Surfing champ Carissa Moore hits land for a fun workout

In early December Hawaiian surfer Carissa Moore charged big, dangerous waves at Honolua Bay with power, speed, agility and grace in the Target Maui Pro. Just before paddling out, she learned she had won the 2015 world championship, but she kept her focus and gave the final heat her all. Dropping into a towering barrel and riding it out for a perfect score, she won the last and, for Moore, the crowning event in the 2015 Women’s Samsung Galaxy Championship Tour.

It was the third World Surf League title for Moore, 23, who also holds the record for becoming the youngest world surfing champion ever, at age 18.

In January, back from a trip to Haiti with the nonprofit Waves for Water, which provides drinking water filtration aid, Moore was at her favorite outdoor gym, a hilly Kahala park, to prepare for the 2016 tour. The young waterwoman has supplemented her surfing with a regular land-based workout since she graduated from Punahou School and decided to go pro.

“Training helps me prepare for competition and avoid injury,” Moore said as she and her trainer, Erin Kamano, arranged their portable equipment — a box, a yoga mat, orange traffic cones — and a boom box on the stage of the park’s old pavilion.

The exercises are designed to let her surf 100 percent, Moore said, her big brown eyes radiating health and happiness as she reached out to pat her little dog, Tuffy, a terrier/Lab mix.

At the same time, she felt that her workout was easily adaptable to anyone’s fitness goals and was happy to share it with others. “It’s so simple and it’s cheap — it doesn’t require special equipment,” she said.

“And you can do it anywhere,” added Kamano, 45.

As she demonstrated her key exercises — jumping rope, planks, lunges, jumping on and off a bench, and prancing sideways over strips suspended between cones — the young athlete had the perfect form and focus of someone tuned to her body as well as to Kamano’s gentle coaching.

Tuffy also leaped and darted back and forth, eliciting laughter and praise.

“Our workout is focused on hitting multiple themes: speed, agility, flexibility, cardio, core strength,” Kamano said.

The exercises are designed to strengthen Moore’s back and arms for paddling and condition her hips and legs for dropping into waves, aerial maneuvers, snaps and long rushing rides, while also keeping her balanced and stabilized.

Moore, who grew up in Hawaii Kai, works out with Kamano two to three times a week when she is home in Hawaii and consults with her by phone and email when she’s on tour. During competition she doesn’t train “because I’m surfing so much, but when I have three to four days off, I’ll throw in a 20-minute workout she sends me.”

Kamano also helps her cope with the stress of competition.

“We talk through my thoughts — Erin gives me key words, phrases, to get me working on positive self-talk,” Moore said.

Further support comes from Moore’s boyfriend Luke Untermann, father Chris and younger sister Cayla, who fly out to join her at stops on the 10-contest circuit from Australia to Brazil, Fiji, California and France. Everywhere she goes, Moore gets outdoors and enjoys nature, doing activities — hiking, swimming, playing tennis and flag football — that keep her fit while having fun.

When she’s home, Moore also does yoga twice a week, which elongates muscles that have been tightened by training. “Plus, yoga mentally helps me focus on the moment,” she said.

On March 10 she will be in Australia for the holding period of the pro tour’s first contest of 2016, the Roxy Pro Gold Coast at Snapper Rocks, near Brisbane, which she won last year. “Snapper Rocks is a really long wave. You need good leg endurance; a ride can last up to 30 seconds,” she said.

Asked if she trained differently for specific waves, Moore nodded.

“You have to be more powerful for bigger waves like Honolua, light and fast for beach breaks like Brazil; the time you’re up on the board is so much shorter,” she said. “Jumping strips is good for that speed and agility.”

For getting barrelled, the best preparation is surfing, she said. “A lot of movements involve intuition,” she explained. “Surfing is spontaneous — a lot of time in the waves has helped me read the waves like that.”

While she pushes herself in her workouts as well as her surfing, hard work shouldn’t be punishing, Moore said.

“If you could let people know, balance is really important. You need to rest,” she said. “You deserve to treat yourself once in a while. I’ll have a cookie or ice cream.”

But not just yet. With a smile and a wave, she resumed her workout.