Surfing-Reigning champion Moore just 'stoked' to be a surfer after epic day in Tahiti

TEAHUPO'O, Tahiti : Reigning Olympic champion Carissa Moore said she was "stoked" just to be a surfer after the Paris Games venue in Tahiti showcased a perfect day of wave-riding to the world's biggest sports audience.

Teahupo'o, which translates as "Wall of Skulls", started the surfing event nicely enough on Saturday but turned the dial up to a 10 on Monday, with some of the best conditions ever seen in competition.

"I don't think as surfers we could have asked for more in the first few days of this Olympic Games - it really showed what this wave can do and what the surfers can do," the American told Reuters after surfing with some local kids and a handful of pros at a playful beachbreak near the main event site.

"It also just showed how much skill you have to have as a surfer, as an athlete. Not only the commitment and the fearless factor, but the endurance and then like - you know, you're getting saved.

"There's like the very real factor of getting seriously injured. I don't know many other sports where you're actually getting saved on the field of play like quite like that."

While successful rides ended with surfers being spat out of giant tubes into a flotilla of media and spectator boats, those who wiped out were swiftly picked up by water patrol experts on jet skis and sped back to the line-up.

"Those guys were able to push themselves like they did because those (rescue) guys were coming in so quick. It was super impressive," she added.

The event was postponed before women's competition could get underway on Monday as a storm tore the lineup to shreds and a lay day, or rest day, was called for Tuesday due to conditions.

Moore said the defeats suffered by fellow Team USA surfers John John Florence and Griffin Colapinto