Surfer Bethany Hamilton Pursues her Passion Against All Odds — Transcript

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1. 0:00joining us now is a woman who is a
2. 0:02tremendous
3. 0:03athlete surfer but also known for being
4. 0:06an inspiration to so many young women
5. 0:08and her life was brought to film
6. 0:09and the movie soul surfer here with us
7. 0:12is bethany hamilton hello bethany how
8. 0:15are you i'm good
9. 0:16thank you for having me we are a little
10. 0:18cold but we will get through
11. 0:20it i know the beach looks so beautiful
12. 0:21the beach is amazing
13. 0:24it's okay now so many of us know about
14. 0:27your story but for some of the viewers
15. 0:29who have never heard about you or
16. 0:30seen yeah you know so for please tell us
17. 0:33what that movie was about
18. 0:34so i grew up in hawaii and my parents
19. 0:37taught me how to surf at a young age and
20. 0:40also
21. 0:40encouraged me in my faith in god at a
22. 0:42young age as well and
23. 0:44growing up i just had these two amazing
24. 0:46passions
25. 0:47that just grew me into this future that
26. 0:50i had no clue what i was getting myself
27. 0:53into
28. 0:53and when i was 13 years old i lost my
29. 0:55arm to a shark
30. 0:57but that didn't stop me from surfing and
31. 0:59i continued on in my surfing and
32. 1:02have just been able to share my story of
33. 1:04hope and inspiration to people who go
34. 1:06through hard times and
35. 1:08struggles and and in that through my
36. 1:10movie soul surfer and my book's also fur
37. 1:12in so many different ways it's just been
38. 1:14awesome
39. 1:16what was that moment like for you to say
40. 1:17i am going back into the water and this
41. 1:19will not stop me
42. 1:21yeah you know i think uh
43. 1:24during that time i'm initially losing my
44. 1:28arm
45. 1:28and just realizing like my arm's gone
46. 1:31and it's
47. 1:32not coming back and sharks are still in
48. 1:34the ocean and they're not going anywhere
49. 1:37but i just had this incredible passion
50. 1:39for surfing and i think god gave me that
51. 1:41passion for a reason and he takes the
52. 1:44things that we love to do to go out and
53. 1:45be a light for him and
54. 1:47i think that was my initial draw to
55. 1:50surfing was that this is what i love to
56. 1:51do and
57. 1:53i didn't know if i would be able to do
58. 1:54it with one arm but i decided to give it
59. 1:56a try and
60. 1:58and today i'm a professional surfer and
61. 2:01doing what i've always dreamed to do
62. 2:03and it's so incredible and i think just
63. 2:06me getting back in the water is a
64. 2:07reminder for people that you know when
65. 2:09they have their shark attacks in life
66. 2:11the things that just are pulling them
67. 2:13down and like
68. 2:14almost feel like trying to take take out
69. 2:17their life
70. 2:19i hope that people can draw from my
71. 2:21story and overcome and get back on their
72. 2:23surfboard and
73. 2:24do what they love doing so you are a
74. 2:26surfer you're a professional surfer and
75. 2:28you're also an
76. 2:29author with several books but you have
77. 2:31your new book which i absolutely love
78. 2:33body and soul and i was looking through
79. 2:36it and i'm
80. 2:37a huge health buff so i was excited
81. 2:39about this
82. 2:40but i loved it because it was
83. 2:42specifically
84. 2:43like for teens right which means right
85. 2:47girls around my age in their 20s and but
86. 2:50i especially am just so passionate about
87. 2:52teenage girls and
88. 2:53i feel so honored and blessed to be able
89. 2:55to be a role model
90. 2:57and inspiration and a huge part of my
91. 2:59life is
92. 3:00living a healthy and fit life but also
93. 3:04really digging into my faith so with
94. 3:07body and soul i just wanted to be able
95. 3:09to encourage girls in those
96. 3:11different aspects of their life you know
97. 3:13as a teenager you're going through these
98. 3:15different changes into
99. 3:17turning into a woman and there's awkward
100. 3:19times and
101. 3:20just adjusting to that is such a
102. 3:24challenge
