The bravest Soul Surfer in the World !

 Bethany Meilani Hamilton (born February 8, 1990), daughter of Thomas and Cherilyn Hamilton, is an American professional surfer. She is known for surviving a shark attack in which she lost her left arm, and for overcoming the serious and debilitating injury to ultimately return to professional surfing. She wrote about her experience in the 2004 autobiography Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. In April 2011, the feature film Soul Surfer was released, based on the book and additional interviews.

 On October 31, 2003, at the age of 13, Hamilton went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach,Kauai with one of her friends, Alana Blanchard, and Blanchard's father and brother. Around 7:30 a.m., with numerous turtles in the area, she was lying on her surfboard with her left arm dangling in the water, when a 14 ft (4.3 m) tiger shark attacked her, ripping her left arm off just below the shoulder. The Blanchards helped paddle her back to shore, then Alana's father fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash, and wrapped it around the short piece left of her arm, before rushing her to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Her father was supposed to have 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.

In July 2004, Hamilton won the Best Comeback Athlete ESPY Award. She was also presented with a special "courage award" at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards.
In 2005, Hamilton took 1st place in the National Scholastic Surfing Association (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 2nd.

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