New world junior surfing champions
BOMBO BEACH, KIAMA: Australian duo Ethan Ewing and Macy Callaghan capped off their stellar competitive seasons taking out the World Junior Championship (WJC) in Kiama, New South Wales.
Conditions were not ideal, but the world’s best put on an incredible show in the clean 2-foot peaks on offer at the stunning Bombo beach.
The men’s final was a showdown between not only the No 1 and 2 seeds, but great friends Ethan Ewing and Griffin Colapinto (USA).
The two were stand outs both tearing through opposite sides of the draw.
After a day of light winds and consistent yet small surf, a front blew through in the opening minutes of the final making conditions tough for the stablemates. Ewing found his two scoring waves early where Colapinto was unable to find any waves of substance, gifting Ewing the win of his career. Ewing now joins an illustrious list of world junior champions, including Joel Parkinson, Andy Irons and Gabriel Medina just to name a few.
“This feels so amazing,” Ewing said. “Coming into this event as the top seed gave me confidence from the get go and it all just kept running smoothly from the start of the week. It all just went to plan. It was funny because Griffin and I talked about the chances of the two of us meeting in the final early in the week so the fact it happened was really cool. Griffin is a great friend of mine, so it is special to share this with him.”
When little known Ewing took out the Burleigh Pro QS1 000 at the beginning of 2016, he grabbed the attention of the surfing world. He then went on to win the WSL Australasia Junior Qualifying Series (JQS) and finished runner up on the Qualifying Series (QS) booking himself a spot on the 2017 elite Championship Tour (CT), something the young Stradbroke Island native never set out to do in such quick succession.
“I never planned on any of this happening this year. I did aim to win the JQS but everything else just kind of happened unexpectedly. This is a great way to start my year off and I can’t wait for the start of the CT.” Men’s final result Ethan Ewing (AUS) 11.34 def. Griffin Collapinto (USA) 1.97 Women’s final result Macy Callaghan (AUS) 15.67 def. Mahina Maeda (HAW) 4.60 Men’s semifinal results SF 1: Ethan Ewing (AUS) 12.70 def. Cody Young (HAW) 10.63
SF 2: Griffin Colapintio (USA) 15.60 def. Finn McGill (HAW) 8.74
Women’s semifinal results
SF 1: Mahina Maeda (HAW) 8.90 def. Brisa Hennessy (HAW) 8.26
SF 2: Macy Callaghan (AUS) 13.26 Ariane Ochoa (EUK) 9.13
Men’s quarterfinal results
QF 1: Cody Young (HAW) 12.74 def. Mateus Herdy (BRA) 11.83
QF 2: Ethan Ewing (AUS) 14.76 def. Jordy Maree (ZAF) 10.67
QF 3: Finn McGill (HAW) 13.53 def. Reef Heazlewood (AUS) 13.00
QF 4: Griffin Colapinto (USA) 12.67 def. Che Allan (BRB) 10.84
Women’s quarterfinal results
QF 1: Mahina Maeda (HAW) 14.83 def. Minori Kawai (JPN) 10.87
QF 2: Brisa Hennessy (HAW) 9.70 def. Kobie Enright (AUS) 7.70
QF 3: Ariane Ochoa (EUK) 10.50 def. Zoe McDougall (HAW) 8.34
QF 4: Macy Callaghan (AUS) 15.10 def. Teresa Bonvalot (PRT) 6.33