Watch: Maya Gabeira on how Carlos Burle nearly killed her
"History is a set of lies that people have agreed upon," said Napoleon - the short-arse revolutionary, not the makeup entrepreneur.
After Maya Gabeira had her brush with death at Nazare in 2013, she and her tow partner Carlos Burle agreed on the version of events that led up to it. They sat down together for interviews such as this one and this one, and then there's this Outside story where she somehow straddles both sides of the story.
Now, however, she firmly disagrees with the 'lie' she and Burle once agreed upon, unloading on him in an interview with Graham Bessinger.
Comments
A better listen would be Jamie Mitchell’s podcast with Carlos Burle. The Drop. It was a good one.
Extra Extra Read all about it!!!!
“Intermediate level surfer builds career around being towed into Ultra Elite level waves. Blames others when things go tits up.”
you've nailed it! pure and simple, all the big spots around the world have wannabees , but it takes years of " Olympic " training and forethought . trumped up egos don't cut it .
And who the fuck is Sebastian Stuedtner?
Probably the most professional big wave surfer on the planet when it comes to Nazare.
Well there you go. I’d never heard of him. Seems he’s got beef with Carlos also.
Don't think I can sit through that 10 mins. So she's still talking about a wipeout 8 years ago? Swellnet is interested in this because.......?
"Swellnet is interested in this because.......?"
Fuck, good question.
Could care less about the wave, the injury, the person(s), but I'm at least mildly curious about the rolling versions of history; how 'objective facts' change over time owing to our subjective experience.
This one's a classic example. Maya's a media darling, she's had umpteen opportunities to tell that story, to reflect upon it, sharpen it in her mind, inject it with nuance, and now to contradict it.
That, I think, is interesting.
I responded because I have two daughters who surf and I do rescue, air transport. I care because I want them to care about others. I care for other's safety and having the right neuro trauma team on board. Prep.
well i almost got to 2 mins in....but it was all Carlos's fault that i didn't watch the rest......
Really ......blame everyone else ............
Let Judge Judy sort it out for them.
Carlos spoke well of Maya in his recent interview with Jamie Mitchell and defended her level of preparation at the time and her improved all round skills (ski riding and surfing) since then.
Maya's most telling comment in the whole interview is "not at the time" in regard to not judging flaws in the situation on it merits back then. This is overlooked by the interviewer in seeking out the blame meme - the flaws in preparation, radio, rescue, back up ski, pick up etc. were how it was back then. Things have evolved a lot in big wave riding safety over recent years as The Late Drop podcasts illustrate well. They all look back in disbelief at the risks they used to take.
I did not realise it stuffed her back so badly - 3 operations and a spinal fusion. Plus the ankle breaking on the chop. Shows the risks are more than drowning. You want strong bones and a strong core and a now there are the concussion risk issues. Even if super fit a Billy Kemper type injury is possible.
Brad Gerlach reckoned through most of his big wave phase he never wiped out and caught a heap of huge waves but that was in the tow phase and before Nazarre! That is a good risk / reward equation.
If you're prepared to go out in those sort of conditions as a consenting adult.........take/share full responsibility if things go to shit.
Agree, It was her decision to go out and grab the rope. It was her decision to choose him as a tow partner. It was her decision to accept the inferior safety equipment.
Misplaced trust is an interesting one. I'm all for taking responsibility, but was it her fault for trusting her long time tow partner and mentor?
Not so sure we would say to a betrayed spouse "Your fault for trusting them. Take some responsibility."
I am trusted (and paid) to give advice. If I make a mistake and that trust was misplaced, I cannot say "You shouldn't have trusted me. This is your responsiblity."
She has the right to tell her truth even when her truth is a different truth from the last time she told her truth.
So honest she tells the truth about things that didn't happen.
Thank you. This phrase "your truth" is rotten and toxic and doing my head in
Keep those heretical thoughts to yourself Jb in case you get cancelled or something.
Nice digs in the background.
Gonna leave this one in the two sides to every story basket, or in this case, two stories to every side.
Good on her though. Hardcore effort to push through a broken back and tackle Nazare again. Takes a deep well of self belief and guts.
