 I just finished a conversation with a lady called Bethany Hamilton who at the age of 13 became the most famous surfer in the world when she lost her arm in a shark attack while surfing in Hawaii. A month later she got back in the water and went on to become a world champion surfer and has won many championships and many national championships since then. She's an amazing inspirational young woman. Her Netflix documentary called Unstoppable you should get that a look is so inspiring to watch and she now uses her life she still serves competitively and she now feels called to have a voice especially to young people around the world who are also overcoming odds in their life to metaphorically get back in the water themselves as it were whatever that means for them to to continue to be strong to go for their dreams to overcome all odds that are against them which she's so proved possible through her life. You're gonna love this interview don't forget to subscribe. Thank you for listening to this podcast with Paul Scanlon just before we get started on this episode some of you have reached out to us in the past about your interest in partnering with Paul financially. You have wanted to show your appreciation and support for his investment into both yours and other people's lives. We're so grateful for anyone who wishes to do that and if it is something you might be interested in you can find out more at PaulScanlon.com forward slash partner dash Paul and there will also be the links in the notes. Thank you for listening and enjoy this episode. Any hidden blessings Bethany of the pandemic for you and your family do you think things you've loved and enjoyed and thought wow I don't want this to end kind of thing? Well yeah I mean there's always the silver and lining I see just like the quality time we've had and just spending time at home has been really nice but it's definitely been a mind battle for sure I'm just seeing like the chaos of our country and the world and just feeling the kind of effects of everything on the world as a whole especially here in Hawaii I think we're only just we're not even close to seeing the repercussion of everything because everyone here relies on tourism so if that doesn't come back up in the next couple years that'll be really hard on a lot of people so but yeah overall we're just loving our time as a family and just kind of reevaluating life and what's the most important things to us and kind of getting our goals and priorities very clear. I saw you doing some baking or cooking in your kitchen on your Instagram is that a new thing or have you always done that? No we've always loved cooking and I'm I'm very passionate about living healthy so naturally you kind of got to own up the kitchen to do that so it's been fun to just encourage people I think and just kind of put some more positive stuff out there as far as just with everyone being stuck at home around the world and around the country. We have an Hawaiian friend in San Diego and she introduced all things Hawaii when we met them years ago with hula dancing and then the kalua pig. Yeah I would die for that it was the best best ever stuff I ate was unbelievable. Yeah a good local meal is definitely one of a kind. Yeah absolutely listen Bethany a lot of my listeners of course are European and to the east I know you've served quite a bit in Indonesia thousands of my listeners are in Indonesia but and I'm sure most people are familiar with the story of your background and the shark attack at 13 and so on bring us a little bit up to date with your story your backstory to where you are now what you're not doing because I know you're involving this online personal development stuff now which looks fantastic so tell us a little bit about I know it's several years we're spanning here but give us a little bit of background of because you start serving really young right? Yeah I started surfing um when I was like a toddler I think my parents had me on a surfboard before I could walk and I really developed the passion on my own um very deep as at a young age and this would always probably be begging my parents to go to the beach and you could say the ocean was my playground instead of an actual playground yeah yeah and so as that love developed I also kind of had a natural competitiveness to me I think having two older brothers spurred that on a bit and just loving that feeling I love that feeling of pushing myself to be my best and so that kind of drew me to um competitive surfing which I was really great at I was kind of the one day beat in my age bracket as a young girl and so when I lost my arm um to the shark at the age of 13 it kind of felt like my life had come to a halt and was slipped upside down and I didn't know what my future held and I think a lot of us can relate to that um specifically right now and but all of us go through different times in our life where things just kind of get flipped upside down and it can feel really trying and challenging and I would say the few things that kind of kept me initially moving forward was um just having a grateful mindset I was really grateful to be alive I could have very well died that day and but I believe God had plans for my life and um kind of kept me alive for a reason and I kind of just trusted God in that time and moved forward with like wow the fact that I'm breathing is a gift and then I also have this willingness to just try like be willing to try like figure out life with one arm I didn't look at myself and think like oh gosh I have one arm like I can't do anything I just like kind of move forward with like what can I do like how can I do things differently and just move forward with that mindset of adaptability and that was a huge advocate for me as well that sense of that you felt I mean you went back to the water quite soon after this didn't you like what was yeah I was back in the water less than a month later and I was just on a mish and I think it just took like a little hint of hope like I had a conversation with a guy by the name of Mike Coots and he learned how to serve with one leg he was also a shark attack survivor and he came to the hospital and said like hey Bethany I think you can serve with one arm I was paddling around this morning and I popped up and um so I