It used to be the women's surfing at the U.S. Open was nothing more than an extended bathroom break. Save for a small handful of women who actually had some decent timing and a little bit of rhythm it was unbelievably painful to watch. Now, I may be dating myself a little bit here, because the girls have certainly turned things around of late, but during the whole Blue Crush movement there wasn't much to sink your teeth into. Yeah, they came in greater numbers but that didn't improve things much in the performance arena...until recently.

14-year old Malia Manuel taking it to the big girls in the 2008 U.S. Open of Surfing. Now 15, she's the youngest defending champion ever, and a threat in both the Nike 6.0 Pro Junior and the Women's Open.

I became a believer in the whole women's thing about two years ago. Not the viability of the sport, mind you, but a believer in their improved board-riding skills. While that's late by most standards but I've come around pretty big. Two years ago I made a bet with guys in the office at SURFER Magazine that a female surfer would qualify for the ASP's World Tour inside of ten years. I was nearly laughed out of the building by Jason Kenworthy, one of SURFER's lead photographers, but I made that wager after having sat through a couple WCT events and having watched Carissa Moore, who at the time, was about 13 or 14-years old. Speaking strictly in terms of style, I picked about 10 guys on the ASP World Tour who I thought were complete eye sores next to Carissa. Granted, they might be putting their boards in more radical places and with more power and speed, but from what I could tell, it was only a matter of time until Carissa, or somebody like her, matured enough to supply the missing ingredients. At the time I remember thinking Carissa was the only really hot young female talent around. Malia Manuel proved me very wrong last year.

Manuel's surfing is on display in the new film Dear and Yonder. It's both elegant and aggressive. Photo: Jimmycane

Coco Ho will be giving her friend Malia a good run this week. Photo: Jimmycane from Dear and Yonder.

At 14-years-old, Malia became the youngest person to ever win an ASP event at the U.S. Open of Surfing. Malia's surfing is elegant yet aggressive. She draws mature lines and uses her edges with precision well beyond her years. But what's even more impressive? She's not alone. In fact, there's a pretty solid crop of young girls looking to completely change the face of surfing on the women's side of the sport. Where as on the men's side there are only two surfers in the entire Top 10 who're under 25 years old, on the women's side of things it's the exact opposite. A New School movement is just hitting. And you needn't look much further than the finals of this year's Nike 6.0 women's Pro Junior to understand what I'm talking about.

Manuel and fellow Hawaiian Coco Ho have already surfed their way into the Pro Junior Final on Saturday, where they'll be joining Sage Erickson of Ventura and Cannelle Bulard of Reunion Island. For what it's worth, both Erickson and Bulard defeated Carissa Moore in the Semifinals. Moore will be out for revenge in the Open while protecting her WQS ratings lead over Coco Ho. This is probably where I should tell you that Jason Kenworthy, who doubles as a team manager for Nike 6.0, was instrumental in nabbing Moore from Roxy. In the two years since we made our bet he's come a long way on the women's thing, too. I knew he was turning the corner when he asked me a couple months ago, "Dude, what's with all these hot chicks?"

The Women's division of the U.S. Open starts Wednesday. My suggestion if you're down there, hit the head early.