Both champions triumphed in dramatic waves at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, with the decision of organisers to move the finals forward 24 hours in the hope of better conditions proven to be a wise one.

Ferreira wiped out and broke his board only one minute into his final with Japan's home hope Kanoa Igarashi but recovered to post the best two scores.

The number one seed ended on 15.14 and Igarashi managed 6.60.

"I broke my good board on my first wave," Ferreira said. 

"That board gives me like good speed, the other one is slower.

"It was super hard out there but I knew that there were a lot of opportunities around. 

"That's why I started to catch a lot of waves and get scores."

The choppy waves made for a great television spectacle and came amid weather reports of a typhoon coming from Japan's Pacific coast.

Owen Wright of Australia won the bronze medal after scoring 11.97 points against Brazil's Gabriel Medina, who managed 11.77.

World number one and four-time world champion Moore dominated all of her heats and scored 14.93 in the final to beat South Africa's Bianca Buitendag, who managed 8.46.

"I'm very proud and honoured," said Moore.

"It's been a crazy couple of days, a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions just trying to figure out the break, find my rhythm, learning how to trust myself without my family here.

"I feel super blessed, super fortunate. 

"It's been an incredible experience."

Bronze went to Japan's Amuro Tsuzuki, who scored 6.80 points to beat American Caroline Marks, who ended on 4.26.