Would Somebody Please Get Ethan Ewing A Groveler Board?

It wasn’t until watching the latest edition of Snaketales that we realized just how bad the waves were for the Vissla Sydney Surf Pro, a QS 6,000 won by local-ish spin king Jordy Lawler. 

A waist-high wave was a legitimate heat-winner in most cases, meaning that if you wanted to succeed, groveling like a Catholic schoolboy at the other end of a nun’s ruler was your best bet. 

Of the Snaketales crew, it was the diminutive Hiroto Ohara who did it best, which is unsurprising in a sense, but it’s also quite strange that a person who is roughly 5’3 would ride a 5’8 as his standard shortboard, in this event’s tiny waves no less. 

To our eyes, Hiroto’s boards have always looked a little too long in tight transitions, which is part of the reason he lost to Matt Banting in the quarters at Manly (in addition to wave selection and the fact that Matty was surfing like a dentist on meth). 

Speaking of boards, can we get Ethan Ewing on something that’s wider than 16.5 inches? The kid is so talented that he typically makes it work, but when the waves are knee high and fat he’s got to abandon the blade and ride something more reminiscent of an esky lid. Although that turn he does in the outro is pretty fucking spicy, so maybe I should just eat my hat. 

That’s it for the Q-ey; now we’ve got a full month of Australian CT action.

Anybody else got the Marzo hands going?