Bethany Hamilton Being A Professional American Surfer
Bethany Hamilton once said, “I’ve learned life is a lot like surfing. When you get caught in the impact zone, you need to get right back up, because you never know what’s over the next wave...and if you have faith, anything is possible. Anything at all (Pinto, 2007).” Bethany Hamilton is known for being a Professional American Surfer that lost her left arm in a shark attack. But being a strong believer in God, she was able to get back on the board and continue surfing. Bethany Hamilton is an influential person because of her impressive surfing skills, her ability to overcome a major devastation and setback, all the awards she’s received, and all the love in her life for family, God, and surfing.
Bethany Hamilton’s youth was extremely important …show more content…
to the rest of her life. She was born on the island of Kauai, Hawaii on February, 8, 1990 to parents Tom and Cheri Hamilton, both who work in the food service. Her siblings are Noah and Timmy. Noah is eight years older than her, and Timmy is four years older. She has a very religious family that has an undying faith in God. Her parents taught her about God at a young age and read her stories from the Bible. Hamilton’s whole family also loves surfing. Her parents were avid surfers and taught her how to surf before she was even five years old. She became fascinated with the sport early on and couldn’t get enough. When Hamilton was just five years old, she began real stand-up surfing. Her parents would help her in the beginning, by pushing her into the waves. At age seven she was able to start all by herself! Her first real surf competition was when she was 8 years old. It was the Rell Sunn Menehune Surfing Championships in Oahu, Hawaii. She won both the short and long board divisions. With that success, she then had a dream to become a professional competitive surfer.
In her elementary years, she attended Hanalei, a public school. Eventually, in 6th grade, she switch to homeschooling. She was becoming serious about competitive surfing and needed to keep her schedule flexible. The flexible schedule allowed her to attend more surf meets and train a lot more often. At nine years old she received her first major surf sponsorships from Rip Curl and Tim Carroll Surfboards. The next couple of years she quickly moved up the rankings in amateur surfing competitions by winning multiple events. She was also a member of the Hanalei Surf Co. team and proved capable of beating highly experienced surfers in her competitions.
Bethany Hamilton’s career was full of many highs and devastating lows. Hamilton won both the open division and her age group of Hawaii’s Local Motion/Ezekiel Surf Into Summer event in May, 2003. In 2005, she then went on to place second in the open women’s division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) National Championships in San Clemente, California. Also at the NSSA National Championships, she won the Explorer Women’s division. Later, in 2007, Hamilton began competing on the pro circuit. She was a 13 and ranked No. 8 in her age group in the whole world. She was considered a very promising surfer.
October 31, 2003 was the day that would change her life forever. She woke up at 5 a.m. to go surfing at “Tunnels”, a surf spot along the north shore of the island. She went with her best friend Alana Blanchard and Alana’s family. She was enjoying the leisurely day, relaxing on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water below. Suddenly, out of nowhere a shark surfaced beneath the water and bit her. A 14-foot tiger shark had attacked Hamilton. Alana and her father quickly rushed her to the Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Blood was gushing out of the severed arm, and she was in great danger. She could have easily bled to death, but luckily her friends did exactly the right things to save her life.
The doctor’s first told her parents that she had a very poor chance of surviving. Despite the odds, she continued to fight. The accident was very traumatizing but she wouldn’t let that overtake her love for surfing. She lost 60 percent of her blood even with a shirt tied around what was left of her arm. The doctor who later treated her said that her conditioning played a big role in keeping her alive. “This is a woman who is a highly trained athlete, and because of that she’s able to handle a huge blood loss really well.” After the attack, Hamilton says she always knew there were sharks lurking in the water, but she and her friends didn’t worry that much about them. “We were afraid of them,” she says, “but we didn’t really think anything would happen to us.”
With very intense physical therapy, she returned to surfing within weeks of the attack. She had to use a custom-made board that was longer, thicker, and had a handle for her right arm to grab onto. With time, she relearned how to use her regular equipment, and entered her first competition since the attack on January 10, 2004. It was a major competition and she was energized to get back. She was determined to not let her disability and her slight disadvantage get in the way of her professional ambitions. The most important thing she did during her career, was prove that the loss of an arm was no obstacle to fulfilling her surfing goals.
Bethany Hamilton has accomplished a lot in her life, from surviving a shark attack to being a professional surfer with only one arm.
Before learning how to surf however, Hamilton had to get used to everyday life without her left arm. In order to peel an orange, she holds it in between her feet. She also had to cope with a lot of pain. That affected her for weeks after she was released from the hospital. “I’m definitely going to get back into the water,” she said. “If I was like a person that just quit surfing after this, I wouldn’t be a real surfer (Abbey, 2005).”
