And this is why both the waves and life are both smaller and bigger than they seem for the daughter of a Tahitian mum and American-Hawaiian dad with raw knack to match that of a young Kelly Slater.

Gallina was raised in Teahupo’o, the fishing village with a population of approximately 1,500. When she was two, a couple of the older grandpas started calling her Miss Teahupo’o, because of her blonde hair and blue eyes among the other darker-skinned kids. It was a hat-tip to the Miss Tahiti beauty pageant, and nothing to do with surfing.

It was only when Ryan was creating an Instagram page to post his daughter’s rapid progress that @MissTeahupoo made sense. At the time he was a bodyboarding enthusiast who just wanted to get his daughter outside more than on an iPad, saw how comfortable she was in the ocean.

“I started surfing at three,” Gallina herself recounts. “My first time at Teahupo’o, I was four and a half, with my best friend whose dad [Simon Thornton] is helping coach me.

“I remember my first time hitting the reef. That was a little interesting. It wasn’t the best feeling, that’s for sure. I’m pretty sure I was on the wave and got caught behind it … I fell and then I hit my knees a little bit. Scratched them.

“It made me a little bit more scared knowing that I can’t forget there is reef under me, but at least I know most of the time you don’t hit the reef and you’re fine. So I just need to keep telling myself that and then it’s fine.”

She was five then, and hitting a reef seems like a big deal for such a little person. But Ryan qualifies that he took that step having known the “place of skulls” intimately for 20 years.

“We took them out on the smallest, cleanest, littlest day ever. They rode a couple of little waves for five, 10 metres, and we had people waiting at the end. Like when a baby is learning how to swim, they swim from one parent to the other. So to say, ‘Oh, she surfed Teahupo’o when she was four’ is just like a little novelty.”

Having said that, Gallina now knows Teahupo’o and the surrounding breaks as if they are built into her body – the benefit of waking up at dawn six days a week to hone her craft. She eats something small, then drives with her old man to either the beach in front of their house, or the reef, or wherever else there are waves. “It’s a three-hour first session and then another two hours in the afternoon,” she says. “I do homeschool, so that works out.”

Ryan says he did not pressure Gallina into competitions but, after realising she loved it, began coaching and educating her about reading the ocean and understanding when – and when not – to test Mother Nature.

Then she qualified for the final leg of the World Surf League (WSL) regular season and suddenly the small things got very big, very quickly. The following on her Instagram account – managed by her parents – grew, and international media started calling.

The juxtaposition will be no more apparent than this weekend, less an underdog than an underpup but also one of the special few – Vahine Fierro, Jack Robinson, Kauli Vaast – for whom this heavyweight event is a time to relish.

The other is 22-year-old Picklum, whose prowess in heaving Hawaiian conditions has her among the favourites there, as well as for the September finals at Cloudbreak in Fiji and the world title. The question is whether Gallina will offer her idol and good friend stiffer competition than she does when Picklum visits the impromptu family driving range.

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“I’m pretty bad at golf, I’m going to admit,” she says. “Molly’s really good. She’s good at surfing too. She’s really good at barrels. That’s also why I’m super nervous for my heat and turns.”

Whatever occurs, Ryan emphasises his daughter’s safety will not be jeopardised in a “search for glory”.

“We’re not going to put her in danger because the world’s watching or because it’s the CT Pro,” he says. “If the conditions are scary and don’t feel right, we’re absolutely putting her wellbeing and her safety first. We’re not just going to put that aside for a day because it’s the contest.

“Even if she didn’t even catch a wave, this whole process feels like we won already.”