For Carissa Moore, this year was a statement to the world’s best women’s surfers.
After winning the Association of Surfing Professional (ASP) Women’s World Championship Title in 2011, the 21-year-old was unable to defend her title in 2012, losing to seasoned veteran Stephanie Gilmore. But this season Moore got back to having fun and surfed the best of her career – though it wasn’t easy.
In fact, the title race was so close, it came down to the last event of the season – the EDP Cascais Girls’ Pro in Portugal. Thanks to some help from Sally Fitzgibbons – who eliminated Moore’s biggest threat, Tyler Wright – in the quarterfinals, Moore took the win on, ironically, one of her most unimpressive runs of the season. With the win, Moore beat out Wright by just 3,800 points in the standings though admitted throughout the season that Wright was a solid a foe with immense talent. In the end, it was her amazing four wins during 2013 that made it impossible for any of her competitors to overcome.
“I put the work in this year, and who knew what was going to happen, but [I thought that] if I could put that energy out into the universe and just be as confident as I could in the things that I could control, that was all I could do,” Moore told ESPN afterwards. “But I was feeling it!”
Feeling it is definitely an understatement – that’s for sure.
Now Moore will return home to her native Hawaii as one of her sports’ best – and most accomplished – with still many years remaining in her career. Who knows, we might just be calling her the best ever down the road. But we’ve got plenty of time before that happens.
Ed Miller is a contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @PhillyEdMiller or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: Getty
