Even though he’s 52, the sight of Kelly Slater’s name as his opponent in Hawaii for the second time in two events was enough to make Aussie gun Ethan Ewing nervous.
But Ewing was able to dispel those nerves at Sunset Beach and take down the GOAT, again, advance to the final 16 after a wild and windy surf session the 25-year-old said was one of the hardest he’d had.
Slater had last crack in their dual but couldn’t grab the score he needed to advance, but not before some significant time taken by the judges.
“They took a while to score and I wasn’t exactly sure what the score was that he needed,” Ewing said.
“I saw it (the wave) from behind and I was super stressed out.”
“As soon as I saw the match-up I was pretty excited but also super nervous because he just pulls stuff out of his hat pretty easy and he’s the GOAT but I was happy to go up against him again, he’s a legend.
“That was one of the hardest sessions I’ve had out there
“You need to have low expectations as you can get stuck out there looking for a perfect wave and there’s not many out there so you’ve got to keep the ball rolling.”
Jacob Wilcox also flew the Aussie flag defeating in-form Italian Leonardo Fioravanti, while Liam O’Brien took out Brazilian Caio Ibelli.
O’Brien and Ewing will meet in the round of 16.
