Mali faces bankruptcy of his business – “learn to surf or you’re fired!”

Next week on Home and Away in the UK, Mali finds himself staring at the collapse of his beloved board shop after one risky decision too many.

It all begins when Mali chooses to leave the shop in the hands of his brand-new assistant, Lacy, while he returns to Manor Point to help his sister Lanna with childcare. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Lacy is inexperienced, untested, and, as it turns out, can’t even surf.

At first, she hides her lack of skills by persuading her boyfriend Theo to step in and teach the students. When Mali learns of this arrangement, he reluctantly allows it to continue during his absence. But beneath the surface, the shop is already sinking. Lacy soon realizes the business is running at a loss, and Abigail offers to step in to steady things until Mali comes back. Together, they hope they can hold the shop together.

Weeks pass, and the situation only worsens. Theo, who has been the shop’s lifeline, turns down a job offer at the garage to keep helping out. But Lacy, believing it’s unfair to rely on him, urges Abby to let him go—even though the surf lessons are the shop’s biggest source of income. Without Theo, customers demand refunds, and Abby is left panicking as debts mount.

Mac urges Abby to come clean with Mali. But before she can, her boyfriend calls with shocking news: Mali is already on his way back to the Bay. When he finally returns, Mali is upbeat, catching up with Mac, Levi, and Abby before heading home. But Abby still hasn’t told him the truth.

The next morning, Mali senses something is wrong. Abby confesses that she let Theo go and insists they need to face the shop’s books together. Mali, still unaware of the full extent of the crisis, remains optimistic that they can turn things around. Yet when Abby walks him through the details—angry students, delayed board orders, mounting stock issues—it becomes clear the problems have been snowballing ever since he left.

Mali stays confident, but Abby doubts he can juggle the backlog of board orders while also running lessons. She tells him plainly: Lacy isn’t the right fit. If the shop is to survive, she has to go.

But firing Lacy doesn’t sit well with Mali. When Lacy shows up, he thanks her for covering during his absence. Still guilt-ridden, she brushes off the praise, saying she’s just glad to help. Mali is torn between Abby’s warning and his own reluctance to sack someone who has tried to stand by him.

Caught in the middle, Mali offers a compromise. He tells Lacy her job depends on one thing—she must learn to surf. If she can teach lessons as well as manage the shop, she can stay.

But will Lacy rise to the challenge to save her position, or has Mali just gambled the future of his business on the wrong person?