A prime Olympic opportunity for one Hawaii surfing mainstay doubles as the last hurrah for another.
North Shore native John John Florence, the top-ranked men’s competitor in the World Surf League, is readying for the revered break at Teahupo’o in Tahiti, the farthest-flung satellite site of the 2024 Paris Games. But for Honolulu’s Carissa Moore, it is likely her last stand.
The two 31-year-olds from Oahu possess seven World Surf League championships between them, they are in far different places in their careers.
Moore became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in surfing at the 2020 Tokyo Games held at Japan’s Tsurigasaki Beach in 2021. She announced in January following an appearance in Hawaii that she plans to make this Olympics her final competitive event before she leaves to focus on starting a family. She withdrew from all but one of this year’s WSL Championship Tour events, the Shiseido Tahiti Pro at the same Teahupo’o break where she placed fifth in May.
Florence, healthy after a series of debilitating injuries the last few years, including a knee setback leading into the Tokyo Games, is having a resurgent season. In June he won the El Salvador Pro, his first CT win in three years, and has finished runner-up in three other CT events.
The two participated in Team USA training sessions at Teahupo’o in the last few days.
Teaupo’o is considered a much more formidable wave than what was seen in Japan three years ago. Surfers must make steep drops onto the waves, but barrel-riding opportunities are consistent.
“Pretty cool to be a part of the Olympic experience again, especially here at Teahupo’o, Tahiti,” Moore wrote in an Instagram post. “The Games bring this special feeling of togetherness. Yes it’s a competition, but it truly feels like a celebration. A celebration of passion, hard work, dedication and dreams. Yes, we are here to do our best and hopefully win a medal, but it kinda feels like we already won. Just being here, making it to this moment, has taken tremendous effort and sacrifice by every athlete.”
Florence wrote, “Feels good to be back! Gearing up in Tahiti.”
It should not come as a surprise that a sport that originated in Hawaii features more local ties than just Moore and Florence. Brisa Hennessy, 24, is representing Costa Rica but spent some of her childhood on Oahu. Tatiana Weston-Webb, 28, competes for Brazil but grew up on Kauai.
The competition window opens Saturday. It calls for five days to get through six rounds with five days held in reserve through Aug. 5.
There are 24 surfers on each of the men’s and women’s sides. Round 1 consists of eight heats of three surfers. The winner of each heat advances straight to Round 3 while the second-place finisher advances to Round 2 and must win a head-to-head matchup there to make Round 3 (the round of 16).
A surfer’s score in each heat is determined by their best two rides in the allotted time period.
While local surfers compete under the Hawaii flag and not that of the U.S. in WSL competition, that is not the case for the Olympics; as in Tokyo 2020, Moore and Florence will compete under the American flag.
Moore showed off some of her Team USA gear on Tuesday.
Moore is joined in the U.S. contingent by Caroline Marks, 22, the reigning WSL world champion, and Caity Summers, 22.
Florence is joined by Griffin Colapinto, 25, for the U.S. men.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com