Hawaiian surfer Carissa Moore, who for years dominated on the elite World Tour and made history clinching the first-ever surfing gold medal for Team USA, has announced she is stepping away from competitive surfing.

The announcement from the World Surf League about the 31-year-old surfer’s decision comes just before the start of the Lexus  Pipe Pro, in which she will still compete on her home sand at the North Shore of Hawaii. She has also been given a wildcard spot to compete in the Tahiti Pro and plans to still compete in the Paris Olympic Games this summer at Teahupo’o in Tahiti to defend her medal.

Hawaii’s Carissa Moore in 2022 made it to the WSL Final 5 at Lower Trestles.(Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Moore joined the World Tour in 2010 as an 18-year-old rising star following a record-breaking amateur career, but said she is ready for her next chapter.

“I’m excited to see what else there is, outside the jersey,” Moore said. “I don’t like the word retirement. I like to say a departure from the tour, or just stepping back, or switching gears, or, like, evolving.”

Moore is no stranger to Southern California. She was a regular at the National Scholastic Surfing Association in Huntington Beach and Lower Trestles as a youngster during her rise to become one of the world’s best.

Her skills were apparent early on, at age 11 in 2004 she became the youngest surfer ever to win the National Open Women’s division. She earned a record 11 NSSA national championships through the years, a record in tact today.

NSSA Executive Director Janice Aragon said she remembers the first time seeing Moore compete at the national championships in 2003 as a 10 year old with an “ear-to-ear beaming smile.”

“It was obvious to me that Carissa possessed a skillset and technique well beyond her years,” Aragon said.

Moore competed regularly at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach through the years and for the last two years has been runner up at the WSL Finals at Lower Trestles, clinching the world title at the surf spot just south of San Clemente in 2021.

Carissa Moore celebrates after winning the Rip Curl World Surf League Finals at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, CA on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

She is always a fan favorite, a warm smile splashed across her face while not in a heat, but a fierce power surfer in the water.

“As Carissa Moore shares her decision of this new chapter, we reflect on her incredible journey and the profound impact she’s had on surfing,” said WSL Chief of Sport Jessi Miley-Dyer in a news release. “She is a champion and a role model in and out of the water. Throughout her career, Carissa has exemplified grace, resilience, and competitive excellence. Her achievements have transcended the sport, bringing a new level of athleticism and progression to surfing. Carissa’s dedication to pushing the boundaries has been inspirational, and her absence in the competitive scene will be deeply felt.”

Through her career, Moore has competed in 120 World Tour events, claiming 28 wins throughout her career, according to WSL.

At just 16, she won the Triple Crown of Surfing and was named Rookie of the Year during her maiden year on tour, claiming her first World Title a year later at just 18 years old – the youngest ever, male or female, to do so.

A decade ago, in 2014 as a 21 year old, she put her hands and feet in cement in Huntington Beach at the Surfers’ Hall of Fame, becoming one of the youngest surfers to be inducted.

Surfer Carissa Moore was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach in 2014, where she put her hands and feet in cement in front of Huntington Surf and Sport. (File photo: ANA VENEGAS/SCNG)

Moore has “power in her turns and power in her smile,” said surfwear icon Bob Hurley at the time. “It’s just the beginning of her journey.”

In 2021, she earned a spot on the Surfing Walk of Fame across the street at Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway in front of Jack’s Surfboards as the “Woman of the Year.”

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During that induction, Huntington Beach’s two-time US Open of Surfing champion Brett Simpson accepted the award on her behalf, speaking of her aloha spirit.

“She loves love,” Simpson said. “She melts your heart.”

Outside of the water, she created the Moore Aloha Foundation to inspire the next generation of young surfers. In September, ahead of the WSL Finals, she joined a Rising Tides gathering to inspire the next generation of surfers in San Clemente.

During that gathering next to the pier, Moore talked about the evolution of women’s surfing since she started as a teen.

Carissa Moore, right, a five-time surfing world champion, talks with aspiring surfer Riviera Hunter, 12, of Santa Cruz during a World Surf League Rising Tides event, a program designed to mentor and support the next generation of young female surfers, at the San Clemente Pier in Sept. 2023. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)

“I just think women’s surfing is in such a good place right now. When I started surfing on the championship tour in 2010, the discrepancy in equality was huge,” she said. “Just to see how the professional side of the sport has progressed and evolved in that amount of time, it’s been tremendous.”

She gave sound advice for the next generation on sharing kindness and the power of aloha.

“You have the power to make a difference every day, just by being kind,” she said. “That’s more important than how you surf a surfboard. I think kindness is a superpower.”