Gabeira, Maya (1987 – )

Indestructible goofyfooter from Brazil; four-time winner of the Billabong XXL Best Female Performance Award; anointed by the Los Angeles Times in 2008 as the "Super Woman of Big-Wave Surfing." Gabeira, born in Rio de Janeiro (1987), is the daughter of popular leftist politican and author Fernando Gabeira—a founding member of the Brazilian Green Party—and noted fashion designer Yame Reis. Gabeira took up surfing at the age of 14 as a means to escape a turbulent childhood. Three years later she...