{"id":13666,"date":"2021-12-28T12:07:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T19:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotnessrater.com\/articles\/?p=13666"},"modified":"2021-12-24T12:08:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T19:08:03","slug":"maya-gabeira-survivor-fighter-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotnessrater.com\/articles\/2021\/12\/28\/maya-gabeira-survivor-fighter-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Gabeira: Survivor, Fighter, Beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, we just love surfers.\u00a0 We actuall have a lot of them here<\/a>.\u00a0 We love their sunkissed skin, their athletic physique, their competitive nature…\u00a0 everything.\u00a0 But it’s been a long time since we’ve featured one.\u00a0 So here…<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/a><\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Maya Gabeira<\/a>.\u00a0 She will be your newest crush after you are done with this feature.\u00a0 And you will probably be watching her ride the waves after.\u00a0 But before you go do that, how about knowing her a little bit.\u00a0 There’s more to her than just her looks and her talent.<\/p>\n

Who is Maya Gabeira<\/h2>\n

Maya is a Brazilian<\/a> surfer who set a female record in 2009 by riding a 46-foot wave in South Africa.\u00a0 She is a five-time Billabong Global Big Wave Awards winner in the “Girls Performance” category and is best known for having surfed a 73.5 ft\/22,4 m high wave in Nazar\u00e9, Portugal in February 2020, recorded by Guinness World Records as the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman.\u00a0 She also held the previous record for biggest wave ever surfed by a woman, of 68 ft\/20,8 m established in January 2018.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/a><\/p>\n

Maya has received numerous accolades including the ESPY award for Best Female Action Sports Athlete and is considered one of the best female surfers in the world as well as one of the most influential female surfers of all time.<\/p>\n

Her Early Life<\/h2>\n

Maya Gabeira was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on April 10, 1987.\u00a0 She is the daughter of Fernando Gabeira, a founder member of Brazil’s Green Party.\u00a0 Her father is a Lebanese immigrant’s son. Yam\u00ea Reis, her mother, is a Brazilian fashion designer.\u00a0 She learned to surf on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro when she was a teenager.<\/p>\n

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Career Journey<\/h2>\n

Gabeira started surfing at age 15 in Rio de Janeiro and started competing at 15 years old.\u00a0 In 2004 she decided to become a professional at 17 while living in Australia and moved to Hawaii that same year to surf world class waves.<\/p>\n

She quickly emerged as the world’s top female big-wave surfer, winning global championships surfing challenging spots like Mavericks, Waimea, Todos Santos, and South Africa’s shark-infested “Dungeons”.<\/p>\n

She has won the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards for four consecutive times (2007 to 2010) in the Best Female Performance category.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2008, she became the first woman to surf the Alaskan Sea. Gabeira also became the first woman to surf California’s Ghost Trees and Tahiti’s Teahupoo.\u00a0 In 2009, Gabeira won the ESPY award for Best Female Action Sports Athlete.\u00a0 Later that year, Gabeira surfed the biggest wave ever by a woman when she successfully rode a 14 metres (46 ft) wave at Dungeons, a big-wave surf spot in South Africa.\u00a0 The following year, in 2010, she got the 2010 Teen Choice Award for Best Female Action Sports Star.<\/p>\n

In 2012, she was awarded the XXL Big Wave Awards for Girls Best Overall Performance for the 5th time.\u00a0 She also appeared in the ESPN The Body Issue that same year.<\/p>\n

Her Controversial Accident<\/h2>\n

Maya lost consciousness and nearly drowned on October 28, 2013, while surfing a 25m big wave at Praia do Norte in Nazar\u00e9, Portugal.\u00a0 When Maya found her way to the surface, she was alone, unable to see, and had no means of communicating with her jet-ski partner, Carlos Burle.\u00a0 The wave held the surfer under two more times before Burle could make his way over to her and throw a rope.\u00a0 Had she completed the ride, it would have been a record-breaking feat that entered her into the history books.\u00a0 But that day became historic for a different reason: she almost died.<\/p>\n

Dragged from the water after a perilous nine minutes, she was given CPR on the beach, resuscitated and rushed to the nearest hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened so fast.\u00a0 It was definitely the biggest wave I have ever seen.\u00a0 I had this sensation of unbelievable sadness.\u00a0 I just thought, \u2018This is it, I\u2019m going to die.\u00a0 This is not going to have a happy ending.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/a><\/p>\n

The accident was reported globally and discussed at length.\u00a0 Surfing icon Laird Hamilton publicly shamed Maya for attempting the wave at all.\u00a0 Female big-wave surfing, then still a relatively new sport, was already controversial, and Maya quickly became the poster girl for those who believed a woman\u2019s place was not in 25m swell.\u00a0 If she had decided on that day to leave big waves behind forever \u2013 with serious injuries, major surgery and a near-death experience under her belt \u2013 no one would have blamed her.<\/p>\n

Facts and Trivia<\/h2>\n

Return to Nazar\u00e9, a Red Bull TV documentary released in 2016, depicts Maya Gabeira’s return to Nazar\u00e9 after being injured while surfing on the same beach in 2013.\u00a0 It depicts a fight to overcome both physical and mental hurdles.<\/p>\n

Maya surfed a 68-foot-high (20.8-meter) wave at Nazare, PT, in January 2018, which Guinness World Records recognized as the largest wave surfed by a woman.<\/p>\n

Maya was nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Action Sportsperson of the Year twice, in 2014 and 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/a><\/p>\n

She is one of the world’s highest-paid big wave surfers.\u00a0 Maya is sponsored by Billabong and Red Bull and presently resides on Hawaii’s North Shore (Oahu) in the United States.<\/p>\n

Maya established a new Guinness World Record for the Largest wave surfed (unlimited) – female on February 11, 2020.\u00a0 The wave measured 73.5 feet and was part of the WSL Nazar\u00e9 Tow Surfing contest (22.4 m). The wave was also the largest surfed that year by anyone.<\/p>\n

Maya Gabeira Photos<\/h2>\n

Follow her on Instagram<\/a> for her latest personal posts.
\nAnd do visit our Maya Gabeira page<\/a> for more of her pictures.<\/p>\n

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