive her to a maiden World Surf League tournament trophy at the age of just 17.

The youngest surfer on tour looked anything but as she calmly collected 13.83 points in tricky conditions to sweep by three-times world champion Carissa Moore (11.67) in Monday’s final and claim the Boost Mobile Pro on the Gold Coast.

The Florida teenager had already beaten world No 1 and seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore – on the Duranbah Beach break Gilmore calls home – in Saturday’s quarter-finals.

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After being showered in a sponsor’s product she is still too young to legally drink, Marks described it as the week best ever.

“I just have so much adrenaline; I’ve looked up to these girls my whole life and still do, they’re just my heroes,” she said. “It’s incredible, oh frick, I didn’t know it would happen this fast. I’m just so psyched.”

Marks’ first love was horse riding before being lured to surfing by her brothers as a seven-year-old.

“Being around older people, a bunch of older brothers and their expectations of me were so high,” Marks said of her impressive maturity levels. “If I wasn’t surfing like the boys they’d give me such a hard time – I just learned I had to be super good at a young age.

“After I won, the first person I hugged was my brother because I wouldn’t surf if it wasn’t for him.”

Marks, the middle child of six siblings, is the first woman to benefit from the WSL’s equal prize money initiative this year. But, seventh in the championship last season on the way to rookie of the year honours, the level-headed talent is only interested in silverware.

Historically speaking, she is well on the way given almost half of the season’s first-up winners on the Gold Coast have gone on to claim the world crown. “I know how hard it is, but I believe in my ability,” she said of the fight ahead of her.

Hawaiian Moore (11.90) had eliminated long-time rival and Australian hope Sally Fitzgibbons (9.87) in Monday’s semi-finals, nailing a 7.17 with her first wave to seize control of the heat.

In the men’s event, Brazil’s Italo Ferreira has delivered a 7.07-point wave in the dying moments of the final to snatch victory from Kolohe Andino. Needing 6.93 to take the lead, the aerial specialist executed a clean 360 degree spin that impressed the judges and denied the American a maiden title in his eighth year on tour.

Luckless Andino had controlled the final expertly until that moment, although Ferreira entered the decider in fine form after prevailing in a back-and-forth semi-final against Jordy Smith earlier in the day.

Competition returned to the alternate Duranbah Beach venue after organisers attempted, without success, to shift action to the traditional Snapper Rocks venue on Sunday. The tour now moves to Victoria’s Bells Beach from 17 April.