Watch: Yago and Cam Indulge in Saudi Arabia’s (Pre-War) Delights

Shane Borland’s backside judo rotation wasn’t the only gold that came out of Saudi Arabia’s breakout wave pool party. 

For Yago Dora, the trip to Adrena’s surf lagoon on Shura Island mixed business with pleasure. He’s partnered with Brazil Surfe Clube, a development group that’s building membership-based wavepools in and near Rio de Janeiro. It plans to churn out waves with the same tech, Endless Surf, used by the Saudis and in Munich’s O₂ pool. As such, Yago’s sessions in Saudi Arabia were cleverly disguised R&D for a Brazilian business. An international businessman, this guy.

“Pretty soon, there’s an even bigger wavepool like this coming to Búzios (north of Rio),” Yago said. “So if this one is already good, I can imagine the one in Brazil will be even better.”

No shocker here — Yago runs laps around the thing. Huge punts. Scathing turns. Seamless surfing on both a Lost F1 and RNF. There are multiple rides where he hits five sections on a single wave and blows the fins out over sparkling azure water. For Yago, the variety of shapes and angles Endless Surf can throw at him is an undeniable draw. 

“It feels like a real ocean wave,” he said. “The wave keeps opening up, and at the end it connects into an end section. Then there’s a wave where you can hit a maneuver, there’s a section for an air or another turn, and then it throws a barrel further down the line. I think these waves that have different sections bring that ocean feeling back.” 

Fellow goofyfoot and Stab High flyboy Cam Richards also appeared to sync with the wave. Free Fly might be his new business partner, but it also an apt term to describe his surfing in this clip. Maybe it’s the fact that the pool is pumped with saltwater from the Red Sea, or that Cam’s always had crazy hops, but he practically bounces off the sections. Both vids are entertaining, set to good tunes. At least, it offers compelling evidence for Endless Surf’s capacity to reliably replicate punchy and playful walls. Machine-like, you could say.