It seems competing in New Zealand continues to agree with Carissa Moore.
In 2010, the Hawaiian had her breakthrough performance competing in Taranaki on the World Surf League Championship Tour.
It was her rookie year at the top level and Moore arrived in New Zealand off the back of twoninth-placed finishes – or third-round exits – in her first two events.
Something clicked with her in the Taranaki waters, though. In every heat but her first, Moore posted at least one score in the excellent range of 8.00 or above. In the final, she won her maiden Championship Tour event title with a near-perfect 19.16 two-wave total.
Now, 16 years since that win, her form is again trending in the right direction as the tour visits New Zealand.
Moore has moved into the quarter-finals of the New Zealand Pro at Manu Bay in Raglan, beating American Lakey Peterson in their second-round match-up. For the second time in as many heats, Moore, 33, posted an excellent single-wave score, while her heat total of 15.33 was the highest in the women’s second-round heats.
Carissa Moore posted the highest heat total in the second round of the women's competition in Raglan. Photo / World Surf League
It was a slower day with smaller swells than the athletes had seen over the past week, but there were still big scores to be had on the right waves.
For Moore and Peterson, who finished with a 7.50 heat total, the wait for waves was a long one as they both sat without a score after about 25 minutes of the 35-minute heat.
“It was a really long wait,” Moore told the WSL broadcast team after her heat, which saw both surfers have a long wait before some decent sets rolled through.
“I was just trying to tell myself to breathe and not get too cold, because it gets really chilly when you’re sitting for so long. I just said ‘if I don’t have anything and Lakey doesn’t have anything, it’s okay. We have to wait for a decent wave to come in’ and nothing had really come.
“I was just trying to repeat ‘have faith and trust yourself’. That was on repeat.”
The five-time world champion will meet young American star Caroline Marks, the 2023 world champion, in the quarter-finals. The other match-ups in the women’s draw will see reigning world champion Molly Picklum (Australia) against Bettylou Sakura Johnson (Hawaii), Gabriela Bryan (Hawaii) against Alyssa Spencer (USA) and two-time world champion Tyler Wright (Australia) against Sawyer Lindblad (USA).
In the men’s draw, the big names in the line-up all remain in the hunt, making for some eye-watering third-round match-ups. The men’s tour has a bigger draw than that of the women, so a third round is needed to whittle the field down.
Jack Robinson (Australia) and Kanoa Igarashi (Japan) both needed all the time they could get in their respective second-round heats, being taken to the absolute death in their heats by Kauli Vaast (France) and Joel Vaughan (Australia) respectively. Robinson did not get the official result of his heat until he was already back on land amongst the fans, after both surfers caught scoring waves late.
Robinson will meet Brazil’s Miguel Pupo in the third round, while Igarashi takes on 2019 world champion Italo Ferreira (Brazil).
The heat of the round shapes up as be the battle between multiple-time world champions Gabriel Medina and Filipe Toledo (Brazil).
In other third-round heats, the American Colapinto brothers Griffin and Crosby will go head-to-head, Australians Morgan Cibilic and Liam O’Brien meet, Indonesia’s Rio Waida takes on Brazilian Alejo Muniz, American Cole Houshmand takes on Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti, while reigning world champion Yago Dora (Brazil) meets France’s Marco Mignot.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
