BETHANY HAMILTON

Bethany Hamilton was born on February 8^th, 1990 in Kauai, Hawaii. She was encouraged at a young age to pursue the sport of surfing. Her parents were both surfers when they were younger and her two older brothers are currently competitive surfers. Bethany started competitions at a young age and soon was taken in by the sponsor, Rip Curl. Her dream was to make surfing her living. Everything in her life revolved around this sport including school. She didn’t get to experience the normal high school life because she chose to be homeschooled. October 31, 2003 Bethany went out for her morning surf but little did she know she was going to have her life changed forever. While surfing a shark attacks, causing her to lose her left arm. Bethany has a strong relationship with God and because of that she was able to stay calm. With about 13 different surgeries Bethany survives the attack but now she has to get used to living with one arm. At first she became down on her self but then realized God kept her living for a reason and that’s to motivate and help others going through tragedies like this. That’s what inspired her to write this book, she knew her story could help make a difference in other’s lives. After a long time of healing she was to work up enough courage to go out in the water and continue surfing. To this day Bethany is back competing in competitions and still has the dream of making surfing her living.

Created by Carli Dugan. October 31, 2007

Back to Memorial Home Page