When Ethan Ewing lifted the iconic Rip Curl Pro trophy at Bells Beach on Tuesday, it was a moment imbued with significance. This was no ordinary World Surf League (WSL) victory.
As Ewing rang the bell – famously, “you’ve got to win it to ring it” – he was following in the footsteps of his late mother, Helen Ewing (née Lambert). A prodigal talent in women’s surfing, Helen won the Rip Curl Pro in 1983 aged just 18. Four decades later, it was her son’s turn to win the longest running event in competitive surfing.
“It’s been my biggest goal in my career to win this,” said an emotional Ewing afterwards. “All my heroes have won this – Joel [Parkinson], Mick [Fanning], Kelly [Slater], the girls – Steph [Gilmore], Carissa [Moore], and then my mum back in ‘83. It is an honour to compete here. To put my name up there with her – it’s really special.”
Ewing, 24, had a break-out season last year, winning the Corona Open at J-Bay in South Africa and finishing fourth overall. The Australian has had a slower start to 2023, but over the past week Ewing emphatically returned to form.
On Tuesday he was the first surfer in the water, beating three-time world champion Gabriel Medina in the round of 16. He then saw off South African talent Matthew McGillivray in the quarter-finals and reigning world champion Filipe Toledo in the semi-finals. No-one would come close to Ewing en route to his second career WSL event victory, ultimately defeating compatriot Ryan Callinan in the final. “Everything just rolled really smoothly,” he said. “It was definitely the biggest win of my career to date.”
The Ewings are now the first mother-son duo to secure victory at the same WSL event. Helen was a trailblazer in women’s surfing, but had her career cut short. Following her break-out debut professional season, including the Bells win and victory at the Hang Ten Pro in California, she left the sport due to the lack of financial support for female surfing. Instead, she began a family and threw herself into coaching and administration, founding the Surfing Mum’s social group and becoming president of the Point Lookout Boardriders’ Club on Stradbroke Island.
Remarkably, a decade later, Helen returned to the sport and won several state and national titles, as well as a qualifying series event in Nias, Indonesia. But tragically, in 2005, when Ethan was just six, Helen died of breast cancer. Her ashes were scattered off Stradbroke Island, after a paddle-out farewell by almost hundreds surfers, including several former world champions.
Helen’s legacy was on full display on Tuesday. “It’s such a special thing,” said Ethan. “I’ve been thinking about her since I’ve been on tour. I wanted to do her proud.” But the legacy went beyond her Bells-winning son, now a real world champion contender. Throughout her career as a surfer and administrator, Helen was a vocal advocate for greater equality in the sport.
When Ewing senior came third at an event in Sydney, in 1983, she received just $50 in prize money. “Hardly enough to get round the world on,” she would tell a surfing magazine. She consistently called for increased prize money, more competition and better media coverage of women’s surfing. “More prize money means more women and more depth of talent, which brings about a higher profile,” one reporter paraphrased at the time.
It was apt, then, that her son’s victory came just before the women’s Bells champion for 2023 would be crowned. For several years now, the WSL has offered equal prize money for men and women – the winners will receive about $120,000 each. The WSL has also fully unified the schedule, with the men and women competing at the same events in the same window on the same waves. While some inequalities persist – there are 35 men and only 18 women on tour – there have been seismic leaps towards equality since Helen’s Bells victory in 1983.
The emotion-filled men’s final on Tuesday capped off an excellent Rip Curl Pro for Australian surfing. Tyler Wright defended her Bells title in women’s event, beating Molly Picklum in the final, days after her brother Owen Wright retired from the sport. Wright and Picklum duelled in the final round after beating Gilmore and Isabella Nichols respectively in all-Australian semi-finals. The men’s final was also an all-Australian affair, between Ewing and Callinan, while two other Australians – Connor O’Leary and Jackson Baker – reached the quarter-finals.
Heading into the final event before the mid-season cut, at Margaret River in Western Australia, three Australian men are in the top 10 (including Jack Robinson in second) and another four within the cut-line. Picklum’s runner-up placing at Bells sees her retain the leader’s jersey, while Wright moves to second in the world. Gilmore, Nichols and Macy Callaghan are all within the cut-line.
The ongoing success of both men’s and women’s surfing in Australia is a fitting tribute to one of its early advocates, Helen Ewing. One obituary at the time of her passing described her as a “champion surfer, champion mum and champion human being”, while another observed that “she surfed as she lived – with power, commitment and grace.”
Ethan Ewing has grown up with his mother’s 1983 Rip Curl Pro trophy on his bedside. On Tuesday, he won his own trophy to sit beside it. “I’ve looked at that [trophy], dreamt of it, seen her name on the stairs [on the walk to Bells Beach],” he said. “And now having my name there – it’s so special.”
Amid the celebrations, Ewing wiped away a tear. “I just want to say to everyone out there,” he paused, “tell your Mum you love them, because you never know what life throws at you.”
