'I'm fascinated by power, force and bravery': the woman who surfed the biggest recorded wave of 2020
Paula Cocozza
@CocozzaPaula
Thu 31 Dec 2020 07.00 EST
Seven years ago, she was nearly killed in pursuit of the sport she loves, but she defied experts’ predictions and made a stunning comeback
In the photographs of her record-breaking ride, the Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira is a tiny blade on the water, cutting a line of white spume down the deep ridge of the vast grey wave that climbs behind her. The wave in question measured 22.4 metres (73.5ft), the highest ever surfed by a woman, the first to be measured and verified by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a couple of feet greater than the one surfed by her nearest rival. It is also the biggest wave measured this year, surfed by man or woman.
Gabeira, who broke her own previous Guinness world record of 68ft, attributes her achievement to what she calls “taking a critical line”. In short, she takes her board to the fiercest and tallest part of the wave, “where the most powerful energy is, where it is actually breaking”. This, she says, is how “you put value into your wave”.
The peaks surfed by Gabeira are classed as size XXL by the World Surf League (there is no XXXL). Hawaii and California once drew the big-wave community, but Gabeira believes that the small Portuguese fishing village of Nazaré, where she lives and works, is home to “the most incredible big waves in the world … The speeds are incredible. You are going so fast and the wave is building behind you; it’s a lot of water moving, an incredible feeling, and you’re very, very present, which has always been my favourite part of the sport. To feel connection with a very powerful force.”
Gabeira’s enthusiasm is the more intense given that she nearly died in the same spot in 2013, when she was upended by a wave faster and taller than any she had previously attempted. It broke her ankle on the third or fourth bump, hurled her from her board, and unloaded an estimated 144 tonnes of water on her. Everything went black; everything went white. For more than four minutes, she lay unconscious.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/dec/31/im-fascinated-by-power-force-and-bravery-the-woman-who-surfed-the-biggest-recorded-wave-of-2020
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I know that feeling, especially at The Wedge at Balboa.
That’s as much thrill-seeking as I was willing to try. But dang whatta feeling! 
