When Ethan Ewing first began competing on the junior surfing circuit, his rivals developed a nickname for the young Australian. Even as a teenager, the North Stradbroke surfer exuded preternatural composure while in the water during a heat. He would sit in the middle of the line-up with priority, the right to take off on any given wave, and control proceedings. While other surfers chased smaller sets, taking off on wave after wave, Ewing knew he only needed two scores to win a heat. He would sit still and wait for the right wave, the right moment to pounce.

When it came, more often than not Ewing would perfectly execute and secure a heat-winning score. His unflappable focus earned him the nickname “Ice Man”, and a junior world title. Nearly a decade on, as the Olympics loom in barely 100 days’ time, the world number two’s steely edge has him in contention for a gold medal at Paris 2024.

Bells Beach, near Torquay along the Great Ocean Road, is a long way from Teahupo’o, the Tahitian wave that will host the Olympic surfing in late July. But late last month, in the round of 16 at the fourth stop on the World Surf League (WSL) calendar, Ewing was showing off his competitive poise in a heat against compatriot Liam O’Brien.

Ewing took off on an early set, flashing fins with powerful turns. An 8.50 score offered the advantage, and so Ewing sat and waited. And waited. Halfway through the heat another set wave approached, and Ewing decisively took the lead with a 7.27. While O’Brien paddled left and right, searching for the answer, taking off on 11 waves in the hope of something special, Ewing hardly budged.

It was an otherwise unremarkable heat, mid-afternoon with mid-size waves at Winkipop, a break over from the famous Bells Beach bowl. But for those watching closely, it was an accomplished display – a win earned not just through ability, but mental fortitude. The sort of victory that distinguishes good surfers from champion surfers. When the vanquished O’Brien returned to the cliff-top carpark, he could only shrug. “I’ve surfed against Ethan a lot over the years – he’s turned himself into one of the best in the world,” said O’Brien.

“It’s something I’ve always done - been more selective in my waves,” Ewing tells the Guardian two weeks later, from Margaret River in Western Australia where the latest leg on the WSL has just begun. “You see some people who take off on 20 waves a heat, but I’d rather make it count when I take off on a wave – be really smart with priority. You can surf well, but if you don’t surf smart heats, there are a lot of easy ways to lose.” Ewing ultimately lost at Bells in the quarter-finals.

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With hindsight, it can seem that Ewing was destined for surfing greatness. His mother, Helen Ewing (née Lambert), was an pioneering female surfer, winning the Bells Beach Pro in 1983, just 18, before her son was even born. But tragically Helen died of breast cancer when he was only six – Ewing grew up with her iconic Bells Beach trophy by his bedside.

Determined to follow in his mother’s footsteps, Ewing was a talented junior – inspired by a golden generation of Queensland surfers, including Australian world champions Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning. When Parkinson gifted a young Ewing an old board of legendary Hawaiian surfer Andy Irons, it seemed like a passing of the baton. A three-time world champion, Irons passed away in 2010; in a video of the exchange, Parkinson tells Ewing: “I know how much of an influence this guy was on your surfing … He was an absolute bloody legend and he would have loved you.”

Ewing qualified for the 2017 WSL campaign, having just won the world junior crown, and even scored a nine on his first wave at his debut WSL event. But it quickly went downhill. He finished last in his first six events on tour, and failed to requalify. The surfer spent three years away from the top-tier WSL, before finally returning in 2021.

The Australian won his first WSL event in 2022, in South Africa, but it was at last year’s Bells Beach Pro that he showed his dominance. Four decades after his mum won the event, Ewing repeated her feat – the first-ever mother-son duo to win the same WSL event.

“It was unbelievable to be honest,” he says. “It was so emotional. I think it was one of my dad’s proudest moments of my career – he was crying. It was pretty cool.”

Ewing’s own Bells’ trophy now sits next to his mum’s on the bedside table. Her legacy is felt in other ways, too – Helen was an advocate for gender equality within the sport, hitting out at the lack of prize money and media attention for women’s surfing at the time. Today the WSL has equal prize money and an equal calendar, after the women began competing at the famous Pipeline break in Hawaii in recent years.

“The younger girls on tour are the ones making the biggest gains in our sport right now – especially at Pipe,” Ewing says. “It’s super inspiring and cool to see how far they’re pushing it.”

Post-Bells Ewing was flying high and seemed a strong contender for the WSL title, which is determined through a top-five competition at the final leg of the tour each year. But ahead of the penultimate event of the year in Tahiti, disaster struck. Ewing was free-surfing at the fearsome Teahupo’o when he took off too deep.

“I wiped out pretty hard,” he says. “I hit the reef directly on my back. Straight away I knew something was not right. I thought that was it for my year – being so close to the finals, and something so serious to do with your spine, I thought there was no way.”

Remarkably, there was a way. After scans and medical consultations in Tahiti and Brisbane, Ewing was advised he could return to surfing earlier than expected. “There were two fractures, but it was the best possible spots to fracture your back – I couldn’t do any more damage,” he says.

He surfed through the WSL Finals in some pain – he admits opting against a follow-up scan, not wanting to know if it had fully healed. “I thought that would play on my mind a bit too much,” he adds. “There were some days that were worse than others.”

If Ewing was surfing the finals with a broken back, it hardly showed – he entered ranked third in the world, winning through two rounds into the surf-off for the world title. Ewing ultimately came up shortly against Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, but it was an astonishing feat for a surfer who had been in hospital with a fractured back barely a month earlier. “In the circumstances, I was pretty happy to have that opportunity – finishing the season there and not at home rehabbing,” he says.

In the coming months, Ewing will return to the scene of his injury not once but twice – for the WSL’s Tahiti leg and then the Olympics. Surfing was added at the last Games, and in July the competition will be held at Teahupo’o. Ewing, together with Jack Robinson, Tyler Wright and Molly Picklum, will represent Australia.

“It’s pretty insane,” Ewing says. “It was never a goal of mine growing up, because surfing wasn’t a part of the Olympics. So to have it now – it’s crazy. I’m excited to go and give it my all.”

Owen Wright won Australia’s first surfing medal, a bronze, in Tokyo. What would it mean for Ewing to better than achievement? “Anything to do with the Olympics is on another level,” he says. “It’s the pinnacle for sport. One of my biggest goals is to do well there and do Australia proud.”

After last year’s WSL finals, Ewing went straight back to Tahiti to “get over any mental hurdles”. The surfer says he would be feeling slightly apprehensive, injury or no injury. “It’s definitely a really intimidating wave,” he says. “But I feel like I’ve had some good performances there and am definitely feeling more comfortable.”

Ewing has been visualising the Olympics, how it will feel to be in Australian colours at one of the most iconic breaks in the world. “At the wave as well, it is one of the best waves in the world, the place is super beautiful,” he says. “It would be an absolute dream to be in the final, fighting for gold.”