If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough. And youthful dreams are the most powerful of them all.
So it was for a 16-year-old Dylan Wilcoxen who went all-in on his young dreams early last year. Achieving the dream of all teen hopefuls. In the perfect right hand tropical barrels of Lagundri Bay, Dylan won the 2025 Nias Pro QS event. And then he won the Nias Pro Junior Title in the same barrels the very next day. And in doing so, at 16 years old, was well on his way to qualifying for the 2026 Challenger series. That the waves happened to have been tailor made for him to win at Nias is no mystery at all. A rare bird, Dylan is no stranger to daily perfection, having grown up in a fantasy surf setting. The son of the owner of the famed Kandui Resort in the Mentawai, this young heir can paddle out from his front yard into the Rifles lineup, one of, if not the premier wave in the Mentawai. And Kandui lefts is just a short buzz around the corner on his own surf- rigged Jet Ski. Still, though it may seem dreamy, this isolation can become a double-edged sword for an aspiring young pro; the curse being living so far from the epicentres of modern pro-surf training programs, and the blessing being able to surf in perfect waves and develop into an instinctive surfer all your own.
Rather than interview a 16-year-old on such subjects, I turned to Lost Surfboard’s, Matt Biolos. In this exclusive conversation Biolos offers his experienced perspective on his young team member and explains why he feels that surfers like Dylan Wilcoxen provide essential meaning to the future of our sport.
Dylan, sky-walking beyond the Indian Ocean. Photo: Mawa.On First Tracks
Matt Biolos: I first saw Dylan surf in the Mentawai in the fall of 2020. He was ...
