Carissa Moore takes on surfing elite in men’s Vans Triple Crown of Surfing 2011 (Part 1)
If anyone thought that the young Hawaiian prodigy, Carissa Moore was done with her share of the spotlight after the 2011 season of Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women’s World
Tour wrapped up in August, they could not have been more wrong. The 19-year-old sensation made her way back into news after getting the coveted wildcard entry for what is considered to be one of the most prestigious men’s professional surfing series on the
planet, the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.
After beating some of the best female surfers from around the globe, which included the former four-time ASP Women’s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore of Australia and her extremely talented
compatriot Sally Fitzgibbons, in the ASP Women’s World Tour to lift the trophy even before the season got done with its final event, Moore found herself receiving an opportunity to surf against the formidable male surfing elites in front of her home crowd.
These intimidating surfers included the likes of Australia’s Taj Burrow, France’s John John Florence, America’s Kolohe Andino, Brazil’s Raoni Monteiro among many others at two of the three stops on the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing series, namely the Reef Hawaiian
Pro at Haleiwa and Vans Hawaiian Pro at Sunset Beach.
With the fields of the two events comprising of such a heavy talent pool, along with a prize money of $145,000 and $250,000 on offer at the first and second stop of the series respectively,
Moore could not have found herself under more pressure. All eyes are going to be on the sole female contestant, with the recent World title further adding to the hype surrounding her participation in the men’s series.
Hype is not only the only thing associated with the young Hawaiian’s addition to the line-up at the first two events of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing series. Due to the lack of sponsors
for the Hawaiian women surf events, the women’s Vans Triple Crown series got scratched this year. This decision was followed by a huge uproar from the women’s tour. In an attempt to curb the anger of female surfers to some extent, Vans offered to put on a
paid series of three events, restricting the field to a selected group of surfers. However, the women’s tour rejected the offer and demanded nothing more nothing or less than stipulated events.
While the rest of her peers had opted to stay away from Vans as a protest, Moore had refused to let the opportunity of surfing alongside the best pass by. Talking about accepting the offer,
which was nothing short of a double-edged sword, the Honolulu-based surfer said, “Everyone will have a different perspective and I’ve definitely heard some mixed reviews. But I’m excited and looking forward to it and hopefully that shows. I want to drive home
that if there were events for the girls, I wouldn’t be surfing in the guys events. But I think if a woman can [compete with the men] in a very respectful way, then it’s appropriate. And if Kelly [Slater] would like to surf in one of our events, we’d welcome
him,”
After becoming the youngest world champion, it was only natural to find Moore pushing the boundaries of female surfing further by stepping into the male territory. Even if her unique approach
may not have gone well with the women’s tour for now, one can expect them to support her decision once they are able to better understand her intended motivation.
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