Advice From the First Ever Women’s Olympic Surfing Champion

TOKYO – Olympic fans have been captivated by the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team, the swimming team, even U.S.A. Basketball, but this Olympics is providing an opportunity to witness sports Utahns may not be too familiar with.

Carissa Moore is from Hawaii and has been surfing and competing for years, but this is the first time surfing has been an Olympic sport. Unlike some indoor events, surfing is at the whim of Mother Nature, some days there are good waves while other days surfers go without. Moore told me, ‘that’s just surfing’.

Surfers are evaluated by a panel of five judges on each wave they surf on a scale of 0.1 to 10.0. For those living in a landlocked state, surfing may be a little hard to grasp.

“Surfing is very free,” Moore said. “I highly recommend it, don’t be afraid. If I had any recommendation for someone starting out, don’t be afraid to ask for help. The bigger the board, the better. So, more stabilization and it’s a lot fun. It’s fluid, it’s, you have to be very present because if you’re not present, mother nature can just come and sweep you off your feet.”

Also on the water today, Ugandan rower Kathleen Noble who lives in Salt Lake City, has her last row of these Olympic Games but she is out of medal contention.