103. 3:24and i think a lot of girls don't know
104. 3:26how to deal with it and like
105. 3:28i think just starting young and
106. 3:30developing healthy habits you know when
107. 3:31i was a teenager i ate
108. 3:33typical american fast food and frozen
109. 3:36dinners and
110. 3:38you know it wasn't the healthiest life
111. 3:40choice and
112. 3:41as i was developing my professional
113. 3:43surfing career i started to realize like
114. 3:45hey
115. 3:45maybe i should start cleaning up my diet
116. 3:47and you know i started eating a lot more
117. 3:49vegetables and
118. 3:50i liked how i felt it does make you feel
119. 3:53better it really does
120. 3:54you are what you eat it's so true you
121. 3:56are what you eat it is yeah
122. 3:58and you look better when you're eating
123. 4:00healthy and
124. 4:01you know the book's not about
125. 4:02encouraging girls to be
126. 4:04that super model on the cover of the
127. 4:06next magazine but it's encouraging
128. 4:08them to be their beautiful self you know
129. 4:10like my body i'm an
130. 4:11athletic strong body and i'm not trying
131. 4:14to be that
132. 4:15skinny supermodel and i want to
133. 4:17encourage girls to be comfortable in
134. 4:19their body and
135. 4:20just to make healthy choices and you
136. 4:23know god's just given us this amazing
137. 4:25gift of
138. 4:25just being healthy and i think it's so
139. 4:28important to
140. 4:29not take it lightly and just and this is
141. 4:31our body our temple is something to take
142. 4:33care of
143. 4:34as i'm sitting here and i'm looking at
144. 4:35you i see like this light
145. 4:37beaming from your eyes and it's not the
146. 4:39sun it really is the joy that i see
147. 4:41in your life you know what i just can't
148. 4:44help but
149. 4:45hide my or live out my faith in public
150. 4:48and
151. 4:49i'm so thankful that people accept me as
152. 4:51i am and
153. 4:52accept my faith and you know it's been
154. 4:54really
155. 4:55just an amazing experience to be able to
156. 4:58first of all just learn about god's
157. 5:00truths
158. 5:01his bible is full of every that every
159. 5:03answer we could ever
160. 5:04want and god's truth is the same
161. 5:06yesterday today and forever no matter
162. 5:08what i feel and you know
163. 5:10some days aren't easy and it's i have my
164. 5:13struggles and i have
165. 5:14sin that i have to deal with and like
166. 5:17the coolest thing is that
167. 5:18jesus christ died on the cross for our
168. 5:20sins and he forgives us
169. 5:22and he didn't do that for nothing he did
170. 5:24it for you and for i
171. 5:26for me and for you and it's just such an
172. 5:28amazing gift that
173. 5:30i want to be able to share or encourage
174. 5:32others in
175. 5:33and especially with body and soul that's
176. 5:35a huge aspect is encouraging girls in
177. 5:37their
178. 5:38faith so you have this book what can we
179. 5:40look forward to
180. 5:41about bethany hamilton well i am now
181. 5:43married so we could do a whole lot of
182. 5:45romance movies
183. 5:46i love that i'm not really interested in
184. 5:49making a movie at this point um but
185. 5:51well i am kind of working on a small
186. 5:53short film um highlighting my surfing
187. 5:55ability
188. 5:56and so that's something i'm working on
189. 5:58actually right now and
190. 6:00um i'm just so excited about it because
191. 6:02a lot of people know i continued surfing
192. 6:04but they don't realize my
193. 6:06ability and how i'm actually a decent
194. 6:08surfer and
195. 6:10i recently won a contest in hawaii at
196. 6:12pipeline which is a gnarly wave and it
197. 6:15was just
198. 6:15felt amazing to be able to win and just
199. 6:18perform well and
200. 6:20so yeah i'm just taking it one day at a
201. 6:22time and thankful for my husband too
202. 6:25and being able to do it all together
203. 6:27well we thank you so much please
204. 6:29continue inspiring these young ladies
205. 6:31and for those of you who are watching
206. 6:32pick up her book body and soul bethany
207. 6:35hamilton
208. 6:36thank you so much for being here and
209. 6:37we'll see you soon