We’ve seen Ethan Ewing shred Slater’s Lemoore tank plenty, and it’s always impressive. But in this clip, from Abu Dhabi’s new Kelly Slater Wave Co pool, Ewing surfing is absolutely lethal. Maybe it’s the fact that in Abu Dhabi, salt water is pumped into the pool, meaning both the look and feel of the wave is more natural.
It could also be that the wave is a bit taller, allowing Ewing more space to move freely in the pocket. Either way, Ewing has to be the odds on favorite to win the WSL’s maiden Abu Dhabi Championship Tour event when it rolls through the Middle East in a couple of months.
“It’s a pretty wild experience,” Ewing says after his very first wave, which opens the edit above. “It’s so clean that it was hard to tell where the lip was, and how steep it is. But it’s insane. You’d never get a wave like that in the ocean.”
Being Ewing’s first wave, he surfed it in third gear, cruising through lip slides and stylish snaps, before throwing an end section full rote. From there, Ewing paddles (err, walks) back out and gets wave after wave, surfing each one better than the last. His final wave of the day is so perfectly ridden, with so much power and variety, the judges would have no choice but to throw it a perfect 10. It’s gotta be the best wave ever ridden in the middle east. At least until someone else (see: Filipe Toledo) one ups it in the coming months.
Related: Watch: Jack Robinson, Ethan Ewing Score “10 out of 10” Keramas