I’m proud of myself, and I was of proud myself even before this event, but it’s just been such a roller-coaster in the last four years on the road for the Olympics.” “It’s a special moment for our sport but I’ve got mixed feelings,” said Igarashi, who grew up surfing at Tsurigasaki beach, the Olympic site located about 60 miles east of Tokyo. Igarashi, the silver medalist who surfed a career best air that sent him soaring over the water for seven seconds in an earlier heat, couldn’t hide his disappointment that he didn’t come out on top in the last moments of his Olympic journey. The famous French Polynesia reef break also happens to be the site of the 2024 Olympic surfing contest. “It’s super hard out there, but I knew that there was a lot of opportunities around.”īoth Moore and Ferreira will be back on the World Surf League tour next month, with stops in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Teahupo’o, Tahiti. That board gives me good speed, the other one is more slow,” the 27-year-old Ferreira said. The incident required a quick board switch on shore near the beginning of the heat, which didn’t seem to rattle the man who had so little growing up that he first learned to surf on a cooler. He won his final handily against Kanoa Igarashi of Japan despite crashing through an air to land on a broken board. When the clock ran out in the men’s final, Ferreira turned to the ocean, collapsed his hands together in a prayer and wept, nearly knocked over by the waves crashing onto shore as he thanked God for a dominate showing throughout the inaugural contest. “I’m ready for the next season of my life.”
“I felt like this was the perfect opportunity for closure,” the 27-year-old Buitendag said. She then said she was retiring from the sport. The picture-perfect ending even included a rainbow that popped into the sky as Moore, who is the only Native Hawaiian surfer at the Games, shredded waves in the final against South African rival Bianca Buitendag.Ĭalling it “divine intervention,” the 17th-ranked Buitendag won silver after pulling off upset after upset over the three-day competition, starring in some of the contest’s biggest moments in her path to the Olympic podium. By the end, the methodical and well-loved surfer finally got in rhythm with the ocean in time to deliver the kind of standout performance that has defined her career.
#Female silver surfer professional#
The relatively modest beach break conditions were so unlike the world class waves she’s used to as a veteran of the professional tour and at home in Hawaii.
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