But the Newcastle-based South African admits a hectic schedule this time is "testing my resilience".

Baum, who is unseeded because she is not part of the Australia/Oceania Qualifying Series, has twice made it from the earliest round all the way to the final at Surfest - the 5000-point regional QS finale. That includes last year's decider against Bronte Macaulay, who claimed a second title. This year Baum, who progressed on Tuesday with second in her round of 64 heat at Merewether, has a lot more on her plate.

The 30-year-old returned last Tuesday from competing at the ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico, just in time to move house from Redhead to Cooks Hill. Next Monday she returns to South Africa to marry girlfriend Georgia Amess and surf in a 1000-point event.

And that's all before another Challenger Series (CS) campaign to chase a first tour spot kicks off in April, and her Olympic Games debut in Tahiti in July.

"It's testing my resilience," Baum said with a laugh.

"I don't surf for Australia so it means I don't have a ranking here. Last seed in the whole event, but that's all right. That's why I do the event, to surf heats and iron out the creases leading into the Challenger Series."

The goofy-footer qualified for the Paris Games as the highest-ranked African at the 2023 ISA event and she has a wildcard onto the CS after finishing as her region's best - in 14^th - last year.

On Tuesday, she narrowly missed riding out of a long barrel but still did enough to progress with a best two-wave total of 8.33. Australian Sage Goldsbury (9.74) won, while Japan's Urara Saito (5.6) and Anri Matsuno (5.2) fell at the first hurdle.

Hunter surfers Jasmine Sampson and Madison Poole also progressed in the pristine four to six-foot waves, which are expected again on Wednesday. In the men's, eight heats in the round of 96 were held. Locals Jordy Liackman, Eden Hasson, Mikey Clayton-Brown and Josh Stretton made it through.

Baum had an anxious wait in the final minutes of her heat as the Japanese pair chased a six-point ride to take her spot in the next round.

"I was watching it and I saw a couple of barrels, and I was like, cause I like getting barreled, I need to contain myself a little bit and don't get too excited and just post a couple of scores before trying," she said.

"Then that one came and I was OK, I can't help myself.

"It would have been nice to make the second section but, oh well. I'll take a second."

She said the most recent ISA Games were "awesome".

"It's always fun to do the ISA," she said.

"You see a lot of people you haven't seen in a while and you get to surf against everyone. People doing regional events, the Challenger Series and even the CT. I reckon it's the hardest competition out of all of them because it has all of them.

"Leading up to the Olympics, it was nice to be at the ISA and have the whole team together. We don't get to see Matty McGillivray or Jordy Smith, and have all of us together often. We got to chat about the Olympics and what we are going to do leading up to it, it was really nice."