bethany hamilton now

On October 31, 2003, Hamilton went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai with friend Alana Blanchard, and Blanchard's father and brother. Around 7:30 a.m., she was lying sideways on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 14 ft tiger shark attacked her,[1] ripping her left arm off just below the shoulder. If the shark had bitten two inches further in, the attack would have been fatal. Hamilton had lost almost 60% of her blood that morning. Her friends helped paddle her back to shore, and fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash around what was left of her arm before rushing her to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Her dad was supposed to have a knee surgery that morning but she took his place in the operating room. She then spent seven more days in recovery at the hospital.

Despite the trauma of the incident, Hamilton was determined to return to surfing. Less than one month after the incident, she returned to her board and went surfing again. Initially, she adopted a custom-made board that was longer and slightly thicker which made it easier to paddle. She has observed that she has to kick a lot more to make up for the loss of her left arm. After teaching herself to surf with one arm, she has again begun surfing competitively. She is now back to using competitive performance short-boards again.

In July 2004 Hamilton won the ESPY Award for Best Comeback Athlete of the Year.[2] She was presented with a special courage award at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards.

In 2005, with one arm, Hamilton took 1st place in the NSSA National Championships, a goal she had been trying to achieve since before the shark attack. In 2008, she began competing full-time on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS). In her first competition against many of the world's best women surfers, she finished 3rd.

Film, television, magazines, and books

Since the attack, Hamilton has appeared on 20/20, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Tonight Show, as well as in magazines People and Time. Additionally, she was the cover story in the premier issue of niNe magazine.[3] Hamilton also won $25,000 on the August 7, 2009 edition of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. She was stumped on a Grade 3 grammar question involving articles.

In 2004, MTV Books published Hamilton's book, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board (ISBN 0-7434-9922-0), which describes her ordeal. Hamilton's story is also told in the 2007 short subject documentary film, Heart of a Soul Surfer, directed by Becky Baumgartner. Described as a "faith-based documentary", the film addresses Hamilton's courage in the aftermath of the shark attack, and follows her quest for spiritual meaning.[4][5]

In 2011, AnnaSophia Robb will portray her in the upcoming film Soul Surfer. Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, & Carrie Underwood are set to co-star in the film.

She appeared on the May 2, 2010 episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

(via wikipedia)

TASK=

1. HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF U WERE IN BETHANYS SHOES?
2. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE TO OVERCOME THE SADNESS OF LOSING A LIMB?
3. WHAT WOULD YOU TELL HER IF SHE CAME TO VENEZUELA?
4. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT DID SHE DO TO TACKLE THE FEAR AND TO GO BACK TO THE OCEAN?