Cover photo: Pittar by WSL/Sloane

Young Australian George Pittar had to win the round of 32 heat against Ethan Ewing. The heat was mostly inconsistency in the scoring of Ewing's best first wave and the final, surfed in the final seconds.

That is the biggest argument against the current world number 2 and in favor of the youngster who entered through the trials.

Ewing gets a 6,5 for a wave in the series where he executes maneuvers using the rail and attacking the lip, releasing the fins. Nothing out of the ordinary, but he starts strong, releasing water and the fins and finishes strong. Good surfing, good score, well earned.

Pittar surfs the worst wave of those surfed in the series, but displays a good surging after passing several sections, that powerful carving with a strong attack up top is paid with 5,83.

There may be more than one person who says that this wave at Pittar was paid a lot and that depending on the panel of judges, different liberties are taken. Like raising or lowering future scores so that whoever surfed better in the series ends up passing.

Something that I personally don't like, but I've seen it more than once. It's seen less and less.

Pittar then surfs the best of the series: A three-maneuver combo with speed, control, line; carving to a light attack to a mega powerful close and receives 6,9.

If we have the 6,5 and we have this 6,9, what came next cannot come: With five seconds left, Ewing reaches a medium wave, makes an explosive first attack but more lateral (especially considering how round his surfing is) and then makes two turns in a more lying part of the wave, to make a non-explosive close.

He needed 6,24. Even the commentators say that Pittar passed, but no, the judges give 6,4 to Ewing and the Australian, in disbelief, advances and is now virtually number one in the world.

Surfing things.

The difference is perhaps subtle and the judges can excuse themselves by saying that if Pittar's 5 was paid out at a flat 5,8, then Ewing passed with a 5,5 in his last wave. In other words, correcting the error in the series' progress…

But without looking too much into it, in this series the judges were wrong and the young Pittar had to go through.