Beyond the Board: The Untold Story of the World's Most Daring Big Wave Surfer

by Maya Gabeira

In this thrilling YA memoir, pro surfer Maya Gabeira tells the awe-inspiring true story of her journey from unstoppable teenager to the Guinness World Record–holding legend she is today.

Who am I, beyond the board? Surf legend Maya Gabeira is famous for her nerve. Her surfing journey began at the age of fourteen and reached a high when she set (and later broke) a Guinness World Record for highest wave conquered by any big wave surfer—man or woman—after bouncing back from a near-fatal accident.

Gabeira has been heralded as one of the top surfers of her generation. But who is the ferocious personality beyond the board? What are the stories behind the relationships and challenges that shaped her into the indomitable surfer, women’s rights advocate, and champion for mental health awareness she is today?
 
For the first time ever, Maya looks back on her formative the romances, career highs, vulnerabilities, and setbacks that defined her at an early age.

At seventeen, she left her home in Rio de Janeiro in order to chase waves around the world, toting a single backpack and waiting tables to get by. Maya carved her own path as a teen, defining her own remarkable that of a vulnerable, passionate, and driven young woman who learned never to flinch—even in the face of death.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Sports, Biography Memoir

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 10, 2025

Reviews

[Cece ✿ · Rating 2 out of 5]

My opinion: I’ve never lived anywhere near the ocean or surfed myself, but I’ve always had a fascination with anything ocean-related, hence why I wanted to read this book. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in the author, to say the least. She puts down multiple famous surfers and makes some surprisingly unkind remarks about them. This habit of hers came across as quite rude and, at times, jealous. While reading, I found myself put off by her overall tone and sense of entitlement. There’s more I could say about this novel, but I don’t want to cross the line of being overly critical of Maya herself, so I’ll leave it at that.

Genre: memoir
POV: first person, past tense

Age rating: 13+
Violence: some surfing injuries that required hospitalization, a memory of being slapped in the face by her ex-boyfriend
Romance/nudity: remembering past romances, a few mentions of hooking-up and kissing (nothing descriptive), bikini photoshoots, nude surfing that was photographed
Drinking/drugs/smoking: a lot of talk of drinking, some partying, mentions of smoking, not very descriptive
Language: 2 f**k, 4 sh*t, 1 big-a**, 6 h*ll

Trigger warnings:
- divorce
- alcohol consumption
- eating disorders
- anxiety

Publish date: 10-June-2025
Thank you to NetGalley and ABRAMS Kids for providing an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. The cover grasped my attention because surfing is one of the coolest sports in my opinion. Maya tells a great story of her life and all the struggles she faced in surfing and finding herself. As a young girl she experienced so much and she was able to share these things with readers. She speaks on family dynamic struggles when it comes to divorce, having a political figure as a parent, and finding meaning in her life that at times might be more important than her career.

Getting to hear Maya's voice throughout this book was powerful. You got to hear her emotion and truly get to feel how she felt. I loved hearing her voice and I think it better portrayed her story to readers versus someone else narrating her story.

I thought the ending of the book was abrupt and would have liked a little more explanation. Maya speaks often throughout the book about how all her physical struggles were actually untreated mental health issues. Towards the end, she realizes this and I would have liked to hear more about how she dealt with these (maybe in another book). She also briefly touched on getting back out into the water after some time and achieving her goals. I also would have liked to hear more about this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you for the opportunity to review the advance copy of Beyond the Board, the audiobook version. Kudos to Maya Gabeira for narrating the audiobook!

I was pretty unfamiliar with surfing in general and never knew there was something like Big Wave Surfing and being towed by jet skis into waves. I never realized that surfers chase waves around the continent and that they are constantly watching the weather and ready to hop on a plane to catch the next Big Wave.

Maya grew up with a father who was in politics and had a pretty privileged up bringing. She has a unique mix of independence and anxiety (that didn't seem to be diagnosed until later in her surfing career). At times the memoir seems conflicted between being the only woman in a mans sport and issues with anxiety; sometimes she was extremely independent and traveling to remote parts of the globe, and other times she would make a phone call to family because the physical pain of something was too much.

