For the past 10 years we’ve tried a variety of strategies to get Carissa Moore “off her mark” (as we say in the biz) for an interview. The dilemma was simple: Carissa keeps a pretty guarded perimeter around her due to the unrelenting demand of corporate responsibility and hero status as one of the world’s best surfers.

She has been sponsored by Nike, Red Bull, Hurley, Target etc for many years. With those contracts comes a corporate-induced desensitization to bullshit and the ability to give answers that work across a wide network of platforms, appeasing the bosses to get the job done. She’s “media trained” (again, as we say in the biz), which is all fine and good and not a knock on Carissa at all. She’s a pro. But we had insider knowledge and wanted to show everyone a side that rarely gets seen. The “Auntie” side of Carissa.

Several of our closest friends are super tight with Carissa. Our own Brandon Guilmette traveled the world with her for nearly 15 years at Hurley. Photographers Jimmicane and Jason Kenworthy are both close friends and huge influences on her. Through those three we would hear and often see a side of her that rarely breaks through the competitively focused fortress she keeps around her. The Carissa that’s goofy. Lighthearted. Kind. A dancer. Sentimental. And really, really damn funny. The one that produces legit, high-end music videos with her friends and films them.

When she’s locked in, Carissa’s competitive surfing is unbeatable. She’s Queen and Princess of Hawaii at once, an angelic presence for the islands and proudly brought home surfing’s first gold medal. Now she shares a mural with Duke Kahanamoku in Waikiki. As it should be.

We tried a lot of ways to get this elusive Carissa on camera — even played the card of convincing a former girlfriend to try and get in her circle to conduct an interview from behind the friend zone. None of it worked. She gave us great, thoughtful interviews, but nothing that felt…authentically Carissa. Nothing that got her off her mark.

Then we got a piece of info that changed the game.

Carissa loves scrapbooking.

Like a lot. So we gathered a ton of images and personal photos from her closest friends and family and hired creative genius Charlie McHarg to put it all together in a custom scrapbook.

One rainy day in Hawaii we gave it to her, instantly unlocking a sensitive, sentimental, goofy, earnest and intelligent ray of light that is Carissa Moore. Charlie C captured it to tape and voila!

We hope you’ll check out the new episode of In Plain Sight, Subjects: Carissa Moore out today. Just in time for her pursuit of a 6th WSL World Title next week at Lowers.

We got her.—Travis Ferré

Check out Carissa’s “Moore Aloha” Project here. The mission is to encourage young females through the sport of surfing to be strong, confident and compassionate individuals.

Huge thanks to Brandon Guilmette, Jimmy Wilson, Jason Kenworthy, Luke Untermann, Cayla Moore, Charlie McHarg, Sara Taylor, Colleen Conroy, Josh Saunders, Red Bull and everyone who submitted photos for the scrapbook.