Thirteen years ago, Bethany Hamilton’s left arm was bitten off by a tiger shark while she was surfing on Kauai. Despite losing 60 percent of her blood, she survived, returned to surfing three weeks later, became the subject of a number of movies and books over the years, and appeared on a ton of TV shows like The Amazing Race. Meanwhile, she also continued to work as a pro surfer. <br /> <br />Getting over the emotional trauma of a shark attack and then returning to the water is a feat on its own, but physically speaking, the actual balancing and paddling work of surfing seems near-impossible with one arm. Getting onto a big wave requires paddling up to speed then quickly pushing yourself up onto your feet, which are each hard enough on their own with two arms. <br /> <br />But her handicap hasn’t stopped Hamilton from getting rad and competing in World Surf League competitions. This past weekend, she earned her highest WSL finish and took down the top-ranked surfer in the world, Tyler Wright, before bowing out in the semifinals. As you can see, she can still surf the hell out of a wave. <br />Famous as she is, Hamilton isn’t a WSL regular, and she only entered the event as a wild card, but she proved she belonged pretty quickly. Getting back in the ocean at all after a shark bit your whole arm off is impressive as hell, but beating the world’s top surfer is impressive is a pretty emphatic way to top things off.
