Faith-driven Bethany holds her family together

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

HANALEI, Kaua'i — Bethany Hamilton was pretty much a regular 13-year-old Hanalei surfer girl — albeit one of the best young surfers in the country — but when a tiger shark bit off her arm Oct. 31, everything regular about her changed.

Bethany Hamilton placed second in her age group in a national surf contest in California this summer. Hamilton family photo

Brothers Noah and Tim, 21 and 17, have been protective and supportive of Bethany, and in some ways uplifted by their injured sister.

"She has given me the strength to keep focused with all that is on our family shoulders right now," Noah Hamilton wrote. "She has held our family together with her profound words, scriptures and constant smiles."

Bethany became an instant icon, an international celebrity — not only because she'd lost her arm to a shark, but because of who she was before it happened, and who she still appeared to be. In some ways, she was like any wave-addicted kid in a surfing community. In others, she was just a really nice kid.

"She was a typical 13-year-old surf teenager in Hanalei — get up in the morning, look at the waves, look at the weather report, go out surfing," said Steve Cranston, a friend of the family for years, and a sales representative for Rip Curl, the firm that was Hamilton's chief sponsor.

A young surfer named Matt recalls on Bethany's Web site how impressed he was by her talent when he saw her at a South Kaua'i surf break called PK's.

"We saw Bethany surfing and she was doing huge snaps off the lip and ripping ... she kills it harder than me and some of my friends," he said.

In contrast to all that power on the water is the sensitive, playful little girl with plenty of faith.

"Bethany brightens the world wherever she goes," wrote a friend named Carla. She recalled Bethany and her best friend Alana Blanchard drawing an image of Spongebob Squarepants in the sand.

"Then they paddled out to the bay leaving sponge bob and I on the shore to watch. It was a simple moment that made me smile and laugh," Carla wrote.

Sarah Hill, the youth leader at Bethany's church, said Bethany was impressive in how she stood up for people who were being left out.

"She didn't like people being picked on," Hill said. "If there's any kids being left out, she would take care of that kid, stand up for that kid. If it was a new girl, she'd go and be with her. She didn't need to be in a clique. Wherever she was was cool."

Bethany suffered a life-threatening injury while surfing with friends at Tunnels reef in Ha'ena. It was 7:30 a.m. in clear water and small surf. A tiger shark — estimated at 14 feet long and a ton in weight from its bite marks on her board — bit off her left arm, leaving just four inches of her upper arm bone.

Friends said she lost half her body's blood supply. Her best friend's father, Holt Blanchard, applied a tourniquet made of a surfboard leash and stopped the bleeding. She was in surgery twice, once to clean the wound and once to close it.

And as soon as she could walk the halls of the hospitals, she was visiting other patients, offering hope and support, hospital officials said.

Her brother and a family friend both insist that the first words Bethany spoke after getting out of surgery — unprompted — were that she believed the injury would make her a more effective voice for Christ, and that this pleased her.

Her pastor, Kahu Stephen Thompson of the North Shore Christian Church, has known her for a little more than five years. He said that before the incident, Bethany was a playful child with a chronic positive attitude. He has spoken with Bethany since the attack, and sees a strengthened faith in her.

"I think she's always had a heart for God," he said. "I have the feeling that the experience she's gone through has brought this out even more. She had that faith and that hope all along, but it seems to have increased."

He said her family, friends and fellow church members know she will have tough times as the reality of the loss of her arm sinks in, but that they are ready to support her through any crisis.

Blanchard said he believes Bethany has the strength to get through it.

Bethany's brothers and friends set up a Web site for her at www.bethanyhamilton.com. In its first four days it got 50,000 visits, despite a spam attack that shut the site down for several hours.

In less than a week, the number of e-mails was approaching 10,000. A girl named Krissy in New York wrote: "From a city that knows tragedy like no other, us New Yorkers send our support to you. Hope you are back on your board real soon."

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.