Saturday, October 15, 2011

Maya Gabeira on broken bones video surf

In October 2008, I broke my nose pulling into a barrel. The board came back into my face in the water. I came up, and I felt blood in a gash. I felt like I was about to pass out. I raised my hand and saw Eraldo Gueiros go by on the Surfer Girl ski, and he looked into my eyes and I just passed out. And the next thing I’m in the ambulance with my mom, and my dad met me at the hospital. My first concern was, “When can I surf again?” Obviously, it’s the first question after every single injury I’ve had. Breathtaking achievements I’ve been thinking that it’s not a bad thing having asthma if you surf big waves. Because one of the biggest challenges and fears of people when they go surfing is that they’ll be out of breath. But I was born out of breath, and that’s my struggle since then. I’ve been going to the hospital out of breath, passing out right before I get the thing on my mouth and start breathing again. So it’s a sensation I’ve had since I was really young, and I’ve dealt with it. I don’t panic when I’m underwater.




Viral strain I had a serious virus a few weeks ago. I’m the type of person who can go from peak to peak and never have a slow energy day. But when I go down, I go down. I’ll call you from the hospital and let you know which emergency room I’m in. I was in Tahiti for a big swell, but I hadn’t surfed in 10 days and I had lost 10lbs (4.5kg). I spent the whole morning in the hospital, went home for lunch and threw up, like, seven times, and came back. I had my mom and dad in Rio on Skype in the hospital room and they were freaking out. And the nurse was like, “You can’t talk! You can’t talk!