Australia’s surf star Ethan Ewing: ‘Anything to do with the Olympics is on another level’ | Kieran Pender

Bells Beach, near Torquay along the Great Ocean Road, is a long way from Teahupo’o, the Tahitian wave that will host the Olympic surfing in late July.

But late last month, in the round of 16 at the fourth stop on the World Surf League (WSL) calendar, Ewing was showing off his competitive poise in a heat against compatriot Liam O’Brien.

Photograph: Thiago Diz/World Surf League/Getty ImagesDetermined to follow in his mother’s footsteps, Ewing was a talented junior – inspired by a golden generation of Queensland surfers, including Australian world champions Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning.

A three-time world champion, Irons passed away in 2010; in a video of the exchange, Parkinson tells Ewing: “I know how much of an influence this guy was on your surfing … He was an absolute bloody legend and he would have loved you.”

Her legacy is felt in other ways, too – Helen was an advocate for gender equality within the sport, hitting out at the lack of prize money and media attention for women’s surfing at the time.

Ewing ultimately came up shortly against Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, but it was an astonishing feat for a surfer who had been in hospital with a fractured back barely a month earlier.