Additionally I really don't understand hearing "being a woman in a mans sport" and about how challenging that is ... and then agreeing to be photographed surfing in the nude. Seems like a poor choice if you are looking for respect in your field. How many men are out there being filmed surfing in the nude? 

The audiobook is a little over 8 hours, publication date is Jun 2025.

Many thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for approving my request to listen to the advance copy of Beyond the Board in exchange for an honest review.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a sports autobiography with this particular title that seems to promise material that explores life beyond the sport, or in this case, the surfboard, this one focuses primarily on the many years its author, Brazilian Maya Gabeira, spent chasing the big waves around the world in search of challenges. There are several descriptions of the various places she traveled, the waves, the sexism, and marginalization she suffered in a male-dominated sport—big wave surfing—but very little introspection or dialogue. Her passion for this pursuit and her determination not to let physical injuries or the expectations of others keep her from reaching her dreams are admirable even while it’s impossible not to consider the economic advantages she had from parents who could afford to support those dreams and this expensive sport. All that travel. The moments in which she discusses some of those physical and emotional challenges, including anxiety, offered places where she might have revealed more about how she was dealing with them, providing some hope and recognition to others just like her. The blurb at the back of the book states that she cares about restoring the world’s oceans, a topic that never really seems to come up in her story. I wish it had because that would have been interesting to many. Overall, the book has a strong voice but has a meandering narrative style that left me frustrated rather than impressed.

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the sport of surfing. I’ve never done it myself, but for years now, I’ve maintained an interest in watching the sport online. I follow the WSL pretty regularly. Not as much this year as in the past, but when time zones allow, odds are good I’m live streaming an event while listening to an audiobook at home.

I’d never heard of Maya Gabeira though. I think it’s because she’s a Big Wave surfer, and I don’t really follow that series. That said, give me all the stories about women competing and championing their sport, job, hobbies, whatever their passion is. I’m here for it. I loved hearing Maya’s story in her own voice and I loved that she took us all the way back to the beginning. I really got a sense of how she stumbled upon this sport and what it came to mean to her.

Her story was beautiful and if you’re interested in the sport at all, or just interested in reading a great memoir, I recommend this one!

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for approving my request for this book.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s no doubt that Maya Gabeira is a pioneer in big wave surfing. I had not heard of her prior to reading this book and so was fascinated by her quest to surf the largest waves she could find. Her determination is admirable, and I loved the glimpse I got into the frenzied race to the far reaches of the globe to find the big waves. As memoirs go, however, I found that this was very surface. She told her story well, but it seemed almost clinical, just the facts and nothing more. Even the pinnacle of the story, her big accident, felt like a sentence or two and not very well fleshed out. I wanted more emotion and feeling, and not just about the accident but everything seemed very basic. It could be because this was a YA memoir and had length constraints but it felt like it was missing something; like the moral of the story was left out.

I received a copy from #NetGalley and #RBMedia for an honest review.

[Brittany Hodkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could take or leave this book. Listening to her story, it often reminded me of women in motocross. Her struggle with having to “be one of the guys” is something that’s experienced in a lot of action sports, so in that regard, it was easy to empathize with and understand. That’s about the extent of the empathy, however.

I was hoping for more fulfilling stories throughout this book. Instead, it felt like a lot of whining about how she didn’t get where she wanted to be due to various roadblocks. Though I admire the grit, I do think some more self reflection could have gone into writing this book about her career.

Overall not a bad read, just could have maybe used a better editor to change the tone??

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was all about Maya Gabeira-I had never heard of her before, but her story looked interesting. Sadly, this book fell flat for me.

I have respect for Maya in the aspect of her being a pioneer as a strong female athlete in a male dominated sport. That takes ambition, passion, and lots of courage. This part of the story was very inspiring for me, she was very hardworking and didn’t let challenges slow her down. Her persistence is definitely something I look up to.

