After winning the Billabong Pipe Pro, the opening event of the 2023 World Surf League Championship Tour, and the coveted prize of a surfboard shaped by Pipeline master Gerry Lopez, five-time world surfing champion Carissa Moore is once again wearing her favorite color.
Her maiden win of 2023 against two-time world champion Tyler Wright of Australia was a welcome page-turner for the Honolulu native. Last year, she started out as the World No. 1, only to be bumped into second place by North Shore native Moana Jones Wong in the women’s debut Pipe Pro.
Moore soon regained the yellow jersey but ended the season as No. 2 behind Aussie Stephanie Gilmore, who scored her record eighth world title in the winner-take-all final at Trestles, Calif.
“Pipeline was not on my radar when I was a young girl, and what is so impressive is there are young girls that are out there charging, and I’m excited just to see where the next generation is going to take the performance level out there,” Moore told WSL’s Joe Turpel before the Pipe Pro.
Still, it was jarring to hear WSL commentator Kaipo Guerrero describe Moore as an “auntie” vis-a-vis North Shore’s Betty Lou Sakura Johnson, 18, as they competed in the semifinals (Moore won with an excellent tube ride.).
True, after turning 30 in August and Moore posed as an auntie on her Instagram feed, Moore said in an interview, “I had people calling me ‘auntie,’ so I’m like, I’m just going to embrace it.” She added with a laugh, “yeah, they were quite a bit younger.”
And yes, a rivalry has been proclaimed in the surf media since Johnson, now in her second year on the CT, defeated Moore, one of her declared heroes, in two non-CT events: the 2021 Haleiwa Challenger and this year’s Vans Pipe Masters, in which Moore was penalized with an interference call for dropping in on Johnson.
While WSL female commentators Meghan Abubo and Dimity Stoyle have accurately characterized the rivalry and age gap as “mentor and apprentice,” it sounded all wrong when Guerrero, in his mid-50s, repeatedly referred to Moore as an auntie on the air, even after Abubo gently begged to differ, noting Moore was only 30.
After all, in Billabong Pipe Masters finals much with bigger age gaps, no one called 11-time world champ Kelly Slater uncle when, at 43, he was defeated by rookie Kanoa Igarashi, 19, in 2016, or when, at 49, he beat Seth Moniz, 25, in 2022.
The media are quick to typecast women’s competitions as stereotypical “All About Eve” scenarios, whereas, after defeating Johnson in the Pipe Pro semifinal, Moore told an interviewer, “Betty has a lot of talent and a good strategy, and I’m excited we’ll have a lot of good battles coming up.”
She and Johnson went on to win their opening rounds at the next event, the Hurley Pro at Sunset Beach. They advanced along with Kauai’s Gabriela Bryan, 20, last season’s WSL Rookie of the Year, and Johnson’s close friend and Haleiwa neighbor Luana Silva, who now represents her birthplace of Brazil.
As women of all ages continue to astonish and progress by demanding and embracing new opportunities, men’s attitudes will hopefully catch up.
Meanwhile, girls age 10-16 are encouraged to apply by March 1 for a group mentorship surf session to be led by veteran CT surfer Abubo, sponsored by Moore’s nonprofit Moore Aloha Foundation; for more information, go to @moorealoha.
And surf history will come to life at 7 p.m. March 6 at the Hawaii Theatre, with the Hawaii premiere of “The Yin & Yang of Gerry Lopez,” directed by Stacy Peralta and followed by a talk-story with Lopez; tickets are $10, and host Patagonia will donate a portion of the proceeds to Hawaii Theatre and Kokua Hawai‘i Foundation. Visit hawaiitheatre.com.
