Born on Oahu's South Shore in 1992, Carissa Moore grew up like so many Hawaiian groms, learning to surf at Waikiki as waves like Baby Queens, before moving up to Kewalos Basin and Ala Moana Bowls, which have shaped countless Hawaiian champions over the last fifty years, from Gerry Lopez and Dane Kealoaha to Derek and Michael Ho.
Carissa started to collect NSSA National Titles at 11 years old, eventually winning 11 amateur Titles, as well as winning ISA World Junior Championship. At 16 she won the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, the youngest surfer to ever win a Triple Crown of Surfing event.
In 2010, Carissa qualified for the World Championship Tour, won two ‘CT events, and the Rookie of the Year, finishing fifth overall. She followed her debut year up, taking out three events and winning her first World Title in 2011, beating out 4x defending champ Stephanie Gilmore, a friendly but fierce rivalry that would continue throughout their careers on tour.
For several years, Moore was a part of one of surfing's most impressive and high-paid crews ever assembled, the Nike/Hurley team comprising John John Florence, Kolohe Andino, Michel Bourez, Julian Wilson, Lakey Peterson, and others.
While collecting three more Titles and 29 World Championship Tour events, over the last ten years, the 5x World Champion has been named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, won multiple Surfer Poll Awards, Glamour's Woman of the Year, and the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing three times.
At surfing's debut in the Olympics in 2020, Carissa became surfing's first Gold Medalist, bringing the title back to Honolulu, the birthplace of surfing and Duke Kahanomku's dream of surfing's Olympic inclusion.
The 5x World Champion has been focused on spending as much time in Tahiti as possible the last few months in preparation for this summer, at the first Olympic event held in surfing's Pacific Polynesian birthplace.