About 5 years ago, SURFER did a profile on tube-hound Bethany Hamilton. It was a story about one of the best surfers in the world reclaiming her own narrative in an attempt to be seen as more than just a shark attack survivor (if you missed it, click on over here to read).
At one point in the story, Hamilton explains how she learned how to surf with one arm (which she gets candid about in her new TikTok video below).
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In the piece, Hamilton said that after the shark attack, she learned how to adjust her technique to compensate for her missing arm. “It’s a matter of your whole body composition,” she said. “For a while I wasn’t really good at long, drawn-out frontside turns. I think it was because I didn’t have that back arm to really bring it around. But that’s not an excuse. When I put time into it and worked on it more, it was fine. With all of surfing, you could probably pull almost anything off with no arms. It’s all in your hips and your shoulders and your head.”
In the TikTok above, Hamilton explains the mindset she was in when relearning how to paddle. “After I lost my arm, my life became adapting each day,” writes Bethany. “Adaptation every day with everything that I would face. I’m glad that I was brave enough to try; and try again. Easily surfing with one arm was the hardest thing I’ve learned to do. Some days are hard and some days my arm is tired. I [do slouch] on the one side. That drives me to get in the gym to work the other side! But I wake up each day grateful for another day. And we all CAN do the same. Be willing to try and adapt (figure out another way) with whatever challenges you may face each day mentally or physically.”