Less than a month after shark attack, Bethany surfing again
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Bethany Hamilton caught a wave Thanksgiving afternoon, less than a month after a huge tiger shark bit off her left arm.
Advertiser library photo
The surfing trip was triumphant, friends said, but not without challenges for the 13-year-old Hanalei girl.
Bethany Hamilton used a longboard in small surf on Thanksgiving.
Any questions about whether she would, or could, surf again were banished. She enjoyed it so much, she surfed the next day.
The shark bit off her left arm about four inches below the shoulder on Oct. 31.
Bethany's stitches were removed just a week before Thanksgiving.
She had some difficulty with her balance and missed the first two waves she tried for, but got the board sliding down the third and surfed it aggressively.
"She caught the third wave and really ripped it, just like normal," said family friend Andy Smith.
Bethany's reputation has been that of an aggressive, physical surfer. She was the state's top female surfer in her age group, and among the best in the nation.
The Thanksgiving surfing trip was, in her father's words, "a stealth operation."
Family members and a few close friends went without public notice to a beach called Rock Quarry at the eastern end of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. Bethany used a longboard in small surf. Smith said she was able to paddle and control the board with only her right arm.
Some members of the small group were in the water, while others waited on the beach. The shore contingent broke into tears when she caught her first wave, said Roy Hofstetter, a family representative.
"She surfed a while, maybe an hour or two, and then she surfed the next day," Smith said. Her main problem appeared to be that it was "a little difficult to balance," he said.
Bethany herself, in an interview with The Advertiser Nov. 21, said she was known for flopping her arms around while surfing. She joked that the shark attack would cure her of that.
She also said that if she had difficulty catching waves with only one paddling arm, "I can always take off late," meaning to catch the wave when it is steeper, a technique that requires more finesse but not as much forward speed on the board.
Hofstetter said friends were stunned by her return to the sport.
"It's beyond belief, man," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
