This is an awesome video interview with Carissa Moore by Zach Weisberg from The Inertia in the week of her 21st birthday. He asks her thoughts on sex appeal in surfing and she gives this candid and ultimately pretty beautiful answer:

To be honest I’m a little undecided. I think it’s great that the girls in our sport are so attractive and they’re athletes and they rip…and if you ask anyone on the beach their favourite surfer it would probably be Alana Blanchard. That’s great she brings a lot of eyes to our sport but I’ve definitely been on the opposite site of the spectrum. I’ve definitely been criticised for my looks, last year I gained a little bit of weight, I wasn’t doing as well on tour and you hear comments like, “She’s had one too many cheeseburgers and it’s hurtful you know?” But unfortunately we’re in a sport where you’re in a bathing suit the whole time…But my whole approach is I just want to be an athlete and I love surfing and if I’m fit and my body feels good that’s great.

Later in the interview she chats contests versus freesurfs, the power of love and how she’d be happy living in a van with her boyfriend as long as she could surf everyday. Respect to that. You don’t often hear Carissa Moore interviewed, we’ve never gotten the access but then we don’t very near, so it’s really cool to see her being sound and honest. Though it’s also a disgrace she had to put up with those kind of comments. Especially when her next level surfing brings so much pleasure to so many us included. For more The Inertia love head here and to read the piece we were inspired to write after watching her vid “Does sex actually sell surfing?” head here.