History is the way the past is represented. More influenced by the mores of the present day than anything else. Hollywood is great at this. In 1939, in Jim Crow America, we had Gone With The Wind. Some critics thought it too long, but it still wins ten Oscars. In 2020 the film is removed from streaming until it can be accompanied by an explanation of its offensive expression of the antebellum era. In 2021, in BLM America, we have the Underground Railroad, met with similar critical acclaim, which evokes an entirely different view of the Antebellum era - a representation that is entirely consistent with present day cultural shifts.
What happened to taking responsibility for yourself? Yeah Carlos' rescue attempt looked clumsy but fuck bad luck. Annoying person
The cornerstone of these surfers career and income is exposure and self promotion.
Different video, different viewpoint, different answers.
Same purpose.
Every wipeout I’ve had has been someone else’s fault. I feel her truth.
Where's the 'laughing tears' emoji BS?
Perfect comment in today's world.
"Not MY fault"
I was told there is three sides to every story, my version---what happened---your version.
Some misogynistic comments here. Sounds like she was in a lot of pain for a long time after the wipe out. She had a mentor in Carlos pushing her into it. He may of been well intentioned but got to take some responsibility. She nearly died due to a lack of safety precautions. She has a right to be pissed. Typical bs swellnet mob comments
WOKE much 'Surfer Sam'?
Lazy comment, mate.
If you've been reading Swellnet a while you'd know I'd gladly post a similar story if a male big wave rider made similar accusations about his tow partner, and I'm positive the comments would follow a similar path.
As it stands, you're one of only two people in the whole thread who brought gender into it, thereby treating women differently to men.
Is that the kind of 'equality' you'd like to see?
I’m just calling it as I see it. I have no issue at all with you posting the story, I actually found it quite interesting. Why do you think it’s a lazy comment? Surely it would be easier to just agree with everyone here? I’m saying stop jumping to conclusions, unless you were there and a part of their tow team you can’t say that what she is saying isn’t at least partly correct. The tone of the comments here definitely has ‘she is a just a whining women’ element to them and to me that’s misogyny.
So it's nothing implied, just a "tone" that you're sensing and chalking up as misogyny?
Rightio then. Not lazy at all.
It’s most certainly implied. That’s how misogyny works.
Just like the sarcasm in your message, you don’t need to be Einstein to spot it.
No it doesn't.
Misogyny is based on gender, and you're the only one raising it in this debate.
What we were having before you came along was an equality-based stoush where a surfer, any surfer, can be criticised based on things they did or didn't do in surfing. The idylll for equality! What women have been struggling through the decades to achieve, and here it was.
But then you came along and fucked it with your patronising "tone", implying that women should somehow be treated differently.
Sounds like you’ve convinced yourself mate! Yes misogyny is based on gender, that’s the point, everyone here is roasting her for winging. Typical attack on a female. I don’t think it’s that simple. What if it was a young male surfer pushed into waves he didn’t have experience in and with no safety precautions? I’m sure at least some here would agree the mentor needs to take at least some of the responsibility and that would be fair and reasonable. But no, just lots of sarcastic comments dissing her here. Plus the clown just went back out surfing after she was taken to hospital.
There’s nothing patronising in what I’m saying, just calling out this bs as no one else does / will.
I assume your a journo? Your comments seem unwilling to look at both sides of a story objectively. You seem to love arguing with someone that doesn’t agree with the mob in here. Very strange indeed. Makes me think swellnet has the same level of credibility as news.com.au
"Sounds like you’ve convinced yourself mate!"
Right backatcha...
Listen, because you're a bit slow:
Maya didn't criticise Carlos about his masculinity.
Carlos didn't criticise Maya about her femininity.
The commenters down below who sided with Maya didn't do so because of gender.
And nor did the commenters who criticised her.
That's because it's not a story about gender.
Everyone, up to the point you interjected, treated her as a surfer.
Which is what women surfers want, right? To be treated equal..?
Except speedhumps like you come along, so self-righteous, so itching to fight the good fight, that the 'equal conversation' - the one where we treated Maya as a surfer - gets lost amongst basesless accusations about misogyny and bad journalism.
It’s good to see you can hold an objective discussion with our steeping to low blows.
How grown up of you to call me ‘slow and a speed bump’. Hilarious.
