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Mammoth Springs

Friday, September 9, 2016

Bethany Hamilton


I don't think I am the most easily impressed guy that you will ever meet. But I have to admit that I was majorly blown away seeing Bethany Hamilton yesterday. Her charm, her strength, beauty and composure are simply overwhelming.


 I assume that pretty much everybody knows her story. She lost her arm in an unfortunate encounter with a shark while surfing in 2003. She wrote a book about her experience and later a movie Soul Surfer was made that recounted her tale.

Bethany was back on her surfboard a month after the attack. I don't know much about her, I know that she is religiously devoted and now has a husband and child.



She paddled out from next to where I was standing at the Swatch Pro at Lower Trestles yesterday. She didn't have the best day but the waves were squirrelly and sporadic.


Movie star beautiful, I watched as she waited what seemed like an interminable time for a set.


I read recently, and I paraphrase, that she wants to be looked at as a surfer and not necessarily anything else. Not be defined by her loss of an arm. I totally get it.

Bethany is one of those people that seems to radiate joy. A genuine smile. I confess to feeling my heart sink when I watched her struggle a bit to get out of the rocky surf. Not easy with one arm holding a surfboard, she did it with total composure.


Count me in. I am a big fan. Extraordinary woman.



4 comments:

Sanoguy said...

Well said!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful surfing from an amazing human being. Gogo

Ken Seals said...

Awesome story and photo!!

Anonymous said...

The rock dance at trestles is never easy, even for those of us with all of our factory equipment still intact.