If she’s in over her head, it isn’t for long

Carissa MOORE was admittedly nervous when she paddled out against some of the world’s top female surfers during the recent Roxy Pro at Haleiwa, Hawaii, on Oahu’s North Shore.

Conditions were stormy, and the waves were 4 to 6 feet, with 10-foot faces. “It was not a nice day at Haleiwa,” recalls Moore’s father, Chris. “I was ready to call the whole thing off.”

Yet out his daughter went, an 11-year-old girl against far more seasoned women, perhaps in over her head but confident enough to try. And off she went, tumbling from her surfboard on her first wave -- and tumbling, and tumbling.

Moore was caught in the impact zone, not a fun place for a kid who weighs not much more than a piece of driftwood. She was pounded by one wave after another.

It took more than six minutes for her to make it out, but she proceeded to catch five more waves before the 20-minute heat was over.

The rides weren’t bad, either. The wave wisp managed to win the heat, forcing the second-round elimination of Australia’s Serena Brooke and Dara Penfold. Although Moore, who had been entered in the second round as a sponsor wild card, would herself be eliminated in the quarterfinals, the experiment was deemed a huge success. With a graceful yet strong style and an arsenal of 360-degree turns, off-the-lips and floaters, the Honolulu sixth-grader is already doing her part to help break down stereotypes.

“You see so much talent and maturity in her surfing, but when you talk to her she’s still in cartoon land,” says Rochelle Ballard, 32, a veteran on the elite World Championship Tour who, through her surfing and surf camps, was instrumental in lifting women’s surfing from its relative obscurity.

“It’s neat to see all that childlike innocence, and yet to have all the opportunities she has and to handle them the way that she has, I think, is great for the sport.”

How long that innocence will last is the million-dollar question. Moore is still an outgoing, charming schoolgirl who says, without hesitation, “I like surfing for fun” rather than for fame or fortune.

She picked up $700 for her one-heat triumph. She quickly donated the money to Bethany Hamilton, a friend and fellow up-and-comer whose arm was bitten off by a tiger shark less than a month earlier as she surfed off Kauai. “It was really sad -- really scary,” Moore recalls.

When Hamilton recently made her brave return to the surf, Moore was with her. Together they caught waves off Diamond Head on a rainy day minus any hint of gloom, using only one arm apiece. “It was neat to see,” Chris Moore says.

If all or any of these qualities hold, the future of women’s surfing is very bright indeed. The father points out that his daughter is an A student and that he’ll use all his power of persuasion to see her through college.

The daughter, who lists Hamilton and pro surfers Melanie Bartels and Kelly Slater as her role models, is pretty fond of her father-coach as well and plans to heed his advice.

But she is still a child, one who has risen swiftly through the youth-surfing amateur ranks and captured the attention of all the major surfwear companies, including the biggest, which recently signed her to a sponsorship deal that, in

essence, will pay for her schooling.

“She’s not only marketable, with the good looks and everything, but she gets the contest results,” says Danielle Beck, core marketing manager for Roxy, a division of Quiksilver that specializes in girls’ apparel. “She’s a strong, powerful surfer who just has a knack for knowing what the waves are going to do. It’s like she’s been surfing for 20 years.”

Where will Moore be in 20 years? Her father pondered that for a moment and replied, “I hope it’s not ever just about Carissa getting the big bucks.

“At this point she’s just, ‘Wow, I’m getting money for doing this?’ She’s just a normal kid who can ride a board better than some. For now that’s where I want to keep it.”

To e-mail Pete Thomas or read his previous Fair Game columns, go to latimes.com/ petethomas.