Take a long walk in the hall of mirrors, mate.
Before I typed those things, you accused everyone of falling for mob mentality and for being mysogynists, then you accused me of being a shallow journalist, and the company I work for equivalent to a Murdoch hack-site.
Action / Reaction.
Calling it as I see it and standing up for what I believe in mate but at no point did I stoop to school yard name calling.
What name did you get called that offended you SS?
And was it more offensive than being accused of being a misogynist?
Believe I already listed this above.
Doesn’t offend me as I don’t care what people say.
My fear is that maya reads all these negative comments though, school yard bully thing is rife in here.
Now back to surfing,,,,
Hey SS. As you leave the room with your foot in your mouth and tail between your legs can you be sure to close the door properly.
It's pissing down and cold outside.
Out through the doggie door, its got its own flap and hopefully self locking from the inside
I’m not going to say anything
I’m not going to say anything
I’m not going to say anything
I’m not going to say anything
Etc
Etc
Seems to me that SurferSam is really SurferretSamantha
If that was a young bloke, out of depth in those waves, I probably would have been far more scathing in my criticism. Perhaps the evidence of no misogyny is in the restrained attack on her? If some local kook from my local whinged like that online I would probably give him a mouthful next time I saw him at the local bakery.
Well done surfersam it was only a matter of time until someone brought up the misogyny line.
You think the comments would be different if it was a male blaming someone else for his misfortune while surfing?
You guys are fckd. Attacking SurferSam like that is such obvious misandry.
Blowin the fact that you assume Sam is a male is a testimony to how deeply male patriarchal privilege penetrates your thought patterns.
You are perpetuating a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property.
I would kindly ask you to refrain from this kind of behaviour lest I rain down an unholy shitstorm upon you via Twitter.
I blame myself for clicking PLAY .
Thats gold, lol
“Woke” geez ringtmaster
Read Frogs post SurferSam
From Brazilian media, roughly translated with the mighty Google,
[Carlos Burle, from Pernambuco, told UOL that he didn't think “anything big” about Maya's lines. “She's putting her point of view. Looking back and learning from mistakes is very good. I have a lot of respect and gratitude for everything we've lived together. If she sees it that way, I'm glad she's getting it out, to heal herself. I'm glad she's okay. Good, congratulations! I thought it was supernatural,” he said.
"And, of course things happened, and today the protocol is different, but that's life."
“The interview is hers, the focus is on her, it makes her comfortable, it makes her happy. She is talking there, showing who she is, the fears, the insecurities… She is healing. When we express ourselves, we have a great opportunity to heal. And it's great to see Maya talking, getting things out. She will want to justify everything that happened in her life. She has her point of view. Let her heal, let her be happy”, he added.
Maya, however, told the American journalist that the end of the partnership between the two was very difficult for her. “I was going from second to third surgery after the accident, and I really needed emotional support. I was traumatized, very scared, with a pain that I had never felt in my life. And he looked at me and said, 'You don't have to do this anymore'. I was so naive and I was so confused at the time that I agreed [laughs]. 'You're right, this is very stressful'. He was retiring me [laughs]. And I was agreeing because he was my mentor for ten years. He was abandoning me.”
Despite Maya's remarks, Burle added that he is very grateful to the big rider. “We lived incredible moments. We wrote the history of surfing together”, ]
He was classy as fck in his comments.
Totally Julio. Thanks for putting this up.
I watched this tonight and was kinda mixed in my feelings. Had she made it, it would have been a whole different outcome and the conversation she was having with this bloke would have been entirely different. But she didn't make it, paid for it (and some) and all that is left is lessons hopefully learnt and glorious hindsight.
I hope she doesn't look back at it with regret. It was groundbreaking and worthy of celebration for the remarkable achievement that it was. On the same token I hope she doesn't pillory Carlos. He put her there but ultimately she chose to let go of the rope.
Life is funny like that.
If you ask me the whole Nazare thing is a bit lame.
