17-year-old Moore wins Gidget Pro women’s surf contest

Teen phenom Carissa Moore’s  ascent through the surfing world went even higher yesterday when she won the Gidget Pro women’s contest at Sunset Beach and took home a $12,000 first-place check .

It was the latest and most impressive victory in what has already been a memorable career for Moore, who is 17 and a senior at Punahou High School in Hawaii.

The contest was part of the ASP Women’s World Tour, so the field featured all of the world’s top-ranked female surfers, including three-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and second place finisher Sally Fitzgibbons both of Australia. Fitzgibbons managed a perfect 10 at Sunset but with all the great rides, even that wasn’t enough to land her atop the podium.

Moore will become eligible for the tour in 2010. She qualified for the Gidget Pro by winning a trials heat held prior to the contest.

Moore started gaining recognition at age 11, when she was already dominating the small-wave amateur competitions. This weekend she proved that she can beat the pros in powerful waves and she was understandably stoked as you’ll see in this Triple Crown report on the comp.

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Gidget Pro final results

1, Carissa Moore (Hawai’i), $12,000.

2, Sally Fitzgibbons (Australia), $7,000.

3, Stephanie Gilmore (Australia), $5,100.

4, Alana Blanchard (Hawai’i), $4,900.

5 (tie), Chelsea Hedges (Australia) and Malia Manuel (Hawai’i), $4,600.

7 (tie), Melanie Bartels (Hawai’i) and Coco Ho (Hawai’i), $4,400.

9 (tie), Megan Abubo (Hawai’i), Samantha Cornish (Australia), Silvana Lima (Brazil) and Bruna Schmitz (Brazil), $3,600.

13 (tie), Laurina McGrath (Australia), Jacqueline Silva (Brazil), Paige Hareb (New Zealand) and Bethany Hamilton (Hawai’i), $3,400.

Cover Girl: Carissa Moore first girl on cover of Surfer Magazine in over 10 years

High school student and rock star surfer Carissa Moore is the first female to grace the cover of Surfer Magazine in over a decade.

Last November Moore became the youngest surfer to ever win a Triple Crown event just after splitting with longtime sponsor Roxy and signing a huge sponsorship deal with Nike and Red Bull.

With her appearance on the cover of Surfer Magazine, the 16-year-old high school junior is the first female since Lisa Andersen in 1995 to be featured, and only the third girl in the magazine’s 50-year history.

For the moment the teen phenom has lightened her pro surfing load and is just focusing on getting through school (she’s attending Punahou on Oahu, the same school that produced both Michelle Wie and President Obama). That said, the minute she has diploma in hand you know she’s going to be taking the world by storm.

ESPN Action Sports caught up with Carissa to see just how she’s handling it all. Find out what she thinks about high school gossip, not wanting a driver’s license, how she was punked and whether she has a date for the Junior Dance.

Carissa Moore becomes youngest Vans Triple Crown Champion

November 24, 2008 – The 2008 Reef Hawaiian Pro was always going to be about the new guard of women’s surfing from the opening heat of competition. And when it was over, Haleiwa crowned it’s youngest ever Vans Triple Crown of Surfing event champion in 16-year-old Carissa Moore.

Seems that Moore, who just dropped her longtime sponsor Roxy and signed a huge sponsorship deal with Nike and Red Bull, is making history on all fronts.

Moore won her way through every round of the competition from the preliminary trials heat that awarded one wildcard spot into the event. She now leads the 2008 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing series ratings.

Three teenagers and a 36-year-old, 7-time world champion featured in the 30-minute final. Moore won, multiple world champ Layne Beachley (Australia) was second, 17-year-old Laura Enever (Australia) was third, and North Shore local Coco Ho, 17, was fourth.

While Moore’s rise to the win came with calm, sure-footedness, there was no shortage of drama around her to help pave the road to victory.

First came the fourth place elimination of reigning world champion Stephanie Gilmore (Australia) in quarter final one.

Next came the quarter final defeat of Alana Blanchard (Hawaii), who was hoping for a final finish today to guarantee her qualification onto the 2009 ASP women’s World Tour.

In the final, 17-year-old Coco Ho was at the center of drama. A win here would have guaranteed Ho a start on the 2009 elite World Tour, but after finding herself in fourth for most of the heat, her focus shifted to securing the win for Moore. With less than a minute remaining, Beachley was in need of little more than six points to steal the win from Moore. Ho took off, dropping in on Beachley, popping an air above her head and effectively shutting down Layne’s scoring potential in a classic case of schoolgirl tactics.

While it will never be known if Layne would have earned the score she needed to win, its indisputable that Moore earned the victory on the merits of her surfing alone.

