ROCHELLE BALLARD

She carves, slashes and flows like the rest of the hot women professionals, but there's something different about her. She's got that fierce desire for the barrel.  Rochelle Ballard is a symbol for everything women's surfing has become, and where it's going.

If she has any idea of her lofty status, she'd never let on. Like so many great Hawaiian surfers, particularly those from her native Kauai, she carries a natural humility. Where Rochelle comes from, boasting is lame. Words are cheap. When she strokes hard into a double-overhead wave, makes a heavy drop and pulls in, she tells you everything you need to know.

As the women's tour gains strength and credibility, some distinct identities have been forged. Layne Beachley is the preeminent big-wave rider and proves it all winter on the North Shore. Lisa Andersen has an all-around mastery that gives her an almost mythical status. For both of them, compliments come in general terms. People remember specific waves of Rochelle's because she rode so deep, and came out, and they just couldn't remember a woman doing that before.

She rode a wave at Burleigh two years ago that remains a lively entry in any surfing conversation. There were two waves, actually, both in an epic semifinal against Beachley in the Australian Billabong Pro. The first one, scored a perfect 10, saw her come out of a long, spitting tube, just the way hometown legend Rabbit Bartholomew always did it. And then came her career moment: A full air-drop, a flowing maneuver around a crumbly section, then straight into the cavern for a solid five or six seconds and a triumphant exit.

At 5-foot-1 and a scant 105 pounds, Ballard might be the smallest great surfer of the last 40 years, downright tiny against the likes of the Calhoun sisters, the late Rell Sunn, Jericho Poppler, Freida Zamba, Andersen, Beachley and Serena Brooke. But she might be the all-time leader in passion. Her essence is captured in that one word.

Rochelle made several trips to the North Shore of Oahu, knowing she'd have to surf well there to make any impact on the surfing community. Back home, she got a taste of the big, powerful waves at Hanalei Bay and countless other breaks with shallow, unforgiving reefs. "It took me a while to get over that fear factor," she says. "And in high school (Waimea, on the west side) I was pretty much into guys, partying with my girlfriends, the whole teenage thing. I wasn't some non-stop surfing grommet like the kids today, and there weren't a lot of other girls surfing contests. So I really didn't start charging until after I'd graduated."