KEY POINTS:
Get chatting to teenage surfing phenomenon Paige Hareb for any length of time and you'll get swamped by a tidal wave of new lingo.
Words like "grommet", "goofy-footer" and "gnarly waves" fly at you thick and fast, leaving you searching for a translator.
Surfing is a whole different
world and comes with it's own language - a world that Hareb, who first got on a board aged 6, knows intimately.
The 17-year-old is on the fast track to joining the elite World Championship Tour after a breakthrough win at the World Qualifying Series last weekend.
Hareb became the first New Zealand woman to win a round of the WQS after stunning the field to win the latest event in Western Australia.
"I was pretty happy. It was my first, and to be the first Kiwi to do it was pretty exciting as well," Hareb said.
The Taranaki teen defeated former world-title runner-up Melanie Redmann-Carr as well as the current top-10-ranked WCT surfers Rebecca Woods, Jessi Miley-Dyer and Amee Donohue on the way to her win at Margaret River.
The win rocketed her into third in the series standings. The top-six-ranked surfers at the end of the 2008 WQS circuit graduate to the 17-woman World Championship Tour, with more than US$1 million in prize money.
Hareb's sudden rise has shocked the surfing world, and left her more experienced rivals looking over their shoulders.
The unassuming youngster seems the only one who is not surprised.
"My main rival is [Australian] Sally Fitzgibbons. She's the same age as me, so she kind of motivates me, I guess, because if she's doing well at 17, I can as well," said Hareb, who shot to prominence this year after finishing runner-up in the World Pro Junior for professional women under 20.
Perhaps her progress is not so surprising when you consider Hareb's exceptional drive. Her training ethic and professionalism certainly belie her age.
The determined youngster's training regime includes stretching, running, swimming, boxing and skipping.
But every now and then, a glimpse emerges of the young girl within.
Being a professional surfer means a lot of travel to exotic locations in far-flung corners of the globe.
Hareb will often travel with her mother, Fiona, while her dad, Mike, tags along when he can get the time off work. "I don't think I'd want to really do it if my parents didn't come along."
For now though, Hareb is back at home in Oakura for a couple of weeks preparing for an Australian Pro Junior event on the Gold Coast next month before travelling to France for the world junior amateur titles.
Following that event, she will refocus on gaining further WQS points and staying in the top six, which involves competitions in Brazil, the United States, Hawaii, England and South Africa.
It is a far cry from the rugged West Coast where Hareb learned her trade. Hareb's parents imparted their love of the surf on their daughter from a young age.
"My dad and my mum used to take me down to the beach every day after school, and I just started learning on my dad's surfboard."
From there she was hooked, but it was not until about four years ago that Hareb thought she could actually make a living from surfing.
"When I was competing in the under-14s, I started to pick up sponsorships for doing it, so that's when I kind of thought I could make a career."
Hareb left school in 2006, after completing year 12, to concentrate on her surfing. While her friends toiled away at school completing their year 13 NCEA, Hareb was off travelling the globe, surfing at some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
So what do her friends think of Hareb's globe-trotting activities?
"I don't know. I guess they're impressed. A few of them have said they wish they were doing it as well."
Some would call it living the dream. But in the surfing business, they just call it "rad".
