MORE THAN A SURVIVOR
WE all know the story: On October 31, 2003, then 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm after being attacked by a 15-foot tiger shark at home in Kauai. The attack forever altered the course of Hamilton’s life—it also redefined her identity.
Before that day, those around Hamilton saw her as a world champion in the making. She had already landed a sponsorship from the surf brand Rip Curl, and in the next few years she was expected to breeze through the World Qualifying Series, climb the World Tour ranks and eventually pocket a world title or two. But on that fateful Halloween morning, a large macro-predator swam up from the depths of the ocean and hijacked the narrative of Hamilton’s ascension in surfing. In just a few seconds, Hamilton transformed from an up-and-coming surf star into a shark attack survivor. She became a household name overnight—just not in the way she had dreamed of.
Hamilton has moved on with her life and over the past decade has become a wife, a mother and a world-class professional surfer. Still, 15 years after her attack, Hamilton is often portrayed in the media as a victim of circumstance. But she’s done playing that role.
TWO years ago, in the Sea of Cortez, Hamilton was getting ready to face off with a different kind of oversized fish. She was on the deck of a 160-foot mega-yacht with her platinum-blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and a lavalier mic clipped to the collar of her shirt. Three cameramen trained their lenses onto Hamilton as she fastened an odd, bright-blue fishing harness around her entire upper body. The contraption was specifically made to allow fishermen and women to catch large sea creatures with the use of only one arm, and if it weren’t for the fishing pole attached to her waist, you’d think the unwieldy harness was a piece of skydiving equipment.
Hamilton had recently been invited to make a guest appearance on “Destination Baja Sur,” a reality fishing show apparently popular among deep-sea fishing enthusiasts. The goal of this specific episode
