Three-time World Champion Carissa Moore is heading into her 10th year on the World Surf League Championship Tour. Photo / WSL
New Zealand will always hold a special place in Carissa Moore's heart.
Setting out on her rookie campaign on the World Surf League Championship Tour in 2010, Moore picked up her first event tour event win at the stop in Taranaki.
Posting a near perfect score in the final of the event against Australian star Sally Fitzgibbons, Moore launched herself onto the world stage with the win.
"That was a feeling I'll never forget," Moore told the Herald.
Now, with three World Championship titles to her name, the 26-year-old is giving young Taranaki surfer Natasha Gouldsbury the opportunity to study her ways. Gouldsbury will be one of a number of surfers from across New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti and Indonesia to join Moore in Hawaii.
Gouldsbury has been awarded a scholarship to train alongside Moore at her home on Oahu as part of a global exchange program Moore is running through her foundation, MooreAloha. She will be one of a number of surfers from across New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti and Indonesia to do so.
It's just one of a number of initiatives Moore is running in her bid to continue the growth of women's surfing.
"I'm currently mentoring four girls on Oahu, coaching them four to five times a week," Moore said. "I also ran a surf camp for girls across the Hawaiian Island this past January.
"My hope is to help inspire the next generation by giving them a look into my day to day life on Oahu.
"I've been fortunate to reap the benefits from this wonderful sport. I feel it is very important to give back to the next generation and help inspire them to reach for their dreams as well."
As a competitive sport, surfing has embraced the women's competition. Last year, World Surf League announced they would be paying the men and women equally on the Championship Tour from this season onwards. Now a woman who wins an event on the Championship Tour will receive US$100,000 is prize money, an increase of US$35,000 on the current event winner's purse.
"It's a big step of women in the sport," Moore said of the pay parity agreement. "I'm honoured to be involved with an organisation that is embracing change for the betterment of women."
The Championship Tour began this week on the Gold Coast.
Tony DeNobrega is recovering in hospital after a terrible injury during a match in Perth.