Maya Gabeira

Maya Gabeira is a Brazilian big wave surfer born on 10 April 1987 who learned to surf in Rio de Janeiro at thirteen and turned professional at seventeen. She moved to Hawaii in 2004 to chase large waves and soon became the leading female big wave surfer, winning the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards for best female performance four years in a row from 2007 to 2010. She was the first woman to surf big waves in Alaska and at Ghost Trees and Teahupoo. In 2013 she nearly drowned at Praia do Norte in Nazare, Portugal, and returned there to set Guinness World Records for the largest wave surfed by a woman: 68 feet in 2018 and 73.5 feet (22.4 metres) in February 2020. She won the ESPY for best female action sports athlete in 2009, was named a UNESCO Champion for Ocean and Youth in 2022, is the subject of the documentary Maya and the Wave, and announced her retirement from professional big wave surfing in 2025.