Bethany Hamilton

I don't think I am the most easily impressed guy that you will ever meet. But I have to admit that I was majorly blown away seeing Bethany Hamilton yesterday. Her charm, her strength, beauty and composure are simply overwhelming.

 I assume that pretty much everybody knows her story. She lost her arm in an unfortunate encounter with a shark while surfing in 2003. She wrote a book about her experience and later a movie Soul Surfer was made that recounted her tale.

Bethany was back on her surfboard a month after the attack. I don't know much about her, I know that she is religiously devoted and now has a husband and child.

She paddled out from next to where I was standing at the Swatch Pro at Lower Trestles yesterday. She didn't have the best day but the waves were squirrelly and sporadic.

Movie star beautiful, I watched as she waited what seemed like an interminable time for a set.

I read recently, and I paraphrase, that she wants to be looked at as a surfer and not necessarily anything else. Not be defined by her loss of an arm. I totally get it.

Bethany is one of those people that seems to radiate joy. A genuine smile. I confess to feeling my heart sink when I watched her struggle a bit to get out of the rocky surf. Not easy with one arm holding a surfboard, she did it with total composure.

Count me in. I am a big fan. Extraordinary woman.