think it just took that little reminder of like hope and the the small chance that like maybe you can Bethany and then so once I popped up on my first my third wave I caught I paddled I popped up and rode it all the way to the beach and from there it was kind of like no stopping me now so no no massive um balance issues that that meant you couldn't continue or was the balancing discovery quite a while when you started surfing again yeah I think it took a couple years to kind of adapt to this new body and it was like I had the the foundation of understanding the ocean and understanding waves which is half the battle in surfing and I already knew how to surf but now it's just relearning how to do it differently with one arm and so yeah balance was an issue just having enough paddling speed to catch waves and kind of just different things like how I'd use my body on a wave um so it took took some time and and kind of determination and adaptability and another advocate of mine I think was just my willingness to be taught and to learn and I always kind of chose to surround myself with people to encourage me or coach me and kind of push me in the direction and be a another set of eyes to like look in on my situation and you know keep nudging me forward I think a lot of people listening will be amazed one that you went back and two what you did with battling the fear was fear the big thing for you going back in the ocean in terms of you know been attacked again or your fear about that possibility how did you manage that yeah I definitely had a bit of fear and I think part of that fear was actually just not being able to surf or not being able to do what I love to do but also sharks um but I also kind of looked at the situation with the sense that like it's so rare of a thing to happen and it's kind of like getting in the car every day and just being like extremely fearful of getting in a wreck it's just you know it happens but it's not necessarily like how you approach getting into a car right so for me it was I'm not going to approach the ocean every day with the fear of that and I know some people struggle with that so I think for me like just putting my focus on on catching waves and staying busy and surfing with friends helped a lot and over time that fear kind of dissolved and yeah even to this day I would say I'm pretty normal like unless the water gets really murky and dirty and like kind of just that eerie feeling and not usually like dwelling on sharks in the ocean and I think they are actually really beautiful creatures and they're part of the ecosystem they're essential part of the ecosystem and so there's a beauty to them in my mind your determination and drive you know when you talk about your awareness on the unstoppable Netflix documentary the awareness that from eight you kind of fell even from that edge you wanted to be a competitive surfer at eight that drive and determination you have had since childhood that I still pick up from you now where does that come from oh gosh I know even myself I'm like gosh I was a really determined young girl and it wasn't just like I'm having fun and I want to like just steal my bass but it was a genuine determination to become one of the best and you know I honestly I can't say but I you know one thing I would say is like I believe that when we have our focus um on things that we're passionate about and things that bring us joy and kind of get us fired up to like work hard and push through pain points um you know because surfing is actually like a really challenging sport like the ocean can be so uh discouraging at times and just like frustrating and challenging so you you know it takes resilience to stick with it and be out there and so I think a lot of let taught me that was just being in the ocean at a young young age and you know definitely my faith in god too kind of kept me grounded and just wanting to um be my best in everything that I did um and so when when things got hard that passion and determination didn't just dissolve it just may be adopted but you're still very competitive right yeah yeah I'm pretty competitive um it's been an interesting year um because in 2019 I um set my sights to like go a hundred percent back into competitive surfing where like the previous years I had just been kind of like jabbling here and there still doing some events but not like having full focus and for those that don't know I'm also a mother of two young boys and a wife so I thankfully I had the support of my husband and my family kind of just went along for the ride and supporting me and cheering me on and then um towards the end of 2019 I actually broke my elbow so I had no elbow no arm the one and only arm out of out of commission but yeah I was skateboarding and I fell on the cement the cement is not as nice as the ocean but so that was a major step back but I kind of just my focus into preparing my body regardless and my mind for the competitive season and then um basically come March the world was kind of coming to a halt with all the coronavirus stuff so I think the rest of the year is going to be canceled so we're kind of just feeling our way through the year and not kind of setting our sights to to clear at this point but I'm just putting our focus on the things we can do like encourage people and I have my online course which it brings me a lot of joy and passion to wake up tell us a bit about that Bethany your online course yeah it's called so I guess I've kind of been in this space of inspiration for a long time and um I embraced that but I didn't feel like I was fully giving back with that space like it was more of just like being an inspiration but I wanted to do more and equip people and share the tools and things I've learned along the way so my husband and I and a team of people that are like-minded um we work together to create an online course that is a year-long course and it's called the unstoppable life and kind of encouraging people to overcome their tough times to share the tools that have equipped me to carry myself with the resilience and determination and things like you know we start the year slowing ourselves down um you know so many people are so on the go go go that when things get hard they're so busy that they don't have the time to evaluate