In this amazing book, Bethany Hamilton tells the story of her 13-year-old self as a rising star, whose life took a drastic turn after her arm was ripped off in a grisly attack by a 14-foot tiger shark while surfing with her friend. Some parts make for confining, extraordinary reading. The tale of her determination, faith, and hope has resounded in encouragement worldwide and her bravery and remarkable mental and physical toughness is extrusive throughout this book.

October 31st 2003 started out as just another day for Bethany Hamilton. It was morning in Kauai, and a beautiful day to go surfing. Surfing has been a way of life for Bethany since she was able to get on a board, and today was no exception, she was going to surf. At around 12 pm, in the middle of the vast, turquoise ocean. Bethany and her friend were floating in the void, free of gravity. The sun shone off the rippling water, its golden light warped in the twisted, glass-like waves. It was the calm before the storm. “It came, literally, out of the blue. I had no warning at all; not even the slightest hint of danger on the horizon” Bethany says. “That’s all it took: a split second. It felt like a lot of pressure and a couple of lightning-fast tugs.” From this moment on, everything in Bethany’s life would change, however, thanks to her eye-watering bravery,  death-defying resilience and positive outlook on life, she didn’t let her disability stop her. She sees her passion for surfing as a gift from God and as what compelled her to go back to the sport against all odds. Coming back after the shark attack, Bethany found success in surfing competition; now she makes her mark as a professional surfer in the free surfing arena. She currently competes in choice World Surf League (WSL) tour events. In 2016 alone, Bethany’s capacity to inspire reached new heights as she beat a six-time world champion and the top-ranked surfer in the world at a major WSL competition. By overcoming some of the hardest challenges and relentlessly pursuing her passion through faith, she has become one of the leading professional surfers of all time. In 2017, she was inducted into the Surfer’s Hall of Fame

The message I took away from these stories is to not let anything stop you from accomplishing your goals. Sometimes in life, we experience things hard to understand, and it is only by having the courage and that resilience that we get through them. Bethany could have so easily just given up, she could have quit surfing and given in to all the doubters that told her she couldn’t do it. Her never say die attitude is something we can all learn from. To keep going, to keep hopeful, to never quit. Bethany took the time to re-learn how to surf and had the patience, mental strength, and determination to fail over and over again, but still, get back up and try again. This story also just shows how sometimes your whole life can change in an instant, with no warning. I can relate to this on a smaller scale, as I have been told multiple times my reading logs are not good enough and I will never finish, but I blocked out the doubters and continued to work hard, and keep persisting until I finally finished them to a wonderful standard. I kept going, I kept hoping, and I never quit.

Obviously, Bethany was faced with huge challenges within the book, beginning with her almost fatal shark attack, and then having to work her way all the way back to the top, with locked-in tunnel vision, blocking out the background noise of doubters and people who said it was a waste of time and she couldn’t do it. She proved them all wrong and has now been inducted into the surfer’s hall of fame, which is a massive achievement – I find this to be very inspirational.

The title ‘Soul Surfer’ is a term invented during the 1960s, which is a person who surfs for the sheer pleasure of surfing. Although they may still enter competitions, winning is not the soul surfer’s main motive, since they scorn the commercialization of surfing. To me, this relates to the story greatly and I believe it describes Bethany Hamilton

As a whole, I would definitely recommend this book to all ages as it contains many important life lessons that everyone can relate to. I believe normal people like us can take away lessons and learn new things by reading this. Bethany’s attitude is definitely something we can all learn from. To keep going, to keep hopeful, to never quit.