Paul Naude was born in 1955 in Durban, South Africa, and began surfing 10 years later, becoming a national champion in 1975 and achieving what will always be his best result in 1976: Third in the Pipe Masters, reports Matt Warshaw's Encyclopedia of Surfing.

With an entrepreneurial spirit, he founded with two friends the best-known magazine in Africa, Zigzag, in which he was a kind of editor at the same time as he was a photographer.

He left professional surfing behind and went into business, becoming one of the license owners of the booming brand Gotcha in South Africa in 1981.

As has happened a lot throughout history with South Africans, he grew up within the company and left his native country for Laguna Beach, California, to become vice president of Gotcha USA in 1992.

Six years later, Billabong hired him to lead the company at its peak, taking it to a value of $3700 billion, only to see it plummet to $259 million after the market crash.

Naude offered to buy it, but the shareholders refused, and that was the turning point for the South African to found Vissla.

The brand carved out its niche as a core space, with a strong focus on free surfing while maintaining its competitive edge, and grew rapidly in the surfing world. Two CT surfers were Vissla in the last year: Liam O'Brien and Matthew McGillvray. Former big wave champion Twiggy Baker also…

But they had never had a true CT world champion.

Until now, Yago has become part of the team.

According to reports, Naude had to pull some serious cash out of his wallet and get rid of some of the brand's long-standing athletes to achieve this, such as Noa Mizuno, Cam Richards, and Cliff Kapono.

The brand has a global presence and this new team member only suggests that it will continue to grow.