How surfer Maya Gabeira battled injury, sexism — and the biggest waves

Maya Gabeira has surfed many waves in her lifetime. But when she tackled a monster wave in Nazaré, Portugal, in 2013, she quickly realized it was a challenge unlike any she had attempted before.

"I went from riding big waves to riding something that looked more like a tsunami than anything else," she told The Current's Matt Galloway.

The wave knocked her out. She had to be revived on the beach, and ended up in the hospital with a broken leg.

She described the events after her fall as the "hardest 12 minutes of my life."

"I paid a very high price for me falling, for the mistakes we made as a team … and my rescue was very complicated," she said.

Nazaré is known for having some of the biggest waves in the world, regularly measuring 15 to 24 metres in height.

The town's beach, Praia do Norte, is the site of the biggest confirmed wave ever surfed — 26.2 metres, a feat completed by Sebastian Steudtner in October 2020.

"You feel the power of the ocean," Gabeira said of Nazaré's waves. "You hear the wave crashing behind you, which is completely terrifying, but also very unique and special."

Gabeira's story, from her near-death experience in 2013 to her quest to break a world record in Nazaré, is told in the new documentary, Maya and the Wave. Stephanie Johnes directed the film, and it's currently screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"I think they're emblematic of a lot of the struggles that humans have: the work and the triumph," said Johnes, whose previous work includes the 2012 documentary Venus and Serena.

"So I think those are naturally wonderful stories that I've gravitated towards."

Johnes was interested in Gabiera's story partly because she was a woman trying to break into a male-dominated field.

"I was