On the other hand, I disagreed with nearly every decision that Maya made. She was very spontaneous and seemed to lack maturity. As the book went on I seemed to disagree more and more about what Maya chose to do. I think that Maya seemed a little too self-centered, but what can I say, the book is supposed to be all about her.

I wish that I had enjoyed this book more but sadly it wasn’t my cup of tea.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting memoir. I’m not sure whether it was the way Gabeira chose to tell her story, but through much of the reading, I was frustrated with her sense of entitlement and her rationalization of immature behavior. Her accomplishments in the big wave surfing world are amazing, as is her determination to continue after almost losing her life. But there’s no indication that she has tried to make the path (that she found paved with misogyny and double standards) a little easier for the women who came after her.
A little more humility and a little less self-congratulation would have bumped this to a 4 for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amulet for the electronic advance readers copy.

[Haylie Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always had a love for surfing and the ocean. So the cover caught me attention and really got me excited to hear the story of Big Wave Surfer Maya Gabeira. I was really amazed at how head strong Maya was even as a young girl about her wants and dreams. The struggle of being a woman competing to be in a male dominated sport was strongly shown in this memoir, but the exceptional part was that she kept going. She kept fighting for her dreams of being a professional big wave surfer. She really was one of the pioneers that opened up the sport for change. One of my favorite parts of the book was her referencing the movie Blue Crush since that was and has been my favorite movie since I saw it in theaters in 2001. I also loved being able to travel with her to all of the many destinations she went to, to learn and surf. I could relate to her struggles with anxiety, but not knowing why she was feeling the way she was until later in life.
All together I really enjoyed listening to her journey of becoming a Professional Big Wave Surfer.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for the audiobook review copy of this book. I dislike putting a star rating on someone's life story. This memoir was not for me; it felt surface-level. We learn about Maya's story, but I do not feel like I know her deeply. This memoir is categorized as YA, and possibly that is why, but the writing was simple and straightforward. We moved on from each event in her life, even those that deeply impacted her, very quickly. If you know anything about Maya before reading this, you might get more out of it, but this memoir was just okay to me.

[Silvia RoMa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting memoir. I really enjoyed the first part of it, it felt raw and authentic. However, the second part was a bit repetitive and it felt too long.
The story is interesting but I wish we could have see in more depth the consequences of the accident and how she fought to be back on the board.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ALC, all opinions are my own.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like surfing, this is a good read. Well done telling of trying to break into a sport dominated by men and shedded some good light onto the human side of a professional athlete battling her own demons/ challenges, cool life that Maya has had.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the true autobiography of Maya Gaberia, who is the most daring big wave surfer. She traveled all over the world surfing. I thought this was a great read. Highly recommended!

[Harold Holley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing a must read.

Amazing! I could not. put the book down. What a beautiful life filled with challenges and obstacles. Yet perseverance paid off.

[Ashleigh White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspiring book! Definitely learned a lot about surfing thru this!

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabeira's voice is loud and clear and I liked this about the memoir of a teen who became a surfer, even setting some records, but went through some stuff growing up that made her appreciate her opportunities and life just a little more. She was rerouted throughout her teen years after her parents divorce and a fractured relationship with her mom that led her to spend time with her dad who was largely absent because he was an influential politician in Brazil. But then she leaned into a dream and made opportunities happen like being an exchange student in Australia and tagging along with people to learn about being a surfer. She also had a near death experience and several broken relationships that she reflects and learns from in this approachable and accessible memoir.

"My mother has said to me that she worries I'm by nature unhappy and dissatisfied, always looking for more. But I view it differently. I have this hunger for change, for new experiences, for opportunities to evolve. At times, I've wondered if my ways are wrong. But now I see that I just have a curiosity for life, and I am willing to pay to play. This is not without cost, and I paid for it a lot as I grew older. But I wouldn't want to be any different."