Guinness World Record Big Wave Surfer Maya Gabeira Retires

Originally posted on SURFER | By Ashtyn Douglas-Rosa | Last updated Jan 23, 2025 4:40 PM ET

Brazilian charger and world record holder for the largest wave ever surfed by a woman Maya Gaberia took to Instagram on Tuesday to announce her retirement from professional big-wave surfing.

"It’s been 20 years of surfing big waves and I’m finally ready to step away from professional surfing and big-wave surfing and find something else," said the 37-year-old big-wave pioneer. "It has served me a purpose. When I started this life, you know, it was unthinkable that a woman would be competing with men and that a woman would surf the biggest wave of the year, [...] that world records for women would exist. So much has changed. There are so many women charging these days. I’m very proud and very honored to have been part of the transformation in this industry, in this sport, and this lifestyle."

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Gabeira, originally hailing from Rio De Janeiro, began surfing big waves at 17 when she visited Hawaii for the first time. In 2013, she suffered a horrendous wipeout at Nazare that nearly cost her her life, and spent the next four years undergoing a series of spinal surgeries. In 2020, she made the comeback of the decade by towing into a 73.5-foot behemoth at the same wave that nearly killed her, setting a Guinness World Record in the process.

"Thank you so much for just paying attention to me, sending your energy to me, your thoughts, your love, your support," Gabeira told her IG followers. "It has changed me in so many ways. I left Brazil when I was so young and I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. And to be able to have lived in so many different countries,[...] to know different languages and different cultures, do different kinds of works, from [being] a writer to an activist to a member of the board at Oceana, to a [UNESCO] Champion of the Ocean and Youth. There’s been so many opportunities that came my way and I’m so, so grateful."

Gabeira also announced she'll be leaving Nazare full-time as well. "There’s nothing like waking up and being like, 'This might be the last time I see the waves like this,'" she said. "It makes you appreciate life so much more."

"I went into surfing to get to know myself understand myself and the freedom it gave me," she continued. "And I’m stepping away from it feeling so free with a mind so free with a heart so full that I have no regrets."

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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