How a big wave surfer came back from disaster and stared fear in the eye
Sent by Mike Knowles |
14 May 2024
Maya clutches the line, as she’s pulled into position by her jet-ski tow-in partner. A wall of water is fast approaching casting an ominous shadow over her 5 ft 5 frame.
Maya lets go and hurtles down the face of a 70 ft wave, easily the biggest she’s surfed. She feels the raw power and the speed - fast, just too fast. Maya handles the first bump and the second, but the third tosses her headfirst into the wave. Watch
For 9 whole minutes, Maya is at the mercy of the Nazare white water – three times waves crash down with pulverising force holding her underwater for minutes at a time. With limited experience of the Praia de Norte break and no land communication due to a lost radio, her partner Carlos Burle, struggles to locate her.
Eventually, he gets close enough and Maya miraculously grabs the rope whilst half conscious and is dragged to shore. On the beach, CPR is administered to her lifeless body as horrified spectators look on from the clifftop vantage point.
It's October 2013 and 26-year-old Maya Gabeira thankfully is alive and coherent, recovering in hospital from the mother of all wipe outs. Her ankle is broken, and she will need 3 spinal surgeries over the next 18 months, though she’s grateful things aren’t far worse.
Maya had been in Nazare, Portugal – the mecca of big wave surfing for just one month. The wave considered unrideable, until Garrett Mcnamara put it on the map, is a freak of nature - it forms as a giant underwater canyon forces the Atlantic Ocean to rise up into 8 storey monsters during peak swells.
The plan was to acclimatise and build up slowly, but the huge swell had proved irresistible for the gung-ho Brazilian.
The next few years are rough – chronic pain and difficulty walking, are accompanied with public criticism from top surfers Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton, who felt she was unprepared. Maya could see their point, but when you’re hurt and vulnerable the timing wasn’t exactly helpful. Family members and doctors also advised her to retire.
“It’s hard not to let that play in your head when you’re not 100 per cent… for years I was struggling to find my feet physically and emotionally. It was: can I? will I? am I brave enough to overcome that?"
“In a perfect world you would want to go straight back out and conquer the wave that almost killed you.” Though that just wasn’t physically possible for Maya.
"It became a recurring insecurity” you have “trauma, insecurities and fear of the wave itself.” alongside the severe pain and physical healing, which took a long time to fall back into place. Watch Interview
For Maya though, big wave surfing was a calling and she wanted to face her fears. Moving to Nazare in 2016, she slowly built up her confidence in the water again.
She took her time though, gradually increasing wave size, alongside breath-hold and strength training. On days off, she would stand next to the iconic red lighthouse, overlooking Praia de Norte and study the wave’s capricious nature.
On the 18th of January 2018, Maya had the aim of catching the biggest wave of her life. She waited for 3.5 hours in frigid water, until it appeared on the horizon. Perfectly immersed in the moment and feeling connected to the water, she channelled her fear, using its energy to stay present and focused. Source
This time Maya was prepared, and she finished the ride untouched and vindicated. At 68 ft it was recognised as a world record for a woman surfer – a record that Maya herself broke in 2020 with a mammoth 72.5 ft. Watch
For further information on Maya's story and other awesome stories of risk and adventure, check out 'The Art of Risk' by Richard Harris. A fantastic read by one of the heroes who took part in the Thai Cave Rescue.
Wisdom 💎
“You know I never really thought about giving up. To me it’s like, life gives you challenges, and you have to face them, and you have to overcome them.”
Maya Gabeira
Tip 1 - Smart Play ✅
Maya did something very smart in moving to Nazare – “I thought that I had so many disadvantages on my comeback that at least I needed the advantage of giving myself a comfortable home feeling of surfing Nazaré.”
When you’re coming back to face fears, you want to give yourself any advantage you can to make yourself feel good.
Tip 2 - Avoid 🚩
Taking reckless risks – Maya was humbled from her first experience. She prepared better and built up slowly. She was happy to walk away and come back another day if it didn’t feel right. She wasn’t pushing it anymore.
Expecting complete support. Maya was the first big wave surfing woman. If you’re doing anything big or new, you will get criticism, you might be ridiculed. It doesn’t mean their points don’t have merit; it doesn’t mean they’re right either.
Tip 3 - Action 💪
Channel the fear – this is such a powerful concept. Fear is not always a stop sign. Sometimes it shows the way we need to go - we can use it as fuel to propel us forward.
Is there anything that you have been putting off due to a bad experience, might it be time to get back in the water?
“The accident was a great thing to happen to me… I was 26 years old, and I had already experienced what it is like to die – I could see how precious life was.”
Maya Gabeira
P.S. Apologies for the length of this one – I got a bit carried away!