NXT 
Long before the WSL started with the weird warrior techno hype video things, we were watching Yago Dora. His surfing caught our eye, but it was his vibe, his personality, his approach that really stuck with us. In What Youth Issue 13 we recall his ability to jump in our big white van and road trip and how blown away we were with his ability to roll with it. Now he more or less terrifies guys on trips because he’s so damn good, and so damn rad.
From What Youth Issue 13:
Yago’s family is beautiful. His father is tall and dark and handsome and apparently rips. He wears a Volcom printed tee and a hat and a watch and sunglasses. He is strapping. Strong. Stern. But very friendly. His sisters and mother are beautiful and smiley too. While we purchase gas station coffee and sewer-meat sandwiches across the street, Yago finishes his Denny’s quesadilla and we load him and his stuff into our van. I take down his father’s phone number into my phone and vice versa. They embrace and hug and I quickly realize we have a young man with us. A very young man. Our filmer Blake Myers looked over at me, “Wow, I haven’t seen a father and son goodbye hug for a trip in a long time. That was a rad.”
We pull out of the parking lot and onto Century Blvd. Andrew takes a swig of his pineapple and malibu vape pen. I begin to worry about Yago. Is he regretting this already? One glimpse in the rearview mirror shows otherwise, smiling and happy to be on the road and up for anything. “Should we surf somewhere?” he asks. That would be the first of a million times that questions is asked by Yago. He surfs. He is not here for the lifestyle. And we couldn’t love him for it anymore. From there we were off to Malibu to pick up Brendon Gibbens and Dillon Perillo.
Lots of dudes surf really well in this life, and lots of dudes can make heats, but it’s nice to see someone get a shot in the comp who deserves success in every arena. Yago is one of those dudes. So we’re enjoying his march through just about everyone in Rio.
Let’s look at back at some Yago and What Youth highlights:
