Caitlin Simmers, a world champion surfer, in New York, July 13, 2026. Now 20, Simmers was just 18 when she became the youngest women’s world surfing champion in 2024. (Photos by OK McCausland/The New York Times) By GIA KOURLAS For his ballet “Ondine” (1958), the great British choreographer Frederick Ashton spent hours studying the surge and swell of ocean waves. “I wanted the movement to be fluid like the rhythm of the sea rather than the ballet steps,” he once said. The role of Ondine, a…
