Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: gofaster on November 03, 2003, 11:18:31 AM
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NBC interviewed her brothers this morning. They had only good things to say about their sister. She seems like a good kid with good Christian morals was on the path to becoming a championship pro surfer until this accident. She lost her left arm just below the shoulder joint. The brothers said she would probably return to the water and continue her dream of being a pro surfer, but I would suspect that she's going to have a pretty steep learning curve. Not having her left arm is going to throw off her ability to maintain her balance, not to mention being able to get her board out beyond the shore break. If she does find the courage to go back in and try to surf, she'll probably do it as a bodyboarder.
They've set up a website for her at http://www.bethanyhamilton.com
(http://www.bethanyhamilton.com/images/bigpic.jpg)
Here's the story from Yahoo:
Surfer Loses Arm in Hawaii Shark Attack
Sun Nov 2, 1:45 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer
LIHUE, Hawaii - The water was clear and there was no indication of danger when a 13-year-old surfing star went out on the waves with her best friend and her friend's father.
But while Bethany Hamilton was lying on her board off Kauai's North Shore, a shark bit once and then disappeared, taking off her left arm just below the shoulder.
"Nobody saw it happen. She just yelled, 'A shark bit me!'" said her father, Tom Hamilton.
Bethany Hamilton remained in stable condition Saturday after the attack Friday morning. She underwent a blood transfusion and was preparing for a second surgery Monday, her father said.
Doctors at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said Bethany's top condition as a competitive athlete helped her survive the attack.
Bethany, of Princeville, was attacked in an area known as Tunnels, a quarter-mile off Makua Beach near Haena.
Bethany was surfing with best friend Alana Blanchard, also 13, and Alana's father, Holt Blanchard, her family said.
Holt Blanchard immediately applied a tourniquet to Hamilton's arm using a surfboard leash, the family said.
After the attack, lifeguards went out on personal watercraft to warn people about the shark, said Cyndi Ozaki, spokeswoman for Kauai County. County officials also closed the area between Ke'e and Wainiha beaches.
"The water was crystal clear according to people in the area, and there was no indication that there was a shark nearby," she said.
Neither the injury nor the beach closure deterred dozens of people from surfing Saturday in the waters where the attack took place.
"To not surf would be like taking away your breath," said Jill Schwed, 36, a Kilauea masseuse.
The beaches were officially reopened Saturday afternoon, after officials flew over the area and saw no evidence of other sharks.
The shark took a chunk out of Bethany's surfboard that measured about 16 inches across and 8 inches deep, penetrating nearly to the center of the board, which suggests the shark was 12 to 15 feet long, Kauai fire Battalion Chief Bob Kaden said. It may have been a tiger shark, said Randy Honebrink, spokesman for the state Shark Task Force.
Bethany is a competitive surfer who already had secured sponsorships and was expected to go pro, according to the Hanalei Surf Online Web site.
In August, she won the explorer women's division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association's Open and Explorer event on Kauai. In May, she won the women's division at the Local Motion-Ezekiel Surf Into Summer contest at Ala Moana on Oahu, beating out older surfers.
"She is probably the best young surfer I have ever seen," said Bobo Bollin, who works at the Hanalei Surf Company, which sponsors a surf team that includes Bethany. "She was going to be the women's world champion and I think she still will be."
Many said they expected Bethany to ride the waves again, but her father wasn't so sure.
"She's back and forth," Tom Hamilton said.
The shark attack was Hawaii's fourth this year. Honebrink said Hawaii averages three or four shark attacks a year. Hawaii's last shark attack this year was Oct. 5, when a woman was bitten while swimming near Kihei on Maui, Honebrink said.
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"Doctors at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said Bethany's top condition as a competitive athlete helped her survive the attack."
Anyone else find this a little weird? She's 13.
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Originally posted by majic
"Doctors at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said Bethany's top condition as a competitive athlete helped her survive the attack."
Anyone else find this a little weird? She's 13.
Believe it or not, active kids recover quicker than sedantary kids because the body is growing in response to the exercise. Even at 13, the body is conditioned for physical stress through exercise. Physiologically, you don't get the big differential in muscle development between boys and girls until puberty kicks in.
Think "Olympic gymnastics". 13-year old girls, 18-year old guys.