Her autobiography that she wrote in 2004, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, quickly became a bestseller and instant hit. She appeared on many t.v. shows after the success of her book. She became an instant celebrity on shows like ‘The Biggest Loser’, ‘20/20’, ‘Good Morning America’, ‘Inside Edition’, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’, and ‘The Today …show more content…
Show’.
Bethany Hamilton has received many, many awards in her lifetime. Just in 2004 alone, she received some like the Chutzpah Award (O Magazine). Others are the ESPY Award for Best Comeback (ESPN), Teen Choice Award for Courage, Wahine O Ke Kai Award (Surf Industry Manufacturers Association). Hamilton received the “Mildred Babe Dirdrikson-Zacharias Courage Award” from the United States Sports Academy in 2005. MTV, ESPN, and the United States Sports Academy honored Hamilton for her unbelievable courage and strength.
She then wrote a second book in 2014, Body and Soul: A Girls Guide to a Fit, Fun and Fabulous Life. Shortly after that she started her own charity. Her charity, Friends of Bethany, is a non-profit organization that provides shark attack survivors and amputees worldwide support. Some of the other charities she supports and is a part of is Women’s Sports Foundation, World Vision, and Surfaid.
Her current life is the kind of life everyone aspires to have; a loving family, getting to do what you love very day, and inspiring millions around the world with your faith and courage.
On August 18, 2013, Bethany Hamilton married Adam Dirks. Only a few months after getting married, she won first place in the Pipeline Women’s Pro competition. She credited her husband with reigniting her competitive spark and encouraging her to keep working on her surfing skills in an interview with People magazine. Early 2015 was when Hamilton announced that she was pregnant and would be cutting back on her busy schedule. They now have a little boy named Tobias, born on June 1,
2015.
Being a mom and raising a kid definitely didn’t hold her back from training. For a while, Hamilton said, her training had picked up a notch. Even though she has a supportive husband and new opportunities to compete, she says she isn’t trying to qualify for the world championships anytime soon. Her main focus right now is with her family and just having fun surfing.
Her most recent documentary, Surfs Like a Girl, was released early 2017. She is teamed up with a Christian humanitarian agency World Vision that is raising money for disabled children all across the globe. Hamilton visits churches and events all around the United States to speak and tell people about God and her faith. Even though Hamilton’s life has many challenges and obstacles she has to overcome, she still uses her own fame and experiences to help out others in need.
In conclusion, Bethany Hamilton is an influential person because of her impressive surfing skills, her ability to overcome a major devastation and setback, all the awards she’s received, and all the love in her life for family, God, and surfing. All in all, she was able to see the best in a worst situation in order to fulfill her dreams and inspire others to do the same. Bethany Hamilton said, “I wouldn't change what happened to me because then I wouldn't have this chance, in front of all of you, to embrace more people than I ever could have with two arms (Pinto, 2007).”
Bethany Hamilton’s youth was extremely important …show more content…
to the rest of her life. She was born on the island of Kauai, Hawaii on February, 8, 1990 to parents Tom and Cheri Hamilton, both who work in the food service. Her siblings are Noah and Timmy. Noah is eight years older than her, and Timmy is four years older. She has a very religious family that has an undying faith in God. Her parents taught her about God at a young age and read her stories from the Bible. Hamilton’s whole family also loves surfing. Her parents were avid surfers and taught her how to surf before she was even five years old. She became fascinated with the sport early on and couldn’t get enough. When Hamilton was just five years old, she began real stand-up surfing. Her parents would help her in the beginning, by pushing her into the waves. At age seven she was able to start all by herself! Her first real surf competition was when she was 8 years old. It was the Rell Sunn Menehune Surfing Championships in Oahu, Hawaii. She won both the short and long board divisions. With that success, she then had a dream to become a professional competitive surfer.
In her elementary years, she attended Hanalei, a public school. Eventually, in 6th grade, she switch to homeschooling. She was becoming serious about competitive surfing and needed to keep her schedule flexible. The flexible schedule allowed her to attend more surf meets and train a lot more often. At nine years old she received her first major surf sponsorships from Rip Curl and Tim Carroll Surfboards. The next couple of years she quickly moved up the rankings in amateur surfing competitions by winning multiple events. She was also a member of the Hanalei Surf Co. team and proved capable of beating highly experienced surfers in her competitions.
Bethany Hamilton’s career was full of many highs and devastating lows. Hamilton won both the open division and her age group of Hawaii’s Local Motion/Ezekiel Surf Into Summer event in May, 2003. In 2005, she then went on to place second in the open women’s division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) National Championships in San Clemente, California. Also at the NSSA National Championships, she won the Explorer Women’s division. Later, in 2007, Hamilton began competing on the pro circuit. She was a 13 and ranked No. 8 in her age group in the whole world. She was considered a very promising surfer.
