Soul Surfer

A couple of month ago my daughter and I visited the WOW (Women on Waves) Exhibit at the Oceanside Surf Museum.  We were floored by the huge chunk that was missing from Bethany Hamilton's surfboard that was bitten off by a 14' tiger shark in Hawaii, along with her left arm.  Amazingly, the 13-year-old returned to surfing in just a few weeks.  She had to learn how to rebalance and surf with one arm.  Her courage serves as an inspiration to many and her story has been made into a movie called Soul Surfer.

Bethany Hamilton and AnnaSophia Robb at a favorite surf spot in Hawaii

 “I realized that telling my life story could change people’s perspectives on hard times they’re going through,” says Hamilton, 21, who has published five nonfiction books that reflect her strong sense of spirituality. During one humanitarian trip to Thailand in 2005, the same year she won a national surfing championship, she led 50 children, many orphaned by the tsunami in late ’04, into the water for the first time. “Helping them overcome their fear of the ocean was a great opportunity,” she says. “There aren’t a lot of good role models out there, so it’s cool that I could be one.” www.bethanyhamilton.com

Soul Surfer comes out tomorrow.  My kid has been anxiously awaiting for this movie to premiere so we'll be standing in line to watch the movie tomorrow evening, even though we need to be at the airport 5:30AM on Saturday to fly out to Budapest.  Hopefully I'll have internet access through the next couple of weeks on our travels and you can follow along our journey through Budapest, Prague and Krakow!