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nope, my son was a boxer when he was younger, at 10 years old he was in top condition. he would run 5 miles a day on his off days. training days (5 per week) would be 3 miles plus he'd work out with guys twice his age and leave them in the dust.
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Really sucks :(
shortboardings gonna be out for her pretty much but I recon she'd be able to longboard still and if need be on the bigger days go out on a body board.
shes probably more upset about about having to body board than loosing her arm knowing the feelings surfers have for 'spongers' (bodyboarders).
I 've been cruised a few times by sharks in Oz whilst surfing but you take it for granted that they are there.
She was just real real unlucky.
majic "Doctors at Wilcox Memorial Hospital said Bethany's top condition as a competitive athlete helped her survive the attack. Anyone else find this a little weird? She's 13."
If shes surfing every day for a couple of years shes gonna be very very fit,
Imagine how fit all the AH players would be if you got a full workout everytime they played. ;)
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*chuckles* Yeah, I had a big one chase me halfway across SanFrancisco Bay once while windsurfing. Wasn't a fun experience.
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Anyone else find this a little weird? She's 13.
not one bit.. haven't you watched the X-Games lately ?
they are just kids basically....
locally tons of kids, younger than that, are competitive.
It sure beats seeing those fat lazy kids asking mom for another trip to Mickey-D's
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A friend/customer of mine lost an arm (and it shredded the other pretty much) to a great white. Its nasty what they do.
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An entire generation that didn't see the movie "Jaws". I was never at ease snorkling in Hawaii because of that movie. Thoughts of sharks were always there, and not really all the way in the back of my mind.
Nice to see she was OK.
MiniD
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SHARKBAIT! MAYBE? HA!!!
:aok
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I did ok with the sharks in Hawaii. only saw 1 reef shark in the 2 weeks I was there last year (at tunnels beach, btw). peaked over a lava-flow about 25ft down and found a 5-6 footer in a cleaning-station. I just let go and drifted off.
diving here makes me a bit more nervous. visability is very low and blues move awful fast. you'd already be lunch before you knew he was in the neigborhood.
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Originally posted by Mini D
Nice to see she was OK.
MiniD
Be careful MiniD, showing support for this girl's suffering on the BBS could lead others to take up surfing and have a shark bite their arm off...
:lol
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I don't have a drysuit... so diving in Oregon isn't as much of a problem for me;) Gotta say though, no movie has ever left a lasting impression on me like Jaws (no pun intended).
MiniD
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Did you see the surf board? It was a huge bitemark, she's really lucky she only lost an arm.
(http://www.foxnews.com/images/106571/4_22_110103_shark2.jpg)
And the blood loss, its a real credit to her conditioning, and her Dad's fast response, that she survived.
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kind of a funny side story.
within a month after jaws was released in the theater we had a family party at the house one of my aunts, we had these regularly with aunts uncles cousins. we always loved it at her house though. she had an above ground pool and a couple acres.
one of my uncles lived up in the Dalles and had caught a 6' sturgeon that morning, and hadn't had time to butcher it before the party.
he decided to put it in the back of the truck after laying plastic down and adding a bit of water (and refils at gas stations during the drive). and brought it to the party where him, my father and another uncle spelled each other off in carving up this fish. and everyone got 10 lbs or so to take home.
anyway he's got kind of a weird sense of humor and decided to dump the fish in the pool while he waited for everyone to show up.
as usual when I got there I never even went to the house. little brother and I just headed straight to the pool. I swear I must've levitated a couple feet off the water when I looked down and saw a 'shark' in the pool while at mid-cannonball.
as it is I somehow skipped accross the pool like a stone, and climbed the other wall fairly fast. I was barely wet.
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Originally posted by LePaul
Did you see the surf board? It was a huge bitemark, she's really lucky she only lost an arm.
(http://www.foxnews.com/images/106571/4_22_110103_shark2.jpg)
Holy Freakin' Crap! :eek:
Even if it is a shortboard, and probably fairly lightweight for a girl, that's one massive bite mark!
Yeah, she IS lucky she only lost an arm and not half of her torso. That could easily have been a fatality.
During the recent "Shark Week" on Discovery Channel I caught one of the shows where they re-created 3 specific shark attacks using laboratory analysis of videotapes of the attacks (including footage from "O'Shay's Big Adventure" show), the victims' statements, and a set of mechanical jaws so that they could measure the bite pressure and "sawing effect" of the teeth. What they discovered was pretty scary stuff about the shark thought processes during the attack.
