Brody Mulik in 'Fourteen'

In 2026, that sentence alone doesn’t hold much weight, but he just happens to be very good at waves that most fifteen-year-olds’ parents won’t allow them to go near.

The Box, Tombies, North Point, and other waves of that ilk do not care which year you were born, nor who your dad is. They’ve humbled and broken older, larger, more decorated surfers. None of these waves scale themselves down for youth, and there’s a very fine line between the instinctively perfect trajectory Brody draws from behind the peak and into the channel at the infamous slab adjacent to Main Break Margs, and disaster.

Brody seems comfortable with the arrangement.

He grew up just there, in Margaret River, which helps explain a lot. “Ever since I was two, I was hanging around the beach,” he says. He started surfing around five or six. By eleven, he was paddling into Tombies and North Point. “Dad always pushed me into the big bombs,” he says with a cheeky laugh. “I started surfing in WA when I was thirteen,” Leif Mulik counters, “but I didn’t have a dad pushing me in.”

The Muliks are one of those Western Australian units that seem to operate slightly outside normal societal settings. Brody is loosely homeschooled. “He’s number one in our class,” his dad says, sounding both proud and a little unserious. “I’m homeschooled, but I don’t do it a lot,” Brody confirms with a chuckle.

Winters aren’t spent waiting for the inhospitable meteorology of the region to magically change its patterns. Instead, the Muliks pack up, step into a caravan, and drive north to Gnaraloo, where the family has gone every year since Brody was one. Mum, dad, brother Blake — who shoots photos from the water — and the dog. “I love the vibe. We just sit around the fire and enjoy the sunset. It’s completely different from normal life, and you’re completely off the screen,” he says.

Last year they stayed for two and a half months. This year, the routine remains the same. Bali, or somewhere in Indo, are valid options too. 

Back home, Brody surfs with a small circle. Ace Flynn is one of the regulars. “He pushes me a lot,” Brody says. Occasionally Jack Robinson reappears, like a local myth. “I’ve surfed with him a few times at Slingshots and Gnaraloo,” Brody says. Robbo doesn’t spend as much time around home as he used to, but the influence lingers. When asked who he looks up to, Brody doesn’t hesitate. “Definitely Jack. He came from here and showed us what’s possible. It feels like everyone else doing well comes from the East Coast,” a place Brody is ironically heading to in 2026 to participate in the Surfing Australia program in Casuarina (Northern NSW) “to do some training and coaching.”

His new edit, fourteen., was put together over about four months with Rex Nink, who edited it. Brody would go over to his house and sit in on the edits, which is admirable dedication and a telltale sign of a grom genuinely invested in his talent.

One session stands out. A Box day that wasn’t meant to be good, so it was naturally uncrowded. Only Brody, a couple of friends, brother Blake shooting from the water, and one bodyboarder who charges Teahupoʻo. “It was the best session I’ve had out there,” Brody says. “We got so many sick waves.” Far from wanting to be the tall poppy, he never seems to oversell this particular edit or his talent.

Asked if he’s ever scared out there, he answers, “I get a little bit nervous until I get my first wave. Then I get into this mode where I just start to go.”

Stace Galbraith, calling in from the Philippines where he’s on duty at the World Junior Championships, is less restrained. “It’s a hammer clip,” he says. “He’s a fucking psycho at surfing.” We think that’s praise, at least in Stace’s dialect. He’s seen a lot of Western Australian prodigies come through. Every few years, someone appears and resets expectations: Jacob Willcox, Jack Robinson, even Taj Burrow before them. “He’s a compliment to that region,” Stace says. “A young kid going after it, and the cycle never really ends.”

Brody is still largely managed by his parents, which feels appropriate. There’s no overshared sense of urgency around his career. He seems cool and calm about its trajectory for now. As far as contests go, he’s done Stab High (he’s no slouch at airs either), Taj’s Small Fries is coming up, and he’ll do others just to see where it leads. But for now, he says, “I just want to keep making more clips.” fourteen. is out now, and if his past habits are any indication, it won’t be the last time we hear from him this year.