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“Surfing puts you to the test, not only when you face a wave, but every day.

The preparation has to be painstaking because the risks are enormous.
It’s self-confidence that you build day after day.”

“Everything becomes complicated when you re- “Surfing puts you to the test, not only when you
alize you’re drowning. On the one hand, you feel like face a wave, but every day. You have to prepare metic-
it’s almost right to let yourself go and you accept it; ulously because the risks are enormous. It’s self-con-
on the other hand, you try to stay clear-headed as you fidence that you build day after day, the foundation
grab hold of what you know in order to survive. And of every attempt.” A non-stop challenge that has been
then you hope that the others will do their part, too.” going on for years: with waves, with her own limits,
This reflection encapsulates Maya Gabeira, a with the status quo, but never with the ocean, which
Brazilian surfer born in 1987. She was a step away must be respected regardless, to the point that Maya
from dying at Nazaré, Portugal, in 2013. If you have is also active in marine conservation. “I don’t see my-
never been there, all you need to know is that when self in politics when my career ends [her father is a
you arrive, a sign reads “Welcome to the world’s big- Brazilian politician – editor’s note], but this doesn’t
gest waves.” You think you’ve seen big waves? They’re mean that I’m not aware of the problems around us:
bigger in Nazaré. You think you’ve run risks in your the role of women in the world, the abuse of plastic,
life? Maya Gabeira has risked more. She was trying safeguarding the seas. Personally, I don’t think surf-
to ride an enormous wave in 2013 and she almost ing is an arrogant attitude. If you do it with the right
drowned. Five years later, she was back in Nazaré, means and for the right reasons, you are simply shar-
where she faced and beat a wave over twenty meters ing a space in a sustainable way with those who can’t
high, a feat that put her in the Guinness book of world do it alone and have to be protected, and I’m talking
records. Maya Gabeira has won just about everything about turtles, dolphins, fish, sharks. I think this is
there is to win in the world of surfing, but the ocean why, when I stop surfing, I still see myself at sea, per-
has never gotten the best of her, not even in another haps at the helm of a boat.”
accident a short while later at Teahupoo, Tahiti. A To Maya Gabeira, the sea is normality, daily life,
different ocean but waves that are always impossible a companion she can’t stay away from for long. She
and massive; waves she has searched forever since grew up in Rio de Janeiro and moved to Hawaii; in
she was a teenager and moved from Rio de Janeiro to 2009, she won the ESPY award for best female action
Hawaii, where the challenges grew as big as a six-sto- sports athlete. It’s only one of the many awards she
ry apartment building. has won. Over the years, the waves have become in-

132 Portrait Protagonist