"My arm was hanging in the water, and it just came and bit me," Hamilton told Honolulu television station KGMB.
She said the shark pulled her back and forth, "but I just held on my board, and then it let go."
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Originally posted by LePaul
Did you see the surf board? It was a huge bitemark, she's really lucky she only lost an arm.
(http://www.foxnews.com/images/106571/4_22_110103_shark2.jpg)
And the blood loss, its a real credit to her conditioning, and her Dad's fast response, that she survived.
:eek:
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Originally posted by capt. apathy
... one of my uncles lived up in the Dalles and had caught a 6' sturgeon that morning, and hadn't had time to butcher it before the party....
... as usual when I got there I never even went to the house. little brother and I just headed straight to the pool. I swear I must've levitated a couple feet off the water when I looked down and saw a 'shark' in the pool while at mid-cannonball.
as it is I somehow skipped accross the pool like a stone, and climbed the other wall fairly fast. I was barely wet.
This just in from Fox News! "Swimmers Attack Shark"! We report, you decide! :p
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Sharks are weird critters.
I mean for years I have scuba dove with them I mean right next to them.
All kinds(exept Great whites and tigers).
I have never had trouble with any shark.
Hell I have been attacked by baracuda but no sharks LOL.
I think the common thinking on this is that a sufer or swimmer looks like There food supply from there point of view.
But once they take a bite they know that it is now what they wanted.
Very few sharks are "man eaters"
But they can shure mess up you'r day.
This one looked to be a big one.
In the end she got away lucky.
The shark could have bite her in two.
But again he was probably just going in for a taste.
I hope she recovers and can return to the sport she loves.
PS.
People we must always remember in the ocean we are not on top of the food chain any more.
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I'm a total ***** when it comes to all things shark related.
It's wierd too, because I was really into snorkling as a kid, living in the Philippines, and I was absolutely fascinated by Sharks at that time and througout my youth.
Flash forward to 1992, and I'm in the Navy, statioined at Monterey California. A few of my friends are really into surfing, and I decide to give it a shot. I'd paddle out there, no problem. Then I'd sit and wait for a wave.... big problem. I just can't get it out of my head how tasty I must look. I only went out twice, and was constantly in a hurry to try and get a wave to ride back in.
Kyaking might have been worse. We rented a couple of Kyakes once and went paddling about the bay. As you cross over the Kelp forests during the day, they really give you a sense of the depth there. You can see them go down down down down dissapear. Then my head starts projecting the image of a great white rushing up to ambush my punk ass.
It's irrational, and I know the odds of attack but none the less my head just cant deal with it. I'm glad I never fell overboard lol.
-Sik
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I recall shark week last time around, where they show how sharks could mistake a paddling surfer for prey....but how they also swim up, taste, then retreat. But for a huge fish like that, and the amazing jaws/teeth/force....our human bodies dont take such nibbles well.
That's a huge bite mark, she's lucky she's not out half her chest ..ie dead
I feel bad for her, reading about her on the news and the surf site they link, she was really coming into the sport strong. Maybe she still can, who knows.
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13 year old SUSHI!!! :aok
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Originally posted by DmdNexus
13 year old SUSHI!!! :aok
Thats just wrong
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Originally posted by Sikboy
I'm a total ***** when it comes to all things shark related.
It's wierd too, because I was really into snorkling as a kid, living in the Philippines, and I was absolutely fascinated by Sharks at that time and througout my youth.
Flash forward to 1992, and I'm in the Navy, statioined at Monterey California. A few of my friends are really into surfing, and I decide to give it a shot. I'd paddle out there, no problem. Then I'd sit and wait for a wave.... big problem. I just can't get it out of my head how tasty I must look. I only went out twice, and was constantly in a hurry to try and get a wave to ride back in.
Kyaking might have been worse. We rented a couple of Kyakes once and went paddling about the bay. As you cross over the Kelp forests during the day, they really give you a sense of the depth there. You can see them go down down down down dissapear. Then my head starts projecting the image of a great white rushing up to ambush my punk ass.
It's irrational, and I know the odds of attack but none the less my head just cant deal with it. I'm glad I never fell overboard lol.
