She realized early on that trophies and wins are short lived, and true happiness is found closer to home. Hamblin says: “From my perspective, one of Carissa’s greatest challenges (much like the rest of us) has been defining her purpose and what makes her happy. At one point, Moore says to camera: “I feel like the trophies, the accolades, all those things are awesome, but they are really short-lived, they are only temporary and what really matters is how you make people feel and the love that you share.”

In the film, Moore discusses how she has reassessed her goals in an attempt to understand what truly makes her happy. It was inspiring to witness this journey.” “I don’t believe she was in the right head space, but in 2019 it all came together. “So simply put Carissa was not winning events in previous years and wasn’t getting enough points to be a world title contender,” Hamblin explains.

The world tour works on a points structure, and by mid-year you can generally see from the points which surfers have a shot at winning the world title, while others just don’t have enough points to contend. In the three years prior to the film, Moore had failed to be a contender in the title race. Everyone sees the athletic side of her, but I wanted to focus on the complexity of her character and what an inspiring force she is.” Writer-director Hamblin says: “My goal was to peel back the layers and show the person behind the athlete to show the layers of Carissa’s personality.

Carissa moore surfer