WOMEN'S surfing is caught deep in the barrel - it's becoming too sexy for its own good.

In the post-Layne Beachley era, the new girls on boards are increasingly being judged on their looks and searched for on Google for bikini shots as much as tennis star Anna Kournikova at her peak.

As magazines rate "the 10 hottest female surfing stars", blokey bloggers even speculate that some of the teenagers have shot up in the ratings as their bikinis get smaller.

Los Angeles-based surfer Anastasia Ashley cops the most criticism, with one blogger saying: "Anastasia is my favourite hands down for looks. Her talent? She still needs to live up to her hype."

Ask the members of the young male gallery who is their favourite surfer and they will nominate pipeline winner Alana Blanchard, who is never shy of modelling a G-string.

Blonde Bruna Schmitz is described as a bombshell, but Aussies Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons are the entire package they're smart, sexy and they can surf.

At the Roxy Pro, at Snapper Rocks, many of the young males interviewed by The Sunday Mail admitted they were watching the heats for the women, rather than for the surfing tips.

Manu Maier, 20, said he believed it was impossible for beauty not to be a factor in judging the heats.

"They look great, don't they? I heard about this surfing competition. I said to myself that I had to get here," Maier said, as a female competitor turned her back on the right-hand break, her small bikini shrinking to a G-string.

Jamie Mather, 19, said he thought women's surfing had become prettier in all sorts of ways. "They're surfing a lot more powerfully and with style. A few years ago they were ugly and weak. You could tell they were a female surfer," he said.

Both he and his 19-year-old mate Alex Kerry knew all about the "hot chick debate" and easily nominated the "Kournikovas".

"People are saying that, but it's really the hot chicks that are surfing good," Mather said.

"Previously, it was the more butch and not good-looking ones who were winning."

Legendary former world champion Layne Beachley maintains: "If you've got it, flaunt it".

But she said she believed the promotion of female surfers needed to be managed because it could lead to a disastrous wipeout for a sport growing in popularity.

"Those girls that go in bikinis and they wear next to nothing when they surf, I don't know how they do it. But unlike the Kournikovas of the world, the Alanas of the world don't claim to be champion surfers," Beachley said.

"It's good that women's surfing is finally capturing attention for the right reasons. I'd hate to see these girls tarnish it through selfish actions. But again, if they've got it flaunt it."

Former world champion Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew laughed off suggestions that judges were influenced by looks, but warned of the dangers of swimwear labels using female competitors rather than models.

"These young blokes are full of testosterone. I think women surfers are taken more seriously based on their performances. Stephanie Gilmore is leading-edge; she's taken women's surfing to a new plateau," Bartholomew said.

But it was no longer just Joel Parkinson, Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow selling the surfing industry to the world, he said.

"The firms have used models to sell the dream. The bridge is closing now. Steph Gilmore has just signed a five-figure lucrative deal with Quiksilver," Bartholomew said.

The veteran surfer pauses when asked about "the Kournikovas" and is brutally honest about what is not being worn in the surf.

"The ultimate freedom in the surf is boardshorts and board nothing else. The less the better," he said.

"Some girls are much more flamboyant about it.

"They're hot babes and they're surfing incredibly well."

Leading Australian surfer Sally Fitzgibbons is used to wearing a wetsuit, but knows other surfers from warmer waters in Brazil and Hawaii grow up in a bikini.

"It's all positive," Fitzgibbons said. "I think, performance-wise, the girls are younger and younger. I think it's about balance."