Carissa Moore Kicks Off Pro Surfing Swan Song with a Loss at Pipeline (Video)

Before she steps away from competition entirely, Carissa Moore is competing at the World Surf League’s 2024 kickoff event, the Lexus Pipe Pro.

On Wednesday, in her first heat of the competition, and her first since the bombshell retirement announcement, the five-time world champ struggled to find her rhythm.

Out of three total competitors in the heat, Moore placed last.

But it wasn’t just Carissa; low scores plagued the opening day of women’s competition at the Lexus Pipe Pro, as small surf poured into Pipeline following a sizable swell the day before for the men’s, and an extra-large day before that, which spawned heated social media discourse as the WSL made the controversial call not to run.

Nonetheless, the waves didn’t cooperate with Carissa in her round one heat. She waited 20 minutes of the 30-minute heat before catching a wave. And after all that time, she finally had a couple attempts at Backdoor – mostly closeouts.

Eventually, she lost to Brisa Hennessy (who had a pair of 5.33s) and Sally Fitzgibbons (4.33 and 2.33), and she was sent to the elimination round.

Despite the loss, support for Carissa on the beach was palpable with friends and fans holding signs reading “Love you, Riss” and “10” in honor of her jersey number.

Ever since a shark attacked a surfer in the lineup at the Maui Pro, the women have been surfing Pipeline alongside the men. And Carissa has been dominant at Pipe in the few years since the move. Last year, she won; the year before that, she got second.

And this year, likely her last as a full-time competitor, she's off to a rocky start.

But she’s got another chance in the Elimination Round, where she'll take on Bettylou Sakura Johnson and Isabella Nichols.

Stay tuned.

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