5,939 days, by my calculations, since the last women’s heat at Teahupoo, when Melanie Redman-Carr defeated defending champ Chelsea Georgeson in the final on a sunny Saturday afternoon in May with 4-6 foot surf.

Following that final, the comp was canned by the ASP on the grounds that Teahupoo was too dangerous for women to handle.

Now we're back, with women's surfing in a very, very different place. In the ascendancy in many regards; a golden child for the mainstream media as far as being a beacon of equality is concerned.

Johanne Defay (Ryder/WSL)

Four heats run and done today in slow, not always hollow, 3-5 foot surf. It wasn't the glamourous golden-trumpet-and-heraldic-angels type of day that WSL commentators tried to make it but it broke the seal and got the gals back in the lineup in coloured jerseys.

Women's pro surfing is in a strange place, and it's a strange sport to cover right now. Since Sophie Goldschmidt ushered in the Great Leap Forwards of equal pay and 16-year old Caroline Marks won a hundred grand at 2 foot D-bah three years ago it's been a darling of world media - and coverage has been highly skewed by the ideological lens.

There has been insane advancement in women's surfing, but it's happening in parallel to the CT Tour. We all saw 15-year old Erin Brooks packing Indonesian caves, Caity Simmers launching airs and shredding at the Snapper CS Comp. The vanguard, including Molly Picklum and Bettylou Sakura Johnson were quickly shunted stage left at the mid-year cut and wildcards given to the old guard. Surfing on the main stage - the CT - has become bound by a strange conservatism, enhanced by the short course format where one heat win gets you straight into the quarters. The incentives are perverse. Surf safe and make a couple of heats for a good pay day.

Steph (Ryder/WSL)

But you can't deny the pressure must be intense. Women are now exposed to the full glare, spotlight, and judgement that comes with elite-level sport. Packaging the tours together means comparison with men and men's performances are baked in. Steph Gilmore, a 7-times World Champion, made the Quarter-Finals at G-Land with a pair of 5's. Today she made the Quarters at Teahupoo with a pair of 3's. It's extremely hard to frame that as an elite-level sporting performance.

And Gilmore is yet to show she has a functional backside tube-riding skill set - something any advanced recreational surfer would consider foundational.

Like I said, women's pro Surfing is in a strange place. The future is here already, just not front and centre when the horn sounds.

Carissa (Ryder/WSL)

Based on the opening four heats, Carissa Moore would assume red hot favouritism. She's got the right people in her corner caddying (CJ Hobgood), calmly waited for the sets, and rode in and out of clean tubes based on positioning and a functional pigdog. With that heat win she takes the yellow to Trestles and would be an unbackable favourite for a 6th World Title. Wildcard Vahine Fierro looked a little nervous. Her turn game didn't quite seem CT standard and she fell on a cutback coming out of a clean tube that cost her a point and change. Her next heat against Johanne Defay will not be easy because Defay does have a functional backhand tube-riding game.

There was more strangeness during the truncated webcast. Defending champion Owen Wright was on a ski spectating; apparently flown over by Surfing Australia in a general coaching role. The current best guy out there who doesn't get a chance to defend his title is coaching others..? Surely a WSL Wildcard could be wrangled for Wright to defend?

Julian Wilson was just gifted multiple wildcards into CS events - they just seem to be gifted by pure fiat at the whim of who knows who. It's a strange sport to cover, in the sense that rules and access to the elite level seem to constantly morph without accountability.

Caz Marks looks very switched on with no dramas doing the frontside pump in the tube. She easily out-pointed Tyler Wright and Defay, although Tyler's backside tube stance did look highly functional.

Tyler (Ryder/WSL)

The last heat of the day and the ocean went to sleep, as it does in the South Pacific, where long somnolent stretches often appear even in the midst of major swell events. Swell looks to be on tap for the coming days. The issue will be winds as a funky trough lingers over the Islands.

How far has women's surfing progressed in those 5,939 days seems a crucial question to be answered by an international sports in the ascendancy. It won't be an easy question to answer. Video of the last event as well as previous Women's comps is close to non-existent. Layne Beachley made an appearance by phone-in during todays heats and spoke about her victory in 2001. There is nothing on YouTube. It's as if the ASP, upon cancelling the Women's event in 2006, destroyed all evidence it ever existed. If we can't tell how far we have come, how can we gauge the progress of the sport?

I guess history starts now, for the women at Teahupoo, and that is both blessing and curse.

// STEVE SHEARER