Bethany Hamilton

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Bethany Hamilton (born February 8, 1990) is an American Christian surfer. She is known for surviving a shark attack in which she lost her left arm, and for overcoming the serious and debilitating injury to return to surfing.

[edit] Early Life

Hamilton was born in North Shore, Kauai. Both of her parents were keen surfers who had, in fact, specifically moved to Hawaii from the continental United States for the surfing opportunities. Hamilton was taught how to surf by her parents when she was 5 years old. As a result, her family liked to joke that she had "salt water in her veins." Her surfing abilities progressed very quickly and, while still in grade school, she was participating in the push in division of a Quiksilver surfing contest. (In this "push-in" competition, her father would push her and her mother would wait to catch her). Remarkably, Hamilton won first place. She went on to win the 7-9 short board and long board competition in challenging conditions at the age of eight. Her senior career as a surfer started when she won the 2001 Haleiwa Menehune Championships 25th annual contest, in February of 2002. In this competition, she placed 1st in the "13-under girls", 1st in the "17 under girls," and 2nd in the "12-under boys" division at the Volcom Puffer Fish contest. She also became a Rip Curl Girl team rider and made plans to become a professional surfer.

[edit] Shark attack and recovery

On October 31, 2003, at about 7:00 a.m., Hamilton, her best friend Alana Blanchard, and Blanchard's father, Holt, all paddled out into the waves of Tunnels Beach, Hawaii. It was a sunny day, and the waves were not very big, but she decided to surf anyway. As Hamilton lay on her surfboard, waiting for the next set of waves to roll into the beach, her left arm dangled beside her in the water. Then, without warning, a 14 ft (4.3 m) tiger shark attacked, taking a 17 in (43 cm) wide bite of the board and her left arm. In jerking Hamilton back and forth, the shark ripped off her arm just below her shoulder before disappearing. Although she was bleeding profusely, Hamilton was able to compose herself enough to use her right arm to paddle in to the shore. Her friend's father was able to fashion a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash around what was left of her arm before rushing her to the hospital. She lost 70% of her blood that morning and Hamilton said in her book, Soul Surfer, that the reason she kept calm was because of God watching over her.

Despite the trauma of the incident, Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Just ten weeks after the accident, she returned to her board and went surfing again. She adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker which made it easier to paddle. Hamilton observed that she had to kick a lot harder to make up for the loss of her left arm. Not only did she teach herself to surf with only one arm, she also began surfing competitively in competitions again. She commented on this, saying,

“When I got up on my first wave, I rode it all the way into the shore, and after that, I just had like, tears of happiness, I was so stoked to be back out there."

In July of 2004 Hamilton won the ESPY Award for Best Comeback Athlete of the Year. Then in August she was presented with a special courage award at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards. As of 2005, Hamilton still aspires to become a professional surfer. Her story has been widely cited as a motivational parable and Hamilton claims that the loss of her arm was a blessing in disguise because she is happy that she now has the chance to be an inspiration to others. Since the attack, Hamilton has appeared on 20/20, Good Morning America, and Inside Edition. In 2004, MTV Books published Hamilton's book, Soul Surfer (ISBN 0-7434-9922-0) which describes how she recovered from the loss of her left arm and returned to surfing. People had many fundraisers to buy Bethany a prosthetic arm and cover the medical bills, due to her fast rise to fame.