Maya Gabeira at Dungeon’s in South Africa. Photo: Brenton Geach/BillabongXXL.com
The pictured wave above certainly made Maya Gabeira’s mission from her home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; to Hout Bay, South Africa worthwhile. On August 13th 2009, Gabeira solidified her status as the one of the World’s best female big wave surfers; after being towed into this gargantuan wave at Dungeons.
The photos taken now put Gabeira among the leading contenders for the Biggest Wave category of the 2010 Billabong Global Big Wave Awards presented by Monster Energy. The season runs right through to March 19 2010 and will acknowledge the biggest and best waves ridden of the season, based on photographic evidence.
Gabeira and tow surfing partner Carlos Burle made the dash to Dungeons 5 days ahead of the swell in order to enable Gabeira to obtain her skipper’s licence and therefore legally operate the jet-powered craft. According to Gabeira, this was the challenging part of the adventure: “My days previous to the big day were the biggest mission ever! The swell came with onshore winds which made the waves and ocean bumpy. But at the end of the day everyone had managed to get some bombs and safely finish a day of big surf.”
“My biggest wave was just one drop and had a crazy boil in the face that I managed to jump through,” said Gabeira. “It was exciting to get that much speed down the face and manage to make such an irregular wave on my backside. Thanks to Carlos I had the biggest waves of my life that day!”
Gabeira has won the Billabong Girls Best Performance Award three years running and at only 22 years of age, looks set to get a few more awards under her belt.
That same swell also saw Grant “Twiggy” Baker (Durban, South Africa), Andrew Marr (Cape Town, South Africa) and Greg Long (San Clemente, California, USA) take on the challenge of the massive walls – all of whom have been either finalists or winners of the Billabong XXL Awards in recent years. The submitted entries and images so far can be viewed at the event website: www.billabongxxl.com .
The event has been growing exponentially over the years, as have the size of the waves ridden. The risk that these surfers put themselves in is well rewarded with a $50000 XXL Wave of the Year being one of an array of prizes. Other categories include Monster Paddle and Monster Tube.
In addition to Billabong and Monster Energy, Surfline are the official surf forecasters, Verizon Wireless is the official communications provider and Honda Aquatrax the official watercraft. The event is further sponsored by Surfing Magazine and Air Tahiti Nui airlines.
ESPN Video Footage / Profile -
A bit about Dungeons, South Africa
It lies beneath the cliffs of the Sentinel on the Cape Peninsula at the mouth of Hout Bay. The Dungeons reef is the first sea bottom ocean swells encounter on their path toward the shore and therefore this break has the ability to produce the biggest waves in Africa. The swells that generate across the South Atlantic Ocean morph into giant right hand waves that are not for the faint-hearted.
Aside from the gigantic waves, there are a few other treacherous elements that can be thrown in the mix to remind of just how dangerous this part of the ocean can be. The inside waters are covered by thick masses of kelp beds, the water is ice cold and not to mention the local sharks that pass by feeding on the seal fur seal colony. “Shark Alley” aptly describes the thoroughfare in if you get caught inside an enormous set.
If you turn a blind eye to the copious amounts of deterring factors – Dungeons is a high stakes play ground for those big wave hunters searching for an adrenalin rush of a ride.
2009
10:31 am
burl.......
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2009
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2009
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Hannah Howard is an avid surfer, mainly involved in the Longboarding community. She is the Women's Coordinator of the Orewa Longboard Club and writes for various media outlets, including 09 magazine. She is super stoked on travelling to Costa Rica with the NZ team covering the 2009 ISA World Surfing Games.
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