WHO'S in the BARREL?

CARISSA KAINANI MOORE

Carissa Kainani Moore is a Hawaiian American Olympian, world champion surfer and activist. She was the first-ever winner of the Olympic Gold Medal in women’s short board surfing in 2020. When she was five years old, Moore started surfing with her dad off the beaches of Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii. “Dad taught me how to surf when I was about four or five years old at Waikiki Beach and I was immediately hooked,” she said. Her father, Chris, was a competitive open water swimmer who won a number of competitions. He lived closer to the water than Moore’s landlocked mother, so Moore chose Hawaii, the ocean, and her father after her parents divorced when she was ten years old.

She started earning multiple wins at National Scholastic Surfing Association, NSSA, junior surf competitions at age 11. She also won top spots at the International Surfing Association, ISA, World Junior Surfing Championships, where she helped Hawaii win a team victory. In all, she clinched a record 11

NSSA amateur titles, and at age 16 in 2008, she became the youngest champion at a Triple Crown of Surfing event when she won the Reef Hawaiian Pro. In 2010, Moore qualified to compete on the ASP (now called the World Surf League) Championship Tour. She won two major contests, finished third overall, and was named Rookie of the Year.

The following season, Moore was a youngster to watch on the World Tour and she lived up to her reputation, winning three events and claiming her first World crown, unseating four-time defending champ Stephanie Gilmore in the process. At 18, she became the youngest person – male or female – to win a surfing world title.

Moore has been named an Adventurer of the Year by National Geographic, a Woman of the Year by Glamour magazine, and Top Female Surfer in the SURFER magazine poll (numerous times). She was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, and the State of Hawaii declared January 4 to be Carissa Moore Day.