Italo Ferreira and Leandro “Grilo” Dora, considering their options. Photo: Instagram//Leandro Dora
When Italo Ferreira called Leandro “Grilo” Dora earlier this year, he wasn’t looking for someone to reinvent his surfing. At least, that’s what he thought.
After all, this is a former world champion, Olympic gold medalist, and one of the most explosive competitors the Championship Tour has ever seen. There isn’t much left to teach a surfer with that résumé. Or so Italo believed.
“I’d been doing the same thing for so many years that everything had become automatic,” Italo told The Inertia before leaving for Tahiti. “Then someone new arrives and starts pointing out little things you simply can’t see yourself. They’re small details, but they make a huge difference.”
The partnership officially began at Margaret River, and since then Italo’s season has quietly shifted gears. A semifinal in Western Australia. A win in Raglan. Runner-up in El Salvador. Okay, there were also the two “annoying” ninth-place finishes on the Gold Coast and in Rio — Italo’s words, not mine.
More importantly, he’s arrived at the second half of the season sitting second in the rankings, trailing only Leonardo Fioravanti. And, in Italo’s eyes, that’s exactly where he wants to be.
“We’re entering a really good part of the Tour now,” he says. “These are events where I’ve always felt comfortable and where I know I can put together strong performances.”
Looking back, he has surprisingly few regrets.
“The ninth-place finishes could have been better,” he admits. “I don’t think I surfed the way I normally do at Bells or on the Gold Coast. I was too passive. But if you look at the season as a whole, I’d say it’s been almost perfect.”
For Italo, despite all the technical adjustments Grilo has been introducing, the biggest change may have happened away from the water. It was learning how to listen again.
“There were times when Rainos [Hayes] would tell me something, and I’d think, ‘That’s not it.’ I’d just let it go,” he admits. “Then later I’d stop and think about it and realize I was wrong. Today I can admit that.” He says even his wife, Sofia, encouraged him to become more receptive to outside perspectives.
“She kept telling me to listen more, pay more attention and not be so stubborn,” Italo says with a smile.
That mindset has helped accelerate his connection with Dora.
“Sometimes I push back with Grilo too, but he knows exactly where he wants to go, and he also listens. I don’t usually talk much, but now I’m opening up more. That’s been really positive for both of us.”
Before they officially started working together, Italo warned Dora about what he was stepping into. “I told him he was jumping onto a high-speed train,” he remembers.
Dora’s response caught him off guard.
“He told me, ‘You’re going to take a few steps backwards first.’ At times I’d leave our sessions feeling like I was surfing worse, but it was all part of the process. Sometimes you need to go backwards before you can move forward.”
Italo believes one of Dora’s greatest strengths is knowing exactly what each athlete needs in different moments. During the El Salvador event, when Italo was struggling with the eight stitches in his knee, Dora found a way to restore his confidence. A few weeks earlier in Raglan, the message couldn’t have been more different.
“He knew that left suited my surfing and basically told me, ‘Go do your thing. If you need to do four airs, then do four airs. Grab differently, land in the flats, throw the tail.’ He knows when to let the athlete use his strengths.”
Well… you probably remember how that turned out. Italo went on to beat Morgan Cibilic in the final in New Zealand, throwing airs all over the place.
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Cloud 9 In, Abu Dhabi Out?
Italo also weighed in on one of the biggest talking points surrounding the CT’s calendar. Cloud 9 is officially set to join the Tour for the first time, while Abu Dhabi’s future remains uncertain amid reports that the event may not return after its inaugural edition.
As the defending Abu Dhabi champion — and one of the Tour’s strongest wave pool surfers — Italo admitted he’d rather not see the artificial wave disappear altogether this season.
“I haven’t really stopped to think about Cloud 9 yet,” he says. “My head is on Tahiti and Fiji. But there are plenty of wave pools around the world. Why not hold it at another one instead?”
The possibility of competing at another brand-new place, however, doesn’t concern him.
“A new event, a new wave,” he says. “Historically, I’ve always done well whenever something new comes onto the Tour.”
