The record-setting Brazilian big wave surfer and TAG Heuer ambassador talks about female champions, coming back from a near-death experience, and the latest Aquaracer launch  

What do you love most about surfing, and how did you get started?

I started surfing a bit late &ndash; I must have been 13 or 14 years old.&nbsp;I started at my local beach called Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro. Nobody in my family surfed, they are intellectuals &ndash; but my&nbsp;boyfriend at the time and my friends used to surf. So, I started going to the beach with them and I could not just stand or sit&nbsp;there and get a tan &ndash; it was too boring. I realised how much fun&nbsp;they had and how addicted they were to the sport called surfing.

I got interested and realised that the boys were not going to take&nbsp;any of their time to teach me. I had to quickly find a surf school in my neighborhood and that&rsquo;s&nbsp;where I started. Months later, I transferred from surfing in the surf school to being able to join&nbsp;my boyfriend and all of our friends. That was when it became a lot of fun! I then left Rio when I was 17 to go to Hawaii to learn&nbsp;better English and of course, to surf.&nbsp;

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You&rsquo;ve set records for the largest wave surfed. What drives you and&nbsp;what&rsquo;s your training routine like?

I would love to say that titles do not mean that much, but at the&nbsp;end of the day, they do. In big wave surfing, it is funny because&nbsp;we do not have a title that is immediately recognised as the best&nbsp;one in the field. From a young age, I dreamt of breaking a world&nbsp;record because I just thought that this was the universal stamp&nbsp;of excellence. Although it did not exist for women at the time,&nbsp;I dreamt of it. When I established the first one, it was already a&nbsp;dream come true and it meant a lot to me.

Breaking my own record was not something I really pursued or&nbsp;was thinking about. It was so hard the first time that I was not&nbsp;going to try and take that route again. So the second record was&nbsp;a different route. It is important for athletes to be able to have a&nbsp;stamp &ndash; something that allows people to understand that they have&nbsp;given their best and that they have come to the top. At the end of&nbsp;the day, sports are competitive, and we all want to be better than&nbsp;our opponents. So having two world records and reaching the top,&nbsp;like in 2020 with the biggest wave award, is very significant for&nbsp;me, a woman, in a very male dominated sport. Sometimes I still&nbsp;cannot believe it was me, although I am happy it was.

Regarding my daily routine, I have a gym at home, which I use&nbsp;quite often. I also do my pool training with my trainer three times&nbsp;a week, which is mostly breath holds for my lungs and how to&nbsp;survive in the water. I also practice mountain biking and a bunch&nbsp;of different sports in the ocean, such as foiling, kite surfing and&nbsp;wing surfing. I try to keep myself very active and do some specific&nbsp;things to really help me with big wave surfing.

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What drove you to continue and get better after the mishap that you&nbsp;experienced in 2013?

It is an interesting experience to have &ndash; a near death experience,&nbsp;when you are young. I was 26 at that time and nearly drowned in the ocean in Nazar&eacute;. It left me traumatised because I was&nbsp;practicing my job, which was very tricky and it&rsquo;s not like having&nbsp;a car accident. It was by choice. It was something that I had to&nbsp;really work on and decided years later that I still wanted to put&nbsp;myself in that position. It was a combination of being young, not&nbsp;having enough experience, craving for new accomplishments in&nbsp;a hurry, but somehow not being fully prepared and aware of what&nbsp;I was getting myself into.

That day, it was a very new wave in the big wave scenario so we&nbsp;exposed ourselves to a lot of risk. It ended up the way it ended&nbsp;and it was a miracle that I survived, which I truly feel lucky for.&nbsp;It is a very big experience that you would never wish to have,&nbsp;once you do, you&rsquo;re glad it happened. It teaches you lessons that&nbsp;you do not choose to be taught, but that you do not want to give&nbsp;away. It was very important for my life and for myself and made&nbsp;me become the person that I am today. However, I do not know&nbsp;if I would choose to live through that again.

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Who are some women you admire?

My mother. I admire my mother a lot. There are more and more&nbsp;women leading and changing the world in a great way. From leaders in political environments to athlete champions such as&nbsp;Naomi Osaka and so many others that I could name! I think&nbsp;that this is such an amazing time to be a woman, because we&nbsp;are being more and more represented in every single field. Representation is really becoming popular, and you can see women&nbsp;spreading everywhere.

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What do you look for in a timepiece?

It has to be comfortable &ndash; that is my number one rule. In&nbsp;addition, I want it to feel and look good. These are two things that are important because sometimes it looks amazing, but you&nbsp;do not want to wear it because of comfort. For me, I need the combination of being super comfortable to cruise and to move,&nbsp;and also to look good.

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Tell us about your relationship with TAG Heuer.

I always felt very connected to the slogan of TAG Heuer because&nbsp;of my sport. There is a lot of pressure linked to my sport and very risky consequences such as death. What translates very well&nbsp;to my discipline is not to crack under pressure. Also, I connect TAG Heuer with Formula One, giving me the sensation of&nbsp;speed and risk. It was a no brainer for me. Besides loving the product, it was simply the way that the brand positions itself and&nbsp;the individuals it supports, which is really aligned with what I&nbsp;do. Also, choosing my TAG Heuer for the day is like choosing a piece of jewellery. I can go from the green to the blue, and from&nbsp;the white to the black &ndash; I like to play with the colours, they are beautiful. It is really nice that what I use for surfing can also be&nbsp;used when I dress up for a dinner or an event. I think that&rsquo;s luxury.

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What is it about the TAG Heuer Aquaracer that you like?

What I love about the new model is that it went bigger without being heavier and thicker. Sometimes, I like to wear men&rsquo;s&nbsp;watches, but they are just a little bit too big. My wrist is quite&nbsp;thin and small so it&rsquo;s just a bit uncomfortable and I would go&nbsp;back to the Aquaracer thinking it could be a little bit bigger. I feel like the new one has gotten to the right size.

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How do you most like to spend your time when you aren&rsquo;t surfing?

I am quite busy, but I like walking my dogs a lot and taking care&nbsp;of them. I love that. I also love watching a good movie or series, and that&rsquo;s what I do during my time off.

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What&rsquo;s next for Maya Gabeira?

Right now, I am looking forward to surfing in Indonesia and&nbsp;improving some technical aspects of my surfing. I was not able to do this trip last year, which I usually do every year, because&nbsp;of the pandemic. I really miss surfing this kind of waves. They are perfect, hollow and technical. It is very important for me&nbsp;that I surf this type of waves almost as a form of summer surf camp because it is complementary to big wave surfing and quite different from what I do in Nazar&eacute;. If I start with this base camp,&nbsp;as I like to call it, it puts me in a nice training transition for the next season. This time last year, we had a very strange big wave&nbsp;season with no competition. So, I am looking forward to starting now and really being able to build and have a strong season again&nbsp;next year.

Maya Gabeira's Next Wave with the TAG Heuer Aquaracer

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