Biography

Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Hamilton was born into a family of surfers on February 8, 1990 on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. When she was only 8 years old, she entered her first surf competition, the Rell Sun Menehune event on Oahu, where she won both the short and the long board divisions. That is when she figured out that she wanted to continue surfing for the rest of her life. When she was 13, on October 31, 2003, Bethany was attacked by a 14 foot long tiger shark while surfing off of Kauai's North Shore. The attack left her with a severely severed left arm. After she lost about 60% of her blood, and making it through several surgeries without infection, she was on her way to recovery with a very positive additude. Lifeguards and Doctors believe that Bethany's water sense and faith in God helped her get through the massive tragedy. Miraculously, one month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water to continue to follow her dream to be a professional surfer. In January of 2004, bethany returned to surf competitions, placing fifth in the Open Women's division of that contest. Just after a year after the attack, bethany placed first in the Explorer Women's division of 2005 NSSA National Championships; winning her first national title!!!!! In 2007, she realized her dream and became a profesional surfer. Since then, she has participated in many ASP and World Tour Events with her major highlight being a second place finish in the ASP 2009 World Junior Championships. Since she lost her arm, her story has been told in hundreds of media outlets and she has been reconized for with numerous awards, and public apperances. In October 2004, her story was written in book form and published. the name of the book was "Soul Surfer". Also, it was made into a major motion picture called "Soul Surfer". In the water, Bethany is hard working competitive girl; Outside of the water, she is just like everyone else...she may have one less limb than most people, but that doesnt change how nice she really is.