October 31, 2003 was the day that would change her life forever. She woke up at 5 a.m. to go surfing at “Tunnels”, a surf spot along the north shore of the island. She went with her best friend Alana Blanchard and Alana’s family. She was enjoying the leisurely day, relaxing on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water below. Suddenly, out of nowhere a shark surfaced beneath the water and bit her. A 14-foot tiger shark had attacked Hamilton. Alana and her father quickly rushed her to the Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Blood was gushing out of the severed arm, and she was in great danger. She could have easily bled to death, but luckily her friends did exactly the right things to save her life.
The doctor’s first told her parents that she had a very poor chance of surviving. Despite the odds, she continued to fight. The accident was very traumatizing but she wouldn’t let that overtake her love for surfing. She lost 60 percent of her blood even with a shirt tied around what was left of her arm. The doctor who later treated her said that her conditioning played a big role in keeping her alive. “This is a woman who is a highly trained athlete, and because of that she’s able to handle a huge blood loss really well.” After the attack, Hamilton says she always knew there were sharks lurking in the water, but she and her friends didn’t worry that much about them. “We were afraid of them,” she says, “but we didn’t really think anything would happen to us.”
With very intense physical therapy, she returned to surfing within weeks of the attack. She had to use a custom-made board that was longer, thicker, and had a handle for her right arm to grab onto. With time, she relearned how to use her regular equipment, and entered her first competition since the attack on January 10, 2004. It was a major competition and she was energized to get back. She was determined to not let her disability and her slight disadvantage get in the way of her professional ambitions. The most important thing she did during her career, was prove that the loss of an arm was no obstacle to fulfilling her surfing goals.
Bethany Hamilton has accomplished a lot in her life, from surviving a shark attack to being a professional surfer with only one arm.
Before learning how to surf however, Hamilton had to get used to everyday life without her left arm. In order to peel an orange, she holds it in between her feet. She also had to cope with a lot of pain. That affected her for weeks after she was released from the hospital. “I’m definitely going to get back into the water,” she said. “If I was like a person that just quit surfing after this, I wouldn’t be a real surfer (Abbey, 2005).”
Her autobiography that she wrote in 2004, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board, quickly became a bestseller and instant hit. She appeared on many t.v. shows after the success of her book. She became an instant celebrity on shows like ‘The Biggest Loser’, ‘20/20’, ‘Good Morning America’, ‘Inside Edition’, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’, ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’, and ‘The Today …show more content…
Show’.
Bethany Hamilton has received many, many awards in her lifetime. Just in 2004 alone, she received some like the Chutzpah Award (O Magazine). Others are the ESPY Award for Best Comeback (ESPN), Teen Choice Award for Courage, Wahine O Ke Kai Award (Surf Industry Manufacturers Association). Hamilton received the “Mildred Babe Dirdrikson-Zacharias Courage Award” from the United States Sports Academy in 2005. MTV, ESPN, and the United States Sports Academy honored Hamilton for her unbelievable courage and strength.
She then wrote a second book in 2014, Body and Soul: A Girls Guide to a Fit, Fun and Fabulous Life. Shortly after that she started her own charity. Her charity, Friends of Bethany, is a non-profit organization that provides shark attack survivors and amputees worldwide support. Some of the other charities she supports and is a part of is Women’s Sports Foundation, World Vision, and Surfaid.
Her current life is the kind of life everyone aspires to have; a loving family, getting to do what you love very day, and inspiring millions around the world with your faith and courage.
On August 18, 2013, Bethany Hamilton married Adam Dirks. Only a few months after getting married, she won first place in the Pipeline Women’s Pro competition. She credited her husband with reigniting her competitive spark and encouraging her to keep working on her surfing skills in an interview with People magazine. Early 2015 was when Hamilton announced that she was pregnant and would be cutting back on her busy schedule. They now have a little boy named Tobias, born on June 1,
2015.
Being a mom and raising a kid definitely didn’t hold her back from training. For a while, Hamilton said, her training had picked up a notch. Even though she has a supportive husband and new opportunities to compete, she says she isn’t trying to qualify for the world championships anytime soon. Her main focus right now is with her family and just having fun surfing.
Her most recent documentary, Surfs Like a Girl, was released early 2017. She is teamed up with a Christian humanitarian agency World Vision that is raising money for disabled children all across the globe. Hamilton visits churches and events all around the United States to speak and tell people about God and her faith. Even though Hamilton’s life has many challenges and obstacles she has to overcome, she still uses her own fame and experiences to help out others in need.
In conclusion, Bethany Hamilton is an influential person because of her impressive surfing skills, her ability to overcome a major devastation and setback, all the awards she’s received, and all the love in her life for family, God, and surfing. All in all, she was able to see the best in a worst situation in order to fulfill her dreams and inspire others to do the same. Bethany Hamilton said, “I wouldn't change what happened to me because then I wouldn't have this chance, in front of all of you, to embrace more people than I ever could have with two arms (Pinto, 2007).”