Olympic surfing has its first-ever Olympic champion in Team USA’s Carissa Moore.

With the threat of Tropical Storm Nepartak pushing the quarterfinals, semifinals and medal matches all into one day, it was a marathon of an event for some of the world’s best.

But Moore wasn’t phased.

Eventually, Moore and Bianca Buitendag of South Africa found themselves standing alone in a battle for gold.

In the final heats on Tuesday, competitors had 35 minutes to score as many waves as they could catch. From there, five judges awarded scores from zero to 10, the highest and lowest of which were thrown out while the remaining three were averaged. From there, each surfer’s top two scores were combined for their final score.

In the gold medal heat, the four-time WSL Champion completed two big runs for a final score of 14.93. It was more than enough to beat Buitendag, who finished with a score of 8.46.

Caroline Marks, the 19-year-old American surfer, couldn’t find much to ride and was upset in the quarterfinal, advancing to the bronze-medal heat. She was then beat out by Japanese surfer Amuro Tsuzuki, 6.80 to 4.26, for bronze.

Hawaii’s Carissa Moore made history today during the second stop on the World Surf League Championship Tour in Newcastle, Australia. 

In landing the biggest aerial maneuver of her career, a rare air reverse, Moore earned a near-perfect 9.90 points (out of a possible 10). She also moves up to the World No. 1 spot on the WSL rankings.

“I was in disbelief that I made it,” Moore said when asked about the achievement. “For that all to come together it felt amazing. It’s something I think about a lot, trying to be innovative, to push maneuvers above the lip and I was really stoked to make it.”

While the four-time WSL Champion and Team USA Olympic qualifier might be in the business of pushing women’s surfing to a higher level, she attributes the level of competition to her evolutionary  mindset.

“It’s definitely something I’d like to bring in more often into my heat surfing and hopefully at the Olympics,” Moore said. “You have to keep reinventing yourself when you’re amongst this field. All of these girls are so good and constantly pushing the level of surfing.”