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I think that if her buddy Raimana or one of the other Tahitian locals she considers her friends would have told her that she should not go out, then she would have heeded what they had to say. It seems evident that didn't happen, so who is going to tell her not to go? It's what she wants, it's what she thrives on. She's not doing this for the money. She has something far more mystical pushing her. To think you - or I - have some genuine insight into her mental state when she's even willing to put herself into that vortex of Tahitian hell strikes me as remarkably ignorant. She took the risks, and the rescuers who were out there, were out there - voluntarily - to help those who were willing to take those risks.

The thing I've realized, after getting to know a goodly number of big wave surfers - or hellmen and women from any discipline - is that it's ludicrous to try and put your own set of judgements and values on their decisions. They're mostly not crazy, but they don't think like I do, they probably don't think like you do, and they surely don't perceive and act on risk like most of us. That goes for Maya, Travis Pastrana, Brian Deegan, Mark Healey or the steely-eyed jarhead you snake at Church's Point - the guy who has volunteered to go to Iraq or Afghanistan and watched the sort of real-world carnage you or I could barely comprehend.

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She charges; I get it. She wants it. I get it. That's great. She definitely has the guts and heart, obviously, and again, I don't think anyone should tell any of those guys or girls they shouldn't be out there.

BUT, skill...

Watch Laurie Towner in those vids from Saturday and watch him whip turns and adjust his line to make the wave. Maya just bee-lines for the exit; if her line works out, good, if it doesn't...