What’s not to love about Carissa Moore? There’s an inherent beauty about any woman that surfs and surfs well. With style, grace, and the ability to throw buckets upon buckets of water over the shoulders of waves. Those are all beyond crush-worthy. But still, there’s just something different about the 22-year old 2-time champ. She smiles while she talks…pretty much always. In fact, I can’t fathom the woman even sounding pissed off about something, even if she is. Yes, Carissa Moore is a sweetheart, which is reason to get a little swoony alone. But beyond that, she’s become the world’s best, and probably most influential female surfer on the planet. And no disrespect to the professionals who came before her, but with female surfing at an all-time high in visibility, nobody dares to criticize her powerful style or claims the lady doesn’t charge.
I wanted to write a top ten list of reasons why we love her. I wanted to have this awesome essay to commend her as a person while breaking down her surfing ability and style. She’s the current women’s tour leader by a decent margin and there’s plenty of recent video evidence to support any and all claims of her awesomeness. But then I was reminded of this old HEADSPACE feature with her. I tempered the googly-eyed viewing of her tearing up the North Shore, barrel after barrel, and re-watched that interview. She talks about handling past criticism over her weight, she’s honest when asked about sex appeal and women’s surfing, she opens up about breaking down because she’s just so damn competitive, the key to happiness, and the list goes on. But one fact is inescapable the whole time; she never stops smiling. Honestly, how could you not love that?Carissa Moore is surfing’s sweetheart. That title may not win her a third championship alone, but it sure does help us adore her and more importantly it gets us all to stop and watch her surf anytime she’s in the water.
#Bae (Photo: Carissa Moore/Instagram
(HEADSPACE): Carissa Moore from The Inertia on Vimeo.