the pain that's suffering from and the time to kind of check in with themselves and you know is this the life they're wanting to live and so just kind of like creating a space of awareness and a space to heal and grow and be challenged and to kind of think about what they want for their lives and then move forward with like an unstoppable mindset so it's been really really fun that's very cool now you've been in the public eye Bethany obviously since two or three um how was your relationship with all that unfolded you know since then i mean obviously you became famous and known in a way that you maybe didn't want to be or didn't expect it was thrust upon you how did you manage all that in your teens and how do you cope with it all now yeah in my teen years it was so hard and i didn't embrace it i didn't like it um i think being a island girl i just grew up very simple i didn't like it wasn't something i ever thought could see myself seeking after and you know i like the simplicity of just getting in and out of the ocean and going to school and hanging with my friends and so being so young and all of a sudden thrust into the spotlight was a major challenge um and i think part of what kept me grounded through all that was for sure my faith in god um just being in the ocean still having the acceptance and like the the friendships that i had that like just embraced me as i was and like would put me in my place or not help me when they didn't think i needed help um things like that and yeah as i got older i just really saw the beauty in storytelling so i shared my life through my book soul server and that was made into a film and i authored a few other books that um were just things of encouragement to people and just hearing some of the stories of like especially young people i'd say my my sweet spot is for young people and there's a lot of young people that suffer so much at such young ages now that being able to hear the kind of testimonies of like they heard my story and that like brought them light and hope in their dark hour and so i that kind of propelled me to keep sharing my story and eventually that led to my documentary Unstoppable um which is now in most places around the world on um iTunes and some places in Netflix so it's just been like really cool to be able to you know i see you know when you wake up every day not having your whole life centered around yourself like i think it brings balance and so that's another part of my online courses like being a blessing to other people and encouraging people to make that a part of their life of the things that you do the range of things that you do is this what do you love the most about what you do do you love public speaking do you love writing um do you love doing stuff to camera is there a sweet spot for you in the range of things that you do i would say i like mothering really there you go yeah being a mother is definitely my greatest joy at this point um and then behind that like besides surfing um i just i love motivational speaking especially to young people and so just being able to remind them that they can overcome their challenges in life um is really fun and you know you can leave that knowing that someone's gonna take a nugget of encouragement that day so and he's speaking to young people from all kinds of walks of life in the in the groups that you speak to are you into schools or these camps or who are these people yeah it's a variety like kind of a lot of different opportunities come my way from speaking to schools conferences um people of all different backgrounds so kind of just keeps me on my toes sometimes i've even been speaking to corporate businesses with older people yeah i really enjoy it all but definitely the young people um gets me really stoked you know public speaking communication is my big thing but i wonder um do you enjoy it do you find it challenging uh continually uh do you get scared you get nervous yeah you know it's very challenging so maybe that's partially what draws me to it um i've actually been getting coaching the last couple of months and i'll continue working with my coach over the next year and um just trying to get better at it and just finding ways to draw people in and and leaves um long lasting kind of memory points for them um but yeah i think for the most part i'm not too nervous and i'll probably get more nervous in small groups it's the bigger groups that are yeah i did speak at the national prayer breakfast here in the us and that was pretty overwhelming speaking to politicians all over the world right thankfully my husband was there to kind of back me up and support me and cheer me on that's great what is your favorite place in the world to serve do you have one and why well i would say Hawaii for sure that's where i was born and raised some of the best waves in the world are out here um but i've also enjoyed Indonesia a lot i've probably spent more time in Indonesia than any other country besides kind of like there in Australia probably my top two international countries that i've spent time in and they're just amazing waves there so it's a little specific is there a specific coastal area in Indonesia where there's great waves um honestly the whole country is just loaded with waves um yeah it's amazing um most Indonesians are very familiar with surfers because there's just it's like crawling with surfers everywhere so but i love the mental mentality islands i'm not sure how you pronounce it and then bali and uh i've been to an island called roti i've been kind of all over so that's been like probably one of my bigger adventure countries and what's the oldest surf you've ever seen oldest oldest oh gosh oh i don't know is this age limited like can you serve till your nineties or what um i don't know if i've seen i've definitely seen an 80-year-old surfing i think if you take care of your body and like nutritionally and posturally and strengthwise you could probably keep it going pretty late what is the next thing that you're working on upcoming projects and so on um i'm just actually continually developing my online course i want to give as much tools and resources that i can through that so that's kind of a continual project that i'm really excited about and other than that um yeah just kind of raising