13 year old Bethany Hamilton, the top young amateur competetive female surfer on Kauai,was attacked by a tiger shark while surfing Tunnels this morning. She was paddleing over a wave when the shark attacked her and bit her arm off at the shoulder. Lucky for her, three other surfers in the water were able to stop the bleeding and get her to shore before she lost to much blood. I understand she’s on Oahu and alive thanks to the quick thinking of the three surfers who acted so fast. Needless to say this is a real shock to our close knit surfing community. Both of her parents have lived here for over 30 years and are very involved in surfing. Her mother Sherry was a competetive surfer in her youger years and won her fair share of contests. Her dad Tom has been a rep for several surf related companies over the years and a good surfer himself. Say a prayer for Bethany.Aloha, Kokua
Stay strong…you’ll make it!!! Best Regards,Pete Steinberg.
Terrible, tragic news! Lucky she had friends to save her life and let her see her parents many more days. Thoughts and prayers to her and her family. Rob Olliges
oh man… thats horrible… Thoughts and prayers to all of them. Also a reminder… The animals that live in the ocean rule it. Always step into it with a respect and thought that there are creatures bigger and badder out there. I’m not saying to be scared, but to know. I almost feel as though somehow through some cosmic thing (yeah yeah i don’t do drugs) that some people are just the chosen unlucky that these things happen to, atleast in my view, considering I’ve been up close and personal with sharks big enough to do some damage before and walked away unscathed. That being said, its horrible to hear about things like this and while some irrational people would love to put up anti-shark nets and everything else, its not our place to do so. We just need to hopefully be aware and accept the inherent risks we all put ourselves into. peace Ted
A shark jumped out of the water the other evening out at Pipe leaving a huge splash. I saw the splash but not the shark. No one seemed too concerned, but seeing what happened today, I’ll be a bit more cautious. My prayers go out to Bethany and her family.
THanks Kokua for the info on the shark attack.I got home this evening ready to trick or treat w/ the kids and saw cnn or msnbc scrolling across the bottom of the screen"teenage surfer loses arm in Kauai shark attack…made my heart sink.I had no idea it was a girl,and so young too.You’ll be in our family’s prayers tonite Bethany.
As a parent who has introduced his children to the ocean, I can imagine the anguish the parents must be feeling. My heart goes out to the family. On a pragmatic level, is there anything being done to offset the huge long term medical costs? Patrick
Terrible news, my thoughts are with Brittany and her family. I grew up on Kauai surfing all over the island including Tunnels where the attack occurred. I have definitely seen my fair share of sharks in my young years on Kauai, even on my last visit surfing a semi-secret south shore spot saw a big tiger at least 9 ft. +. FD, funny you should mention the Pipe incident, I was out at Jocks last Sunday morning fun decent size waves. I was riding a 6’5", to small a board to sit outside. During a lull sitting on my board watching the horizon with the outside pack in the foreground, BOOM! an air born shark about six feet long right in the middle of the pack WOW! No doubt it was a shark, everybody was kinda just stunned, funny thing nobody went in. After a few minutes of some chitchat about it, it was like it never really happend. My take is these shark sightings and attacks are becoming all to common, too much of their food chain is being over fished for human consumption hence they are coming closer to and into the lineups looking for food, just food for thought. Again, thoughts and prayers for Brittany. Aloha, 808 shapes
Link in Honolulu Advertiser with additional information. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Nov/01/ln/ln01a.html
In the late '80’s I would regularly see large sharks at beaches all around Oahu. Around 1990/'91, there were a series of highly publicized deadly shark attacks in Hawaiian waters around Oahu and Kauai. The State of Hawaii formed the controversial Shark Task Force to monitor and regulate the number of large aggressive sharks. The goal was to restore public confidence and protect the all-important tourist industry. Certain Hawaiian groups consider sharks to be aumakua, or ancestral gods. The State had to walk a fine line between appeasing cultural concerns and maintaining the pristine image of its main tourist attraction. Because the State essentially had their hands tied, frustrated fisherman and surfers began launching their own expeditions to kill off any large adult sharks they could find, to the dismay of environmentalists and the Hawaiian community. The result was a drastic decrease in the number of adult sharks and a drop in reported incidents of attacks on surfers and swimmers. Juvenile sharks were not targeted in State and private shark hunts. 10 years later, those juveniles have now matured into full-grown adults. After years of not seeing any sharks at all, I am now beginning to see large sharks once again frequenting popular beaches. It stands to reason that we will start to see more serious attacks like the unfortunate incident that recently occurred on Kauai. Be careful out there guys!
