[MUSIC PLAYING]
KEVIN BELK: Hello, everyone.
Welcome to Talks at Google.
I'm Kevin Belk.
SAVVI NEWTON: I'm Savii Newton.
And I would like to introduce my role model, Bethany Hamilton.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN BELK: How are you?
SAVVI NEWTON: Aloha, everyone!
KEVIN BELK: Aloha.
I should have-- dang it.
You beat me to it.
So welcome, welcome.
And congrats on being a new mom!
BETHANY HAMILTON: Thank you!
KEVIN BELK: So--
[APPLAUSE]
How has that been?
BETHANY HAMILTON: It's been a whirlwind.
My husband, Adam, and I, we have a little guy.
His name's Tobias.
And he's about four and a half months old now.
And I would say the first two months
was like the most challenging time of our lives ever.
But now it's going awesome.
I love being a mom.
It's just the best thing ever.
KEVIN BELK: How have you been able to balance that and work
and surfing and everything?