Wow Maya is really grateful for Carlos saving her life! You play you pay(sometimes)! After suffering myself from a horrendous wipe out (over 4 mnths ago now)I can relate to the coming to terms with the aftermath but to deride someone who actually ultimately saved your life shows a very narcissistic attitude. Good on her for getting back on the horse, but to blame others rather than accepting responsibility for your own decisions shows little respect for the person that ultimately saved her life.
detail greg-n w ? we all love a horrendous wipeout story
In so many aspects Maya's persona appears conflicted.
Simple really...today's history is not necessarily tomorrow's. Just ask ScuMO
it would be so cool to see women start slab surfing say like mick Corbett and jarred foster and just become some demons, they would shake the boys up and get the bombs.
Biggest swell to hit the North West for years was surfed by a few teenage girls whilst 99.99 percent of men sat it out.
They didn’t alert the media so it obviously didn’t happen.
spewing they didn't invite me, i could have edited the shots and flipped them to make em look like a right.
It isn't slab surfing but there were a couple of young women voted in to the invite list for the Bells 50yr event this year. Big effort.
Harsh critics here. Is there nothing in your life you look back on with an entirely different point of view and an entirely different opinion, principally because you have learned so much more since then?
Fark, I got hundreds!
Experience tends to do that to you. Does nobody look back at something a mate did to or with you which you thought at the time was ok, but in retrospect you realise was effing madness and he probably didn’t have your best interests at heart? Perhaps they were motivated by something ulterior which you didn’t recognise at the time. Perhaps you were being used for their own aggrandisement which you didn’t recognise, but do now.
There should be an addition to Godwin’s law - next person to write ‘woke’ in their comments loses the argument.
Please form orderly queues to accuse me of cancel culture. Rabid right wing dingbats to the right, naturally, social justice warriors to the left, naturally, and unaligned culture war heroes can take up the middle.
Wise words.
And I've also been that mate encouraging friends to take risks they were questioning both because I wanted to share the experience but also to have company to quieten my own anxieties and help push past fear. Experience breeds wisdom which brings perspective - but you gotta have the experience first to get the perspective. Maya's pursued that experience more extremely than I have -
good luck to her.
Carlos picked a good line with his response . . let Maya have her experience . . . even if it is conflicted.
Wow even the perfect humans Kelly Slater and Laird Hamilton went public
saying she wasnt good enough in the 1st place. Then like so many females
of today blame everyone else for their mistakes years and years later.
If it was Australia Calos would most most likey be charged with attempted
murder.
There's a bloke up abaove who has a bone to pick with you.
And in this instance I'd say he's right.
wonder where the bad blood between Sebastien and Carlos came from?
It's interesting seeing a surfer: Maya in this case, who becomes a big wave surfer primarily as a means of chasing glory and money.
And seemed quite open about it.
No mention of a love of riding waves, big or small.
Anyhow, she did it so props to her.
Farken heavy. Incredible woman!
If, like, me, you read the comments before watching. Here is a handy hint.
Have a spew bag on the ready.
she had no business being out there, clearly didn't have the level required
She absolutely had business being out there. I'd be confident she had plenty of surfs prior to this that prepared her and the team. Carlos, kudos for being so humble, but I would suggest that perhaps he was too gung ho and may have convinced her (perhaps unwittingly) to go out when they weren't really prepared for safety Compared to today those standards of safety have changed.
She is no doubt one of the best female big wave surfers going. You only get this good by pushing limits. Did Eddie or Mark Foo have no business being out there on their days? She is scarred from the experience and likely should be. Perhaps now she has no business in being out there again as her PTSD potentially endangers herself and others.
I didn't read comments like this when the aforementioned left us. Perhaps different times when now everyone can access a keyboard. I see the irony of me included in that satatement
Eddie and Mark Foo were certainly much bigger physically and seasoned all-round “good surfers”. Kelly Slater himself sent her an email expressing his general concern for her safety in these conditions.
It’s obvious to an experienced surfer that she’s not a very accomplished surfer in her lack of abilities in general everyday surf. The two are definitely connected.
That’s the problem with BWS is that there no test for competency. So anyone who’s simply game enough can gain entry.
Keeping in mind that Slater surfed neither the massive day at Chopes, nor at oversized Nazare.
I couldn't comment on whether she did or didn't have the right stuff to be out there. This stuff is way beyond my ken. But I suspect there have been the odd one or two with dubious credentials who've let go of the rope at Nazaré over the years.
