Brazilian surfer Yago Dora thinks back on his first Championship Tour win in his home country at the Vivo Rio Pro.
The World Surf League Championship Tour is heading into its last regular season event. The top five athletes are beginning to fall into place with several already clinching a spot in the Rip Curl WSL Final. One man who is hoping to gain enough points in the last stop on tour to clinch his spot is Yago Dora. Dora scored big when he finished in first place at the Vivo Rio Pro back at the end of June, but still has a bit of work to do.
Dora is currently sitting in the fifth and last qualifying spot but his fellow Brazilian and former world champion Gabriel Medina is close on his tail. FanSided caught up with Dora to talk about his win in front of his home crowd in Brazil and what he believes is in store for him during the remainder of the tour.
"It felt unreal (winning in Brazil). I couldn't ask for a better scenario to win my first-ever CT event, and it was a long time coming, but I knew everything came at the perfect place at the perfect time. So I'm really happy, and I'm really honored and proud of myself with that achievement, and to win it in Brazil was just the cherry on top," he said. "I just trusted the process. You know, I kept training hard every day and surfing a lot, trying boards, and trying to figure out what works best for me. I've been doing that for the last couple of years, and it's starting to pay off."
Yago Dora is excited for the last two stops on the WSL Championship Tour
Prior to this season, Dora's best finish on tour was third. Now he is having his best year ever and enjoying every bit of it. Dora knows the highs and lows of competitive surfing and following a year when he was sidelined with an injury, he is doing his best to believe that his hard work will pay off.
"It is easy to doubt yourself when you're losing. It's really hard to deal with that and to trust that you're not doing anything wrong, that it's just a matter of time; that you have to keep trusting your process and keep working hard," he said. "Just to have that belief is really hard. I'm starting to learn how to deal with it and look at it in a good way, and it's been working good for me."
The next stop on the Championship Tour is Tahiti, a massive wave called Teahupo'o. This could be a make-or-break moment for Dora. He can make his first trip to the one-day winner-take-all final event with a good showing in the huge barreling wave in Tahiti. He is excitingly looking forward to this stop and looking to improve on his fifth-place finish from last year.
If Dora qualifies for the Finals in September and does well, he could be one of the two highest-ranked Brazilians surfing on the men's side and could find himself in an Olympic qualifying spot to top it all off.
Yago Dora and others as they hit the big swell in Tahiti beginning on Aug. 11 on WorldSurfLeague.com and WSL on YouTube.