the family and kind of seeing what the world does and figuring itself out and see once things kind of mellow down and then we'll kind of keep pursuing things as we can is there a normal is this such thing as a normal day for you at the moment or not um i mean yeah i mean at home we're definitely having a pretty normal life just we do a lot of our work online so we're staying busy here at home but also getting to the beach and still surfing a lot and just enjoying the family and um yeah i would say it's it's um i'm thankful for where our life is at right now now the faith that you have bethany uh has that come from europe bringing your family or christians and so on yeah i grew up a christian and um ever since i was a young girl i think i had a childlike faith and it was just really amazing when i did lose my arm i would say i had a kind of odd sense of peace that it was going to be okay and i just believe that god had me in the palm of his hand and yeah i don't even like part of me now doesn't even fully understand how i was so at peace with the whole situation so the only thing i can attribute it to is god and and just knowing that um his grace and love for me was there yesterday that day and forever i think overcoming what you overcame and speaking to young people who see that it's such an inspiration to young people as you said especially now we're going through all kinds of mental health issues suicidal issues he's hugely out of control in the country here in the united kingdom only two years ago our government appointed a minister of suicide because the suicide stats were so huge especially among young people wow that's really really devastating um yeah it's actually really common out here in hoi too there's a lot of young people taking their lives and um yeah i think there's ways we can approach life differently um but having the resources to know that um i think we need to start sharing that more out publicly and you know providing kids with proper nutrition lots of exercise um less time on screens um you know get them working hard young boys need to work hard they need to move their body they need to be challenged and they need to be given things to work towards so i think that's a a major thing lacking in society now um so yeah i actually i'm hoping to develop my online course um in different ways so my husband and i would work together to create a young boys mentorship and then we would also work together to create a young women so like more designated towards young women and young boys and kind of like separate them in a way that like really speaks to the young ones um depending on if they're a boy or girl and yeah the sky's the limit with ways we can encourage people and i think just communicating in a way that's uplifting and brings the best out of people um is so important and creating a space of like safety but also like challenge and to propel them to you know keep moving forward and you know i think of right now like everything was shut down for months and months and there was a few suicides here in kawaii where i live and i was just like no people need to be working they need to be pushing towards something so you can only stay in lockdown for so long yeah yeah for sure um what is your um future now you're gonna go back into surfing you said next year probably when he starts again yeah we're gonna see um kind of what's gonna happen because i the surf culture was actually doing really bad prior to um all this so i think it's gonna really crash over the next few years so we'll just kind of see what happens um you know i'm always kind of training myself and being prepared for whatever may come my way so naturally i'm just continually pushing myself so if i decide to go back into that direction then i'll be ready but if not um there's so many opportunities to keep pushing in life and keep moving forward so um i think i'll be happy regardless of what space i put my focus in and who will be meantest to you bethany yeah um you know my mom actually has been really amazing she's always sharing wisdom nuggets of wisdom with me like just yesterday she reminded me that like the mercies of god are new every day and to not live in our past but to move forward and forgive ourselves or those around around us who have hurt us i think unforgiveness can really eat away at our life and just hearing that from my mom was like really just encouraging with all that's going on to not let the past hold us back from moving forward towards our future and towards the good and beautiful things in life yeah i'm a big believer in um finding guides and voices not necessarily in a relationship with one-on-one but you know books and reading like your online course yeah a possible mentorship voice to possibly millions of people in a way that you know not long since it wasn't an option because you had to be face-to-face to a degree yes but the i am constantly reading i'm like always having my face in a book like yeah it's weird i feel like i'm educating myself more today than i ever have and i'm enjoying it and like getting like just feeling passionate about growing myself and and continually learning so yeah that's cool i think we have to always like be teachable and be learning and growing um and just kind of learn through different seasons of life um where can people find you bethany um where can they go to you what are your social media i look i know your social media is fantastic i've been looking all the time but where can people find you i'm at bethanyhamilton.com and then on social at bethany hamilton so if you guys want to check me out i'd be grateful yes and your netflix unstoppable documentary is brilliant and the soul server book and the unstoppable book are fantastic i hope everybody takes a look at that stuff it's brilliant you are such an inspiration to everyone you really are thank you paul much love and a little heart from here in hoi thank you take care thanks for your time again thank you for listening to this episode with paul scanlan on his podcast channel just to remind you that if it isn't interest to you and you'd like to support paul financially through what he does please check out the show notes for where you can find out how to do that and don't forget to subscribe share and write a review thank you