-Sik
WOW you sound JUST like me ..
i have this totally irrational deathly fear of water that i cant see and touch the bottom.
put me in the carribean where i can see the bottom 100 feet down im fine.
put me in a 6 foot deep lake with murky water im in sheer panaic.
heck even in a pool with no lights outside at night. (not one of those round above ground ones).
dont know why at all.
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Originally posted by JB73
WOW you sound JUST like me ..
i have this totally irrational deathly fear of water that i cant see and touch the bottom.
put me in the carribean where i can see the bottom 100 feet down im fine.
put me in a 6 foot deep lake with murky water im in sheer panaic.
heck even in a pool with no lights outside at night. (not one of those round above ground ones).
dont know why at all.
No watermelon I have been bittien by pearch in a lake but never by a shark in the ocean.
weird.
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Originally posted by Sikboy
Flash forward to 1992, and I'm in the Navy, statioined at Monterey California. A few of my friends are really into surfing, and I decide to give it a shot. I'd paddle out there, no problem. Then I'd sit and wait for a wave.... big problem. I just can't get it out of my head how tasty I must look. I only went out twice, and was constantly in a hurry to try and get a wave to ride back in.
-Sik
Asilomar Beach? Used to surf there quite a bit when I was stationed at Ft Ord-92-93. It can get pretty rough, and the water is always cold as chit. Never really had any fear of sharks in that area. During my 3 years in Hawaii, only saw 1 reef shark cruising around while I was bodyboarding on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. Ended my day early. ;) Snorkeling is another matter. As long as there's a reef between me and the open ocean I'm ok, but get me on the back side of the reef and I'll be checking 6 every 5 seconds :)
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Originally posted by Sikboy
Flash forward to 1992, and I'm in the Navy, statioined at Monterey California. A few of my friends are really into surfing, and I decide to give it a shot. I'd paddle out there, no problem. Then I'd sit and wait for a wave.... big problem. I just can't get it out of my head how tasty I must look. I only went out twice, and was constantly in a hurry to try and get a wave to ride back in.
Here on the Gulf of Mexico, the only real surf we get comes from hurricanes and tropical storm. The bad part of this is that these storms also create really strong currents that push all sorts of deep-water stuff into the shallows.
When I was a kid, my brother and I would go belly-surfing on some inflatable canvas rafts in water that was maybe 5 feet deep, if even that. We'd ride it in until the raft grounded out, then turn around and wade back out into the surf zone and catch the next set of breakers. We'd do this for hours on end until we got hungry or our nipples couldn't take it anymore, whichever came first.
So we'd been at it for an hour and the surf was really pounding strong (for the Gulf coast) with a strong shoreline current running parallel to the beach. I'd caught a good ride in and stood up to walk back out to the breakers. I was up to my knees in whitewater when something big and slimy brushed up against my leg. I felt this something twitch and swim back along the shoreline just as I was giving the "WTF?" face. :eek: I stood there, trying to decide whether to go in or go out.
I went back out. But after a few more rides, just to prove I wasn't a wimp, I went in. It wasn't until we were settled over a bowl of spaghetti-O's that I told my brother about the something that hit me.
I've been surfing since then and haven't had any bad things happen (other than the time I stepped on a sea urchin). I think that was the last time I really had a scary moment on the water.
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One arm aint too bad...
Hmm, wonder if she needs an older boyfriend now...:p
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That girl seems like a tough cookie. I hope she can overcome this.
Once, while in chest deep water, I got nibbled by hundreds of glass minnows.
I'm one of the lucky ones, I guess. :p
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I just hope that the shark is ok! lol
BTW Not a total lost. She can play AH with her good arm.
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Originally posted by Hawklore
One arm aint too bad...
Unless it's you'r arm!
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Originally posted by Raubvogel
Asilomar Beach?
Yep, on the Pacific Grove side of Ocean View Blvd. I'm lucky I wasn't killed speedinig on that road, but man it was fun. And you're right, the water is just arctic. Almost everyone I knew there hit the water ONCE and that was enough for them. You really needed a wetsuit for that ****.
They announced the closing of Ft. Ord while I was still there, but the base was still open. Now it's some kind of Hippy University.
-Sik
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Originally posted by Regular
BTW Not a total lost. She can play AH with her good arm.
Oh, I don't know. I need two: one for the CH Pro Stick, one to work the radio and harass people on Channel 1.