Maya Gabeira and Garrett McNamara are two of the surfers featured on HBO’s 100 Foot Wave.
For those who haven’t seen the series, it follows the lives of adventurers who hope to find, and ride, the biggest waves of their career.
Understandably, that feat will come with plenty of risk. However, for both of these surfers, they’ve already experienced devastating, and near-death, injuries and have made it clear that they have no plans to shy away from further challenges of the aquatic sport.
Garrett McNamara Briefly Quit Surfing At 35
During a July 2021 interview with CBS News, McNamara revealed what he hoped fans would take away from watching him and his fellow surfers chase waves of a massive caliper on 100 Foot Wave.
"I just really want them to realize that everything is possible. It’s never too early [and] it’s never too late to follow your dreams. I gave up surfing at 35 and wrote a business plan to keep surfing and here I am still surfing at 53," he explained.
Garrett McNamara Hopes To Get Into The Barrel Of Each Wave
As for why he does what he does, McNamara summed up his hunt for the biggest wave as a "beautiful" experience.
"I’m just looking to have fun and find the bigger wave than we’ve surfed before. And really the goal is to get inside of the barrel of every single wave we ride," he revealed. "That is where time stands still. [It’s] the most beautiful, your own world. You’re encompassed by water and you’re looking out this little hole trying to come back in the world, but you want to stay. And so it’s a beautiful, beautiful place to be."
Maya Gabeira Didn’t Feel Judged In Nazaré
After proving herself as a force to be reckoned with in the sport of surfing, despite nearly losing her life to a wave just years ago, Brazil’s Gabeira said, via the Los Angeles Times that her time in Nazaré, Portugal was “the first place I felt not judged by me being a woman in the water.”
Although there are certainly plenty of women surfers, Gabeira has set herself apart from the masses of both sexes by continuing to push the limits when it comes to the size of waves she can ride.
Maya Gabeira Was Grateful To Be Alive After A Near-Drowning
During an interview with The Stab in 2016, Gabeira looked back on the moment she nearly drowned while surfing in Portugal.
"What were you thinking about in hospital?" the outlet asked.
"That I was just lucky to be alive and I was lucky I train as much as I do and that I have the best partner in the world and that our efforts at the end of the day weren’t perfect but sometimes we make mistakes. But in the very end, we were able to save my life. And I think that’s what matters," she shared.
HBO shares new episodes of 100 Foot Wave on Sundays.