My buddy the other day was fishing on the back side of Rabbit Island, one Tiger was 18ft long, took 7 buoy and 7 Ahi heads. The other one took all the gear, chewing through 10 leaders of 1600lb wire, fellas that is a big fish! There are monsters in the ocean, we just have to learn to deal with them and give them there space. Surf the dawn and dusk patrol at your own risk. Like my buddy says, “I’m not scared of the sharks as long as I can paddle faster than you!” -Jay
That poor girl. My heart goes out to her. Very sad. Hawaii is such a beautiful place, but there is always danger. If you go to the international shark attack file (do a search) you will find that Florida has far more shark attacks per year than Hawaii. Many places around the world have more attacks than Hawaii. But you’ll also notice that the ratio of major injuries and deaths per attack is higher in Hawaii. Hawaiian attacks more often lead to amputation or death than in other places. Florida gets about one death per two or three years and CA gets about two deaths per decade. But Hawaii gets more, and the number of lost legs and arms is more. It’s because of the aggressive nature of tiger and other species of sharks that frequent Hawaii. Call me old school, but I don’t have any problem with overfishing of shark species. I’m not sure what the consequences would be, but sometimes that’s how I feel.
…Prayers on the way!!!I personally wish her all my best!Ohana,Aloha.Herb
maybe we could organize a Swaylocks fund drive for little Bethany Hamilton. I have not stopped thinking about her at such a big turning point in her life. We’ve got a large community here, let’s help out. I echo Herb Spitzer, the prayers are in the air.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bethany and her family. The surfers who saved her are to be held in the highest esteem.
Reading the article in the Advertiser brought tears to my eyes. I have surfed several of those spots myself and snorkled the reef and channel at Priceville. Seems very scary to me to think what we were doing. Our prayers are with you Bethany…Speedy recovery! May the Lord be with you in all that lies ahead! Be strong! MLC
Oldschool? no. Ignorant? yes. Overfishing is the easiest way to destroy the ecosystem we love so much, whats next? You wanna dredge off the tops of reefs so people don’t get mangled on them so badly? Or howabout we put in structures so the waves don’t get too big for you everywhere? More surfers get injured/die each year than get attacked by sharks. The only difference being that people can say “well that person screwed up” instead of freaking out and feeding off of the inherent fear as humans we have of a creature far more formidable and dangerous. I’m sorry, but you’re straight up ignorant.
my thoughts and prayers are with her…
Howzit Epacman, We are waiting a few days for the family to pull them selves together, then we are going to look into setting up a fund for Bethany. On the up side, she’s at Wilcox(was originally told they flew her to Oahu)and doing good. One of the first things she asked her dad after surgury was if he thought she could be a pro photographer. Her spirits are high and the family is just happy she’s alive.I know everybody who was in the water at the time and the shark swam right underneath one of them just before the attack,he said the shark was at least 15ft. long. It happened so fast he didn’t realize that bethany had been hit. Apparantlly there was no splashing or shaking motion to the attack. Needless to say nobody was out at Tunnels this morning. One friend said He’ll only surf there from now on if it’s perfect.Talking with fisherman friend of mine and he told me he has caught and killed over 500 sharks in the area just outside of Hanalei Bay in a matter of 3or 4 years. If only the surfers knew how many are out there were his exact words. Hanalei Bay is also a breeding ground for hammer head sharks and babies are constently caught by fisher men on the pier.We never had many shark attacks or even sightings until about 10 or 15 years ago. On reason for all the sharks has been attributed to the turtle catching ban in 1974. There are turtles everywhere at the bay these days and since sharks love turtle it’s a gimmee that they will be in the area, I know that’s where I got chased by a 12 footer a couple of years ago. Aloha, Kokua
Not real comforting to know that turtles are a favorite food of Tiger sharks since there are turtles everywhere at my home break at Laniakea.