Carlos Burle "She is healing. When we express ourselves, we have a great opportunity to heal" - I think this is the most important sentence in this thread. I say this from the perspective of 10 years of research and experience on/with post-trauma recovery and chronic pain. That is, what Carlos is saying is "talking is healing". If she gets the story "wrong" a few times, it doesn't matter. Ordering her thoughts so as to have a coherent story that she can live with, will lead to her healing. If he's happy with that outcome, shouldn't we be too?
I'll place a bet right now that in 10 years time; she will say that this interview was done when she was still in recovery and now she sees her role in that near-death experience as equal to Carlos role. She will conclude with "We both lived to tell the tale; that's life on the edge."
I've you haven't read, "Ghost Wave" by Chris Dixon is a great read on the discovery of the Cortes Bank. The outrageous risk-averse behaviour of those pioneers - faaark? Is it any wonder that Greg Long suffered a non-fatal drowning in this period. The journalist doesn't even mention it? Why, I suspect it's because its written in 2011 and "blokes didn't talk about stuff like that then". Well that's not journalism IMO. It's nothing to do with gender.
In other words, IMO it's a step forward to have interviews like this in the surfing world and I admire Maya & Carlo's for their full and frank disclosures.
Whilst I'm on the gratitude path, thanks to Swellnet for the post and all of the comments - including SurferSams - because if I've learned anything in life its there is no singularity on any issue that we can agree on, other than: the sun will come up every day.
Cool post RR. I very much doubt that in 10 year’s time I’ll have the same point of view on anything much. Hoping I don’t mostly.
“In 10 years time I bet she’ll say this interview was done while she was in recovery and now she sees her role in that experience as being equal to Carlos”.
Great thought, and description of that recovery process. Even if you’ve been manipulated, abused, used, bullied etc, working out that you played a part in it, and forgiving yourself (you didn’t know better, or have the resources to fight it) is part of the healing and the letting go. These things make us who we are.
I’ve had a number of instances of being bullied at work, psychopaths every one of them, but I always held on to the thought that there must have been a way that I could have dealt with it where I didn’t come out a bit bitter and damaged. You gotta keep learning.
Sometimes you just have to put it down to bad luck.
Thanks BF, kind words, to which I'd add:
> "the revolution is an evolution" (if it's to be sustainable change in my experience).
> when we stop learning and changing, we're dead from the neck up IMO.
RR
80kms/hr on a 60foot wave,bumped off by 3foot chop,broken ankle,buoyancy vest torn off, difficult rescue in 20 ft shorebreak,lucky not to be dead,same circumstances could have happened to any team regardless of skill,gender or ego. End result; no-one died,everyone learned something
Yeah Ray, the whole big wave crew no doubt have learned something from that, and as a group they have shown great innovation and ‘agile’ work. I always hated that word when applied to work, it’s part of that desperate jargon creation industry that much work has become, but as a group, big wave surfers have innovated at a faster rate than just about any group. Their risk management, risk assessment, risk reduction strategies and learning as a group have been first class.
Haven't watched. I used to have Foxtel. This dude did two episodes I watched, Steph Curry and Kelly Slater, both were cringeworthy. I'm surprised either signed up for it.
Comments here are a good read though.
That interveiwer gives me the creeps with his smiley invasive questions..
When you have a tow-partner you are in it together! Pretty rancid that she is blaming him. You go out there on your own terms! If she had've completed the ride she would be praising him.
Load of shite!
Youtube video title "Maya Gabeira on the wipeout that nearly killed her"
Swellnet Article Title "Maya Gabeira on how Carlos Burle nearly killed her"
I am not a surfer. I deal with the aftermath. Carlos saved her life, pure and simple. Come to a neuro trauma ward, where I remove life support. Imagine being paralyzed. I say blink twice, I remove the vent. Carlos saved her life. I deal with this trauma in all aspects. Motorcycles. Car accidents. Head Trauma. Etc. People in the prime of their life. If you do not have to BLINK TWICE to choose to live your life paralyzed.... Come what may. I do not judge adult decisions, whether (weather) the outcome. I think people are going against all odds but I'm not the judge of their odds, just the jury of their outcome.