Big-wave surfer Maya Gabeira, dubbed a public menace by Laird Hamilton and Kelly Slater, quits professional surfing

"If you continue to do what you’re doing, you’re gonna die. So I highly suggest you stop," said Kelly Slater.

The Brazilian big-wave chaser Maya Gabeira, famous for being advised by Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton to quit big-wave surfing before she or someone close to her died, has officially quit competitive surfing.

The creator of the K2 Big-Wave Challenge and, more recently, the Big Wave Challenge, Bill Sharp, reported the news on Instagram.

“Congratulations to @maya on her retirement from competitive big wave surfing. She broke barriers and overcame adversity like no one else in the game. Thank you Maya Gabeira for your many contributions to the sport!”

 

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Gabeira, thirty-seven, is noted for a few things, apart from the being the recipient of well-meaning counsel from the surfing’s two biggest stars.

She is in the Guinness Book of World Records for biggest wave ridden by a gal, busted a leg and drowned (revived!) at Nazaré, was belted to within an inch of her life at big Teahupoo, and is the daughter of a Brazilian revolutionary whose group famously kidnapped the US ambassador.

In a now famous DM to Maya Gabeira from Kelly Slater he wrote,

‘You are unprepared. You are endangering people around you when they have to go in and rescue in such scenarios. I think if you continue to do what you’re doing, you’re gonna die. So I highly suggest you stop.’

When she got her stilt snapped at Nazaré and had to be revived on the beach, Laird said she “didn’t have the skill to be surfing in those conditions.”

After the leg break and temp drowning at Nazaré, I interviewed Gabeira shortly after she got out of hozzy.

Reprinted below if you’ve got time to kill and you want to read an 11-year-old interview.

Can you describe for me the jam y’got in… Yeah, Carlos towed me into a really nice big left and on the third bump I reckon I broke my ankle. When I fell that wipeout was ok. It was a little bit of a hold-down. The second one was pretty strong and the third one I think I was almost on the shorebreak and that was when the problems started because it was really strong. It hit me on my chest and it blew out my life jacket and it really hurt me. I went down, down, down underwater with no air and seeing black. I was basically going to black-out and somehow I made it up but when I hit the surface everything went white so I didn’t have any vision. But from what I saw on the footage, Carlos came twice to grab me but I had no movement or reaction. Finally he yelled at me to grab the rope and I grabbed the rope and I think that was my last little bit of energy to get me maybe five or 10 feet away from the current that was taking me into the rocks. But because I was being dragged my face was underwater. I was pretty much blacked-out by then and then my hand let go of the rope. From what I saw of the footage I was unconscious. A couple of waves went over me and Carlos found me again and I was closer to the shore so he jumped off the ski and dragged me to the shore and CPR’d me and…uh… thank God he brought me back to life.

What’s your first memory after being revived? Faces. Just people and remembering that I had almost drowned and where I was and a lot of water, water, water. And I was throwing up. I mean, it took a long time in my brain to come back and for me to open my eyes but as soon as I did I kinda knew where I was because it was so salty and it was so wet. I just could tell I had just drowned.

And then what happened? Were you on the sand? I was on the sand. I was starting to come back to life and a huge surge, huge water, washed everyone again. Some guys held onto me, Carlos and another guy. A couple of cars got washed away. It was pretty hectic but they held onto me and then after that they CPR’d me again, I think.
Do you remember being in the ambulance? As soon as I opened my eyes I remember everything. Red Bull, who were on the cliff, called the fire station so the firemen came and grabbed me.

What were you thinking about in hospital? (Maya laughs in the breeziest and most surprising manner) That I was just lucky to be alive and I was lucky I train as much as I do and that I have the best partner in the world and that our efforts at the end of the day weren’t perfect but sometimes we make mistakes. But in the very end, we were able to save my life. And I think that’s what matters.

What mistakes did you make? How will you hit big waves next time after this experience? I’ll definitely use a different life jacket because I don’t want my life jacket to blow out. I don’t want to get 70-foot shorebreak waves on my head with no life jacket. Also, to have a second ski so everything’s not on Carlos’ hands because that’s a big responsibility if you’re dealing with 80-foot waves on a shorebreak. If everything you’ve got is one ski, even though he wants to save me as much as he wants, he can’t lose the ski. So there’s two worries there. If you have a second ski, you can risk a little more when the rescue happens. Other than that, I broke my leg on the wave, I just did my very best to get as close to the shore as I could so I could get rescued by him and hope to get CPR’d on the beach.
What’s it feel like when your leg gets busted by a wave? (Laughs!) Oh, I don’t even realise my leg was broken until later on. (Laughs!) My life was way more important! My lungs were way sorer than that!

Can you describe what it’s like to drown? It’s really tough. But it gets peaceful when you black out. When you’re gone, you’re gone. And I knew before I was gone I knew that the only thing I could do was to try my very hardest to get as close as I could to the shore so Carlos could do his part. And I did my part and he did his part. That’s how we work. I try my best and when he sees me he’ll make sure he doesn’t lose my body.

It’s a high-stakes game, ain’t it… Yeah, but that’s big-wave surfing when it’s 80-feet in the shorebreak, a beach break.

You had another near-death thang at Teahupoo, yeah? Um, to be honest, I must put down that experience a little bit after this one. I don’t think it was that bad…

But only with the benefit of hindsight… Yeah, I think this one was way more serious. People say I was unconscious at Teahupoo, and I wasn’t at all, I told everyone I wasn’t, but a lot of people claim that I was unconscious and it was a lie. But this time… I was unconscious.

Big-wave wrangling is an extraordinary biz… You know, it’s a risk when you’re willing to surf waves like that and you don’t have two people to rescue you, you only have one. I was by myself on 70, 80-foot waves for over 10 minutes. And it’s very very hard to survive with no life jacket.