Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Hamilton
Personal information
Born	Bethany Meilani Hamilton (1990-02-08) February 8, 1990 Lihue, Hawaii, United States
Residence	Kauai, Hawaii
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	140 lb (64 kg)
Surfing career
Best year	2005
Sponsors	Rip Curl
Major achievements	ESPY Award (2004) NSSA National Helping Kids Champion (2005) 2nd place, ASP World Junior Championships (2008)
Website	bethanyhamilton.com

Bethany Meilani Hamilton (born February 8, 1990, Lihue, Hawaii) is an American professional surfer. She is known for surviving a shark attack in which her left arm was bitten off, and for overcoming the injury to ultimately return to professional surfing. She wrote about her experience in the 2004 autobiography Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. In April 2011, the feature film Soul Surfer was released, based on the book and additional interviews. She has appeared on many television shows since the loss of her arm.

Surfing career

Placings in surf competitions
Year	Event	Place	Country
1998	Rell Sun Menehune	1st	United States
2002	Open Women's Division of the NSSA	1st	United States
2004	NSSA National Competition	5th	United States
2005	NSSA National Competition	1st	United States
2005	O'Neill Island Girl Junior Pro tournament	1st	United States
2006	NSSA National Championship: 18-and-under Finalist	5th	United States
2006	Hawaii Team Highlights	4th 5th*	United States
2007	NSSA Regionals	5th	United States
2007	Women's Pipeline Championship	4th	United States
2008	US Open of Surfing – Huntington Beach, California	5th	United States
2008	Roxy Pro Surf Festival – Phillip Island	3rd	Australia
2009	Rio Surf International in Rio de Janeiro	3rd	Brazil
2009	Billabong ASP World Junior Championship	2nd	Australia

*4th at Brazil event, 5th at World Games event in the United States.

Shark attack and recovery

On October 31, 2003, at the age of 13, Hamilton went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai with best friend Alana Blanchard and Alana's father and brother. Around 7:30 a.m., with numerous turtles in the area, she was lying on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 15 foot tiger shark attacked her,^[1] severing her left arm just below the shoulder. The Blanchards helped paddle her back to shore, then Alana's father fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash and wrapped it around the stump of her arm, before she was rushed to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. By the time she arrived there she had lost over 60% of her blood and was in hypovolaemic shock. Her father, who was scheduled to have knee surgery that morning, was already at the hospital, but she took his place in the operating room. She spent a week in recovery before being released from the hospital. During subsequent media interviews, she confirmed that she felt normal when she was bitten and did not feel much pain from the bite at the moment of the disaster, but felt numb during the ambulance ride to the hospital.^{[citation needed]}

When the news broke out of the shark attack, a family of fishermen led by Ralph Young, presented to investigators photos of a 15-foot-long tiger shark they had caught and killed about one mile from the attack site. The shark had surfboard debris in its mouth. When measurements of the shark's mouth were compared with those of Hamilton's demolished surfboard, it matched. In late 2004, the police officially confirmed that the shark was the one that bit Bethany Hamilton.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the trauma of the incident, Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Less than a month after the incident, she returned to her board.^[2] Initially, she adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker than standard and had a handle for her right arm, making it easier to paddle, and she learned to kick more to make up for the loss of her left arm. After teaching herself to surf with one arm, on January 10, 2004, she entered a major competition. She now uses standard competitive performance short-boards.^{[citation needed]}

Hamilton's broken bitten surfboard that she was riding during the attack is on display at the California Surf Museum.^[3]

Media

Since the attack, she has been a guest on numerous television shows. Her manager Roy "Dutch" Hofstetter, who went on to produce the film "Soul Surfer", managed Bethany's rise through the media from "shark attack victim" to "inspirational role model". The television shows she has appeared on include The Biggest Loser, 20/20, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Today Show and The Tonight Show, as well as in magazines People, Time and American Girl. Additionally, she was the cover story in the premier issue of Nine magazine.^[4] In 2004, she won the ESPY Award for Best Comeback Athlete^[5] and also received the Courage Teen Choice Award.^[6]

In 2004, MTV Books published Hamilton's book, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, life , and Fighting to Get Back on the Board (ISBN 0-7434-9922-0), which describes her ordeal. Her story is also told in the 2007 short subject documentary film, Heart of a Soul Surfer, directed by Becky Baumgartner. Described as a "faith-based documentary", the film addresses Hamilton's devout Christianity and the courage and faith in Jesus Christ in the aftermath of the shark attack, and follows her quest for spiritual meaning.^[7][8]

On August 7, 2009, she was a contestant on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and won $25,000. On May 16, 2010, she appeared on an episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

In March 2011, Hamilton did a video for the Christian organization, I Am Second, telling about her struggle after the shark attack and how she trusted in God to get her through it.

On April 8, 2011, a feature film Soul Surfer, based on her 2004 book, was released. Hamilton is portrayed by AnnaSophia Robb—with Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Craig T. Nelson, Carrie Underwood, Lorraine Nicholson, and Kevin Sorbo also starring in the film. Hamilton performs all the one-armed surfing stunts in the film.^[9]

On October 11, 2011, she appeared on the TLC series 19 Kids and Counting, in the episode titled "Duggars Under the Sea", when the Duggar family visited her, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hamilton is due to play herself in the upcoming sequel to the 2011 film Dolphin Tale, which revolves around the baby dolphin Hope's story. Filming began in Clearwater, Florida on October 7, 2013 and is due to finish some time in January 2014. It is set to be released on September 19, 2014.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

In early 2012, Hamilton met Adam Dirks through mutual friends.^[10] They became engaged in April 2013,^[11] and married on August 17, 2013 in Kauai, Hawaii.^[10]

References

External links

• Official website
• CBS News interview
• Bethany Hamilton Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
• Bethany Hamilton and the Teeth of the Tiger