Next to the band I Break Horses (who coincidentally scored Dion Agius’ 2012 seminal wave pool film Electric Blue Heaven), Maria Allebring just made the list of our favorite Swedish exports, right up there with Fika and Midsommar. Why are we obsessed with her? Because if the WSL had an Adult Learner category, we’re pretty sure she’d be world champ.
Maria grew up in rural Sweden with horses and competitive riding. Her first exposure to surfing came at age 11 during a visit to Hawaii to see relatives, and she told herself, “one day I’m gonna learn to surf and be as cool as they are.” So enamored with the Sport of Kings, she later opened surf-inspired restaurants in Stockholm.
“I had three restaurants in Stockholm. I was the first one to open a Poké bowl place there, and it was all surf-inspired,” she said. “Our most popular dish was called Surf’s Up. Everything was about surfing. It was like I was living my dream of surfing through my restaurants, even though I wasn’t actually surfing. And when COVID hit, I shut everything down and decided to take a year off. I went to Brazil and said, ‘I’m going to learn how to surf.’”
What started as a one-year sabbatical quickly evolved into something much more committed.
Now 44, Maria lives full-time at Boa Vista Village, a luxury real estate development built around an exclusive wave pool. She surfs up to five hours a day, logging more sessions in a week than many surfers manage in a month. “When I came here, I realized how much I loved surfing and how good I could get if I really focused,” she said.
Because most property owners at Boa Vista treat it as a weekend retreat from São Paulo, the weekdays are often quiet, making it ideal for focused training.
“All the people who have apartments here, it’s usually their second, third, or even fourth home,” Maria explained. “They only come on weekends. During the week, it’s empty. I’ve surfed so many sessions all by myself.”
The pool’s wave settings are organized into an eight-level progressive scale, starting with gentle whitewater for beginners and progressing to performance waves. Level 8, she said, feels a lot like Lower Trestles in California. In addition to standard sessions, surfers can book special sessions where they hand-pick specific wave types to practice barrels, turns, or airs.
“That’s what’s so great about this place. If you want to train something specific, like a cutback or getting into the barrel, you can just book a session that repeats that wave over and over,” she said. “It’s like having a skatepark, but for surfing. You don’t waste time paddling or waiting. You just go, and then go again.”
To guide her progress, Maria works remotely with a coach based in Florianópolis. She also uses a local video company that films every wave from multiple angles, including drone, side view, and stills. For a monthly fee, she gets comprehensive visual feedback from every single session.
“It’s incredibly useful. I send videos to my coach, and we go over everything. But I also study the footage on my own. I know now what I’m looking for: back foot placement, compression, and shoulder rotation. All those small things.”
She complements her in-water training with dryland drills, including balance board work and compression exercises, which she says help a lot with body awareness and staying low on the board. Maria adds that strengthening her legs and working on mobility has made a big difference – enough of a difference that she’s confident enough to enter competitions.
In the past year alone, Maria has competed in 12 events, including wave pool comps. While her best result was a third-place finish at a Boa Vista event, a close loss at the Red Bull Pool Clash in Munich still lingers in her mind.
“I came 17th out of 38. Only the top 16 advanced to the next round, so I missed it by one spot,” she said. “It was a bummer, but I also learned a lot. In a wave pool comp, every wave matters. You don’t get that many chances, so you have to make every turn count.”
Later, another wave pool comp at Boa Vista gave her the homefield advantage.
“I was really happy with my surfing in that event. You only get two lefts and two rights. If you fall, you only have one wave to prove yourself. That kind of pressure forces you to be sharp and present,” she said.
For Maria, wave pools represent far more than just convenience—they offer a structured and consistent environment that’s essential for her to progress quickly. As someone who started surfing competitively later than most and is conscious of both her age and time, she sees wave pools as a critical tool to refine her technique, build confidence under pressure, and close the gap with surfers who’ve had a head start.
“If you’re my age and want to become really good, which is what I want, then wave pools are essential,” she said. “You need that repetition. In the ocean, it’s hard to control the environment. The waves are different every time. You spend most of your session paddling, trying to get one good wave. And when it comes, you just want to ride it. You’re not thinking about your technique. In the pool, it’s the opposite. You can slow it down, analyze everything, and fix it in real time.”
“If you’re my age and want to become really good, which is what I want, then wave pools are essential,”
– Maria Allebring
Living at Boa Vista comes with a steep price tag. Residents either rent or purchase high-end apartments or villas, with monthly costs that rival upscale urban living. But Maria insists the value is there for those who surf often and have the resources.
“It’s around $10,000 per month for a big apartment,” she said. “That sounds crazy, but if I were living in Germany and surfing at the Munich pool as often as I surf here, it would actually be more expensive. When you break it down per wave, this is the better deal.”
What is emerging at Boa Vista, and in other pool-based surf centers like Korea and Germany, is not just a training system. It is a new surf culture. For Maria, it is both strange and fascinating to witness kids who have never been in the ocean doing advanced maneuvers like airs and barrel rides.
“It’s wild. There are kids here who are getting barreled and doing airs, and they’ve never even surfed in the ocean,” she said. “That would have been unheard of a few years ago. But it’s happening. A whole new generation of surfers is coming up in wave pools, and they’re legit. They rip.”
Despite Brazil’s reputation for intense surf lineups, Maria has felt welcomed by the community at Boa Vista.
“They’re really competitive here, especially in the ocean. I had a heat with Silvana Lima once, and I was nervous. But the people here are also really supportive. From the beginning, I had people saying, ‘You’ve only surfed for five years? That’s amazing.’ That kind of encouragement keeps me motivated.”
What began as a break from burnout has become something much deeper. Maria now sees surfing, and wave pools in particular, not just as a sport but as a lifestyle reset.
“I gave myself one year to do something for me. And that turned into a completely new life,” she said. “Now, every day, I get to wake up and do what I love. That’s something I never want to give up.”
