Some people teach surfing. Others teach you how to understand the ocean. Yhorran Gabardo belongs to the second kind.
Born in Brazil. Shaped by the ocean.
Some people teach surfing. Others teach you how to understand the ocean. Yhorran Gabardo, our Head Coach at Watergliders, belongs to the second kind. Yhorran joined the Watergliders family three years ago, here on São Miguel Island in the Azores. His journey with surfing, however, started many years before he ever reached this side of the Atlantic. Known in the water as the Flying Goat, the former professional surfer has spent more than 20 years travelling, surfing and building his understanding of the ocean. Four years ago, that path took him from Brazil to the Azores. New waves. A new coastline. A different Atlantic. What began as another stop in a life shaped by surfing eventually became somewhere he could call home.
THE OCEAN COMES FIRST
Surfing is only one part of Yhorran’s relationship with the sea. In Brazil, he spent more than ten years working as a lifeguard and was involved in multiple ocean rescues. Reading currents, reacting to changing conditions and making decisions in the water gave him a kind of experience that does not come from books. Knowledge of the ocean and, above all, respect for it. That background still influences the way he teaches today. As Head Coach at Watergliders, Yhorran combines more than two decades of surfing with his knowledge of ocean safety and an instinctive ability to understand both the conditions and the surfer standing in front of him. Because, for us, teaching someone to surf has never simply meant getting them to stand up on a board. It means learning how to understand the ocean. How to move with it. How to respect it. And, little by little, how to become independent in it. That is the surfing we believe in. And that is the surfing Yhorran teaches.
THE FLYING GOAT
A sharp surfer. A coach. A lifeguard. A filmmaker. And yet, none of those titles completely describes him. Yhorran is simple, loyal to his people and a natural-born rebel. In and out of the water, he has always followed his own line. A true rockstar in his own world. Beyond Watergliders, he keeps developing his personal projects. He coaches the younger generation through the firefighters’ club and uses film to document his own surf adventures. More recently, Yhorran premiered his latest project, Surf Now, Apocalypse Later, here on São Miguel Island, during an emotional night at VULCANA. A film born from his adventures, his way of seeing surfing and a life that continues to revolve around the ocean.
WHEN EXPERIENCE BECOMES KNOWLEDGE
They teach patience. Timing. Fear. Failure. Progression. Respect. Over time, experience becomes knowledge. And knowledge becomes something worth sharing. Today, Yhorran brings that experience to our team and to everyone who enters the water with Watergliders, whether they are catching their first wave in the Azores or trying to understand their surfing on a deeper level. He is part of what Watergliders is today, and part of what we want it to become. Yhorran, thank you for everything. STAY WILD. STAY HUMBLE. KEEP SURFING.
