What I’ve Learned: Surf Champion Carissa Moore
At just 32, Carissa Moore is already one of the greatest surfers the sport has ever seen.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii at 18 she became the youngest person to win a world title and has since amassed four more on World Surf League (WSL) tours. Moore made history again as the first ever Olympic gold medallist in women’s shortboard surfing for Team USA, when the sport debuted at the Tokyo 2020 games. Alongside athletic achievements, Moore is the founder of the Moore Aloha Foundation, which seeks to empower young women through the sport. With an induction into the Surfers Hall of Fame, the state of Hawaii even declared a day in Moore’s honour (4 January).
Which is all to say: Carissa Moore is a big deal.
This September, Moore joined fellow surfing legends from across the globe (Michael February, Jérémy Florès, Jadson André, Taj Burrows and Ahmed “Ammaday” Agil) to battle it out for the Four Seasons Maldives Championship Trophy. Carving up the crystal clear waters of Kuda Huraa, the most luxurious event in surfing has previously seen the likes of Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Taylor Knox and Mark Occhilupo grace its leaderboard.
The competition is unique. With heat times staggered dependant on age, the multidiscipline format sees surfers ride a single-fin, twin-fin and three-fin thruster following the evolution of surfboard design over the years. From the vantage of a (very, very nice) boat, we spectators saw the waves at Saltans reef break bigger than ever. With surfing to match, Australia’s Taj Burrows ultimately beat South Africa’s Michael February to the cup.
Back on dry land, backdropped by paradise at the Four Seasons Resort Kuda Huraa, we took a brief break from our taxing roster of shark swimming, anti-gravity yoga and sea plane rides to catch up with Carissa Moore about her inspirations, Olympic experiences and what's it like to navigate a male dominated sport as a woman. Now expecting her first child, Moore discussed what the next chapter of her career looks like with a baby on board (figuratively speaking, of course).
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
There’s no better place to grow up than Hawaii. I'm probably biased, but there's just something about the warmth and the sense of community there, that your family really extends outside of just blood. It's a small enough community that you feel like everybody kind of knows everybody, which is so beautiful. You look out for each other, and just that sense of aloha: love and welcoming.
My biggest influence is my family. Especially my dad. He didn’t surf professionally, but he did have a background in open-water swimming, competing in big rough-water swims in Hawaii, and did really well. I think that’s what’s kind of cool, he was able to use his competitive background in swimming to help me. I looked to him for the praise and the validation, and he was, like, always my hero.
My Olympic experiences were both a little bit different. Tokyo 2020 was the first time that surfing was ever in the Olympics, so no one really knew what to expect and I went into it with this happy-go-lucky attitude. I tried to have it for the second one, but it's very hard to repeat the same mindset. I was there to embrace the experience.
It felt really special to represent not only the US, but my home in Hawaii. There was a lot of talk about Duke Kahanamoku and his legacy. He’s like the father of modern-day surfing. He was the one who brought surfing to all different parts of the world, and he was just this beautiful ambassador of Aloha, and touched so many people through what he did and how he acted. I learned a lot about him through this process and felt a lot of pride being a small part of his story coming true.
Tahiti 2024 was a little bit scarier. The wave itself (Teahupo’o) was a lot more intimidating. I look at that wave as such an emotional wave.
My best game plan is just trying to focus on what I need to do. Sometimes I'm feeling super calm and super at peace and I don't need much. Other times I'm a little bit more nervous and on edge, and I need to listen to music, or I need to break it down with my coach. I think it's just about being in tune with myself.
I don't have any superstitions. I do like to give my husband a kiss, though, if he’s around.
A few things really inspired me to start my charitable foundation, Moore Aloha. I needed a source of motivation that was bigger than myself. I was in a place where I was really struggling personally and professionally, and found one of the ways I can reconnect with my heart and find my way back to myself, is through service. I just really want to connect and use what I’ve learned through my experiences to help others. I feel I find a lot of strength in community, relating to other people.
Navigating womanhood, it's tricky. I think being a woman in a more male-dominated sport at the time was like, Hey, we could use more opportunity. I think my mentors, the women that I looked up to, were older professional surfers that paved the way.
Rochelle Ballard, Melanie Bartels, Megan Abubo, and Keala Kennelly – those were the women from Hawaii that I got to see and surf with, that were really tangible, on the world level. I always remember Rochelle Ballard had a camp, and I went to that. It was just the coolest thing to hang with my hero and see she was just like me.
It's really neat to see how much the sport has evolved. In the beginning, a lot of the girls weren't taken seriously for their athleticism. You know, it's more like, Hey, they look cute in their bikini. We weren't given the same opportunities because people thought we would waste them.
Eventually it was kind of undeniable that if you give us the good conditions and our talent aligns, we can do it. It's just been neat to see that. We’ve got equal amounts of events, we’ve got equal prize money. And the venues that our events are being held at aren't just safe, playful waves—they're waves of consequence.
We've been able to rise to the occasion. And I'm excited to see where this next generation is going to take it.
This year has been a huge shift in my identity. I've gotten pregnant, which has been such beautiful, divine timing, because I'm like, Wow, I get to go into the next phase of life and have something right away to focus on. But at the same time, how do I process all of that? Going from a full-time professional surfer on the tour, it's hardcore, and then all of a sudden I'm in the midst of that.
I'm so touched by how positive the response has been. It’s something that I've just always been a little fearful of. Watching some of the other women become mothers and not be embraced by the sport, they almost have to fade away.
It was like, Oh my gosh, is this the end of what I love? That's a very real thing that I had to consider going into this, and I feel really fortunate that all my sponsors have stood by me and are willing to see what it looks like for me on the other side.
I have so much deeper appreciation for women and mothers and how they balance it all. I hope I can be a part of the movement to inspire other young, women whenever they get to that point. It doesn't have to end. It's just an evolution of who I am. Yes, it may not look the same, never look the same, it won't look the same, but it can be even more beautiful than we ever imagined.
What would I like my legacy to be? I think if I can spread a little more love and kindness in this world, that would be a huge accomplishment and legacy. I want to hopefully inspire other people to chase what they're passionate about fearlessly and live a life of purpose. That would be really awesome.
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