The First Woman To Get Barreled At Brazil's Heaviest Wave

Raquel Heckert isn’t what you would call a casual surfer, she’s a big wave huntress. In person, she’s kind, sweet and humble. In the water, she’s fearless and bold. Many of us may be passionate, obsessed, even, with surfing, but few of us have the grit necessary to full on charge big waves. 

Today, she lives on the North Shore and is constantly training and paddling out at spots like Waimea and Sunset but it wasn't always this way. As a girl growing up in Brazil, she knew she wanted to be a surfer ever since she first saw people riding waves, but it wasn't so easy to start. At the time, surfing was totally male dominated and there were few women in the lineup. Once she got her first board, it was off to the races and she did whatever she could to keep surfing. Years later, she became the first woman to get barreled at “Shock”, a treacherous slab wave in Rio de Janeiro and it was clear that Raquel wasn’t just anybody, she was a freak.