As the final ASP women’s World Qualifying Series (WQS) event of the year, all eyes will now shift to the next two stops on the Vans Triple Crown to determine the final lineup for the 2009 women’s ASP World Tour: the Roxy Pro (Nov.24-Dec.6) and the Billabong Pro Maui (Dec. 8-20).

In addition to being the second of three stops on the 2008 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, this week’s Roxy Pro at Sunset Beach carries the added weight of potentially crowning the 2008 ASP Women’s World Champion.  Will Aussie Stephanie Gilmore, 20, reigning ASP Women’s World Champion and current No. 1 on the ASP Women’s World Tour successfully defend her title?

Teenage surfing phenom Carissa Moore’s big deal

November 18, 2008 – Eleven-time NSSA National champ, former Roxy Pro Gold Coast runner-up and sure-to-be future world champ Carissa Moore has just upped the ante – this time in the sponsorship arena.

Recently split from her longtime sponsor Roxy, the Hawaiian teen has signed two major deals – one with Red Bull and the other with Nike 6.0. 

According to Surfing Magazine,

All said and done, the 16-year-old Punahou junior will likely be enjoying one of the most lucrative contracts in female pro surfing history (estimated to be in the range of three-quarters of a million dollars by one anonymous source). “Carissa’s new agreements have for the first time ever shattered the glass ceiling of surfing sponsorship, opening up new and never heard of before possibilities for other surfers to eventually emulate,” says [agent Bryan] Taylor.

Moore is apparently also close to making a deal with a major department store – kind of like the deal snowboarder Shaun White made earlier this year to “design” a fashion line for Target.

And as a “head to toe” Nike rider, Moore will likely be marketed not just in the surf world, but in some of their more mainstream campaigns as well joining the likes of well-known Nike athletes Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova and LeBron James.

After eight years with Roxy, Moore’s split from the sponsor who’s been with her since the beginning is truly the end of an era. It seems a bittersweet transition but it’s great that Nike and Red Bull are stepping up to the plate with women’s surfing and Moore seems a great choice to represent the sport.

To other brands looking for the TNBT – there’s a whole new generation of super groms stealing the show.

New generation of surfers steal the show

November 18, 2008 – The Reef Hawaiian Pro, taking place this week in Haleiwa, is one of  three women’s surf events this month on the North Shore as part of the Vans Triple Crown (also the Roxy Sunset Pro and Billabong Pro Maui).

Like much of this year, where super groms ruled in women’s professional surfing, the teenage new wave of women’s professional surfing is stealing the show. In the opening day of competition, the ladies enjoyed solid overhead waves and two rounds of competition as they whittled the 44-woman, 11-nation field down to 16 quarter finalists.

From the first heat -a wildcard battle among six young Hawaii surfers- it was clear that the new crop is determined to rise to the top at this year’s Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.

Wildcard winner Carissa Moore, 16, and winter room-mates Laura Enever (Australia), 17, and Coco Ho (Hawaii), 17, administered the major damage against some of the top seeded surfers and are all through to the quarters.

Heading into the quarter finals, seven of the 16 ladies remaining are 18 years of age or under: Bruna Schmitz (Brz, 18), Ho, Enever, Courtney Conlogue (CA, 16), Sally Fitzgibbons (Aus, 17), Moore, and Alana Blanchard (HI, 18).

Defending Reef Hawaiian Pro and Vans Triple Crown champion Megan Abubo (Hawaii) was the biggest casualty of the day, eliminated in round two by Ho and Enever.

Full details

After three back-to-back days of superb competition at the Reef Hawaiian Pro, the event is currently on standby awaiting better conditions. Assuming a northwest swell arrives shortly, this month should be one of the most exciting ever as we head into the final countdown of the Women’s Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour and find out whether Stephanie Gilmore hangs onto her title.

Carissa Moore, Princess of Kewalo Basin, sweeps Sea Hawaii Pro-Am

August 18, 2008 – Surf ranged in the 2-5 foot range all weekend and proved that Hawaii is the place to have contests! Sunny skies, big smiles and big moves from all divisions were the standard all weekend.

Sunday started out with Pro longboarding and the show was on.  Radical off the lips and smooth nose riding in combination scored high. Early stand outs early were Candice Appleby and Crystal Dzigas, both local Queens Beach girls. Dzigas was going for the largest sets and pulling straight up tops turns and long nose rides on her longboard.

When Semis rolled around Jr. Women winner Carissa Moore worked through the burn in her legs to score big. Moore entered three divisions in marathon manner – after all Kewalos is her home training ground. After winning the ASP Women’s Jr Pro Saturday Moore won all three divisions she entered Sunday, a total sweep of shortboarding, longboarding and the first ever FLHI Girlz Trick competition. Alessa Quizon was not far behind in scoring, just short one turn on the inside.