Hawaii’s Carissa Moore wins gold in women’s surfing

Hawaii’s Carissa Moore defeated South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag to win the gold medal in the firstever women’s surfing event in the Summer Olympics on Tuesday in Tokyo.

The four-time world champion, who took control at the start and surfed fluidly throughout, found the rhythm of the sea as she has in so many winning waves around the world. The final heat featured cleaner conditions as a typhoon threatening the country moved away. It was a reward after battling through “perfect storm “conditions at Tsurigasaki Beach over the past two days.

The raging winds had backed off, and the water’s surface was “starting to shimmer a little, “in one announcer’s words, as Moore, 28, earned a succession of increasing scores : a 3.17, 3.4, then a 7.33 with a two-turn combo in a discerningly selected wave.

“She found that diamond in the rough, “the announcer said.

There was a dreamlike quality to the scene and Moore’s near-flawless surfing, which drew beauty out of chaos the way an artist does. The announcers spoke of how she and every competitor at Tsurigasaki Beach were living the dream expressed by the great Hawaiian waterman and Olympic gold-medal swimmer Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, of seeing surfing become an Olympic sport.

One could imagine how he would feel to see a fellow surfer of Native Hawaiian ancestry win a gold medal in the inaugural Olympic he ‘e nalu event.

As Buitendag, 27, after some minutes’ lag, caught waves in both directions for mid-level scores, the announcers spoke of the spiritual similarities between the two young surfers, both of whom, they said, donated their first champion tour event winnings to local communities and continue to give back.