As soon as it happened, the dichotomy was evident on the split screen. One side showed overwhelming joy, the other utter disappointment. Sports are a zero sum game and for someone to be up high, another typically has to be
As soon as it happened, the dichotomy was evident on the split screen. One side showed overwhelming joy, the other utter disappointment. Sports are a zero sum game and for someone to be up high, another typically has to be equally low.
In this case, it was Carissa Moore’s sheer happiness and Courtney Conlogue’s great disappointment as Moore’s island sister, Coco Ho, topped Conlogue in the fourth round of the Target Maui Pro to clinch the 2015 world title for Moore. Watching from the surfers’ locker room, Moore began tearing up as the seconds ticked away signaling her third championship in the past five seasons. She already has to be considered one of the greatest of all-time, but this title clearly means something special.
As Conlogue exited the water, she was consoled and shed tears of a different nature before heading back up the hill to the competitors’ area. It’s been no secret that earning that final trophy is what Conlogue has been focused on and training for since becoming a pro and probably earlier. She was injured for a good portion of last season and came back with a fury this year, putting herself in optimal position. Her destiny wasn’t in her own hands, needing Moore to exit before the Maui final, but you could read on her face that her belief was unrelenting.
The reality of coming up short seemed to hit her all at once in that instant at the water’s edge.
I’ve played both individual and team sports my entire life. Wins are often sweeter when you can share them with teammates and losses are somewhat softened by having that support. Winning in an individual sport is thrilling but singular. You don’t get to share it and enjoy others’ reactions. Losing is even harder to bear, having only yourself and your ego to answer to.
Conlogue struggled to come back and the common theme from other competitors and those around the world tour is how hard she consistently works. She’s not on tour just to travel and make some money. She has the world title in her sights. Coming so close and realizing it has to wait another year was a shock to her system.
But all the credit goes to Moore, who has been on a journey of her own. While most on tour would have considered her 2014 season a high-water mark, her standards are a bit higher. She wasn’t happy with how she was competing and her mental approach, so she began preparing for 2015 last season at this very same Target Maui Pro. Though out of title contention, she earned an emotional victory that propelled her into this year, when she won the first two contests of the season.
As the two traded the yellow jersey all season, Moore showed her championship pedigree and put just enough distance between the two to etch her name into history yet again.
Conlogue will win a title. She’s too strong a competitor and too talented a surfer not to. There will be a day in the not-so-distant future when she’s on the other side of that split screen.
But Moore has brought the world title back to Hawaii and has done so with style, power, emotion and class. She’s a deserving champion and it was impossible not to join her in a wide smile during her celebratory jaunt overlooking Honolua Bay.
•••
David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
