He may be the next big thing in Australian surfing, but George Pittar first learned his craft on waves a long way from the Manly beaches that he now calls home. Pittar was barely a toddler when his family moved to the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, with his father establishing a resort near the capital, Port Vila. For young Pittar, it was an idyllic place to take his first steps as a surfer.

“Surfing reef breaks with no one out – it was pretty special, thinking about it now,” he says. “This perfect right-hander, and this little left, just outside the front of the resort. No one really surfed there, you’d almost get bored surfing alone.”

After a decade in Vanuatu, where Pittar became fluent in the local language, Bislama, he returned to Australia – and found himself in for a rude shock at the wave quality in Sydney. “Far out,” he says. “I spent almost a year going so backwards. I just couldn’t work it out – these shifty beach breaks, with no power, so many surfers. I thought I would never get used to it.”

But ironically for Pittar, now 21, his time battling mediocre Manly waves were the making of him as an elite surfer. “It has actually been so pivotal to my journey, knowing how to surf those small waves. If I’d stayed in Vanuatu, it’s just too perfect – it’s rare to get those types of waves in a contest.”

It is apt then that after two break-out months at competitions on some of Australia’s best waves, Pittar has returned to his home breaks this week on Sydney’s northern beaches for the GWM Sydney Surf Pro, part of the World Surf League’s second-tier Challenger Series. “It’s definitely been the best month of my life,” he says. “I’m frothing on it.”

After a strong debut season on the Challenger Series last year, Pittar earned a wildcard for the top-tier Bells Beach Pro over Easter. He impressed with some strong surfing, and was unlucky to be knocked out midway through the competition by compatriot and world No 2 Ethan Ewing. But the glimpses of Pittar’s stylish, powerful surfing got fans chattering – and a few weeks later at the next WSL stop at Margaret River, he delivered in spades.

Pittar won through the early rounds to find himself against world No 1 Griffin Colapinto in the quarter-finals, in pumping Western Australian conditions. The Australian dropped a 9.50 ride and a 7.33 to leave his rival in a combination situation in the dying minutes – needing not one but two new scores to progress. It was a statement victory from the wildcard.

“It was insane,” he says. “I still can’t really comprehend it – that I got the result is just crazy to me. Sometimes things just go your way – you’re in rhythm with the ocean, your boards feel good, you know what you need to do.”

In the semi-final, Pittar found himself up against two-time event winner John John Florence, a name synonymous with Margaret River’s powerful waves. A perfect 10 and an 8.40 for Florence saw the Hawaiian through to the final, but Pittar went down fighting – earning 14.87 for his two best waves.

“It was unbelievable,” he says. “I was sitting out there just looking at him. Ever since I was a kid, you’d come home from school and watch Margies because it was an after-school finish. He would be out there doing stuff you couldn’t even believe could be done on a wave. So for me to have the opportunity to sit out there with him was so special.”

At both Margaret River and last week’s first Challenger event of the year on the Gold Coast, Pittar showed a knack for finding barrelling sections on waves that other surfers, even some of the best in the world, do not readily identify. Perhaps it is nominative determinism – to get “pitted” in surf parlance means to ride through a wave’s hollow core. Against Colapinto, Pittar scored a beautiful tube-ride for his near-10 point wave. The Australian attributes this barrel-riding technique to his formative years in Vanuatu. “I grew up getting little right-hand barrels, having that comfort in those waves,” he says.

Vanuatu is still close to Pittar’s heart – his dad spends half of the year there, and Pittar will travel there later this month for a rest, and some waves, before the Challenger Series continues in South Africa in July. Pittar jokes that his father only surfs in Vanuatu. “He doesn’t surf when he comes home – he says ‘what’s the point, why surf shitty Manly with 50 guys out when we have an empty reef break?’”

Pittar’s childhood on empty Pacific waves is not the only atypical aspect to this emerging Australian surfer. He recently started working with a new coach, Tim McDonald, who moonlights as a surf coach while working day-to-day as a plumber. It is a fitting choice for a surfer that seems to do things a little differently.

“I’ve always had a connection with Timmy,” says Pittar of McDonald, who was previously a coach for Surf Australia. “We’re on a pretty similar wavelength. I like the fact that he’s not consumed by coaching, he’s not following the tour, he’s a bit separated from it, just helping me out from the good of his heart.”

During the broadcast of the Gold Coast event, commentators joked that McDonald was enjoying a week off the tools to be at Coolangatta overseeing his young charge. “It’s fun hanging around with him,” says Pittar. “He takes us fishing, and gives us a break from the whole scene at these comps, which can be a bit overwhelming.”

Pittar’s approach reflects a particular attitude to surfing, an attitude seemingly fuelled by genuine enthusiasm for the sport rather than ruthless competitive edge. While he had some success at a junior level, Pittar was not a standout competitor – and even took several years off competing. He describes this as a formative time – “getting the froth back”.

“I guess growing up, not really achieving much, I never had this crazy expectation on myself to be on the tour,” he says. “For me it’s all just about the experience. I’ll put my best foot forward, I’ll do what George can do. But it is just an amazing life experience. I get to travel the world with my mates and compete at this level.”

Pittar is soaking in his recent successes, trying not to get ahead of himself. “I’m trying to stay present and enjoy the moment,” he says. But a big surfing future awaits. “I’ve worked so hard to get to this point and it doesn’t stop here.”