"Soul Surfer" by Bethany Hamilton

"Soul Surfer" is Bethany Hamilton's early autobiography. It is the story of her life up until a little after her shark attack incident. Bethany was a professional surfer even before her run-in with a 15 foot tiger shark. Her life story is inspirational and uplifting as she describes her road to recovery. In this part of the book she is describing the day that the incident happened.

"We had only been surfing a half hour and the waves were nothing spectacular. We were waiting for the next decent one to roll in, and Alana was floating no more that fifteen feet from me; her brother, Byron, and Dad, Holt, not much farther away. I was bringing up near the rear, and all of us were looking out to sea. I had a tiny, light blue Rip Curl watch on my left hand that i was dangling in the water. I sometimes wonder if the reflection of that watch in the clear water is what attracted the shark. That's when I was suddenly aware of a large gray object closing in on my left side. He was slow and silent;he really crept up on me. . . Luckily, all I saw was a blur. . . I felt pressure and kind of a jiggle-jiggle tug, which I know now was the teeth. . . It was over in a few seconds. I remember seeing the water around me turn bright red with my blood. Then i saw that my arm had been bitten off almost to the shoulder. There was just a three- or four-inch stub where my limb had once been. My reaction as Alana told me, was amazingly matter-of-fact and in control. I just said in a kind of loud yet not panicked voice 'I just got attacked by a shark," and started to paddle away with one arm. I knew the shore was a very long quarter of a mile, but one thought kept repeating in my head: "Get to the beach. Get to the beach"

This part of the book is amazing to me because I believe that her faith in God mentioned earlier in the book and her physical strength kept her alive. By the look of the pictures in the book (also above), that shark could have swallowed her whole. In a way, that day for her was miracle after miracle as she endured such a traumatic event that would have hurt others forever when she had the power to live through it and learn to accept it.