The starting of a soul surfer
Bethany Hamilton was born on February 8, 1990, in Lihue, Hawaii, and is a professional surfer. Bethany began surfing at a young age. At the age of eight, Bethany entered her first surf competition, the Rell Sun Menehune event on Oahu, where she won both the short and long board divisions. This sparked a love for surf competition within her spirit. At the age of 7 Bethany had met a young girl about the same age of her and her name was, Alana Blanchard. They became best friends. Now today Bethany's family calls Alana family since they knew each other since they were young children. Alana and Bethany are both home schooled, they are so lucky that they are since they love to go surfing so much.
“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness,heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”
― Bethany Hamilton
Life on the Sand
Out of the water, Bethany has grown from a young teenage girl with aspirations of becoming a professional surfer into a twenty-year old professional surfer with aspirations of becoming a beacon of inspiration and hope. Through the platform of professional sport, Bethany has been able to touch a large number of people with her message, charitable efforts, and overall spirit. Bethany just launched her own foundation, Friends of Bethany, which supports shark attack survivors, traumatic amputees, and serves to inspire others through her life story, and is involved in numerous other charitable efforts. When Bethany was 16, her and her best friend Alana went to Mexico after a massive hurricane had destroyed the entire land mass. They went to Mexico to help after the disaster and brought them food and clean water. Bethany even helped the people of Mexico to get back into the water, since they were scared. She went into the water and went deep out. Every one now wasn't so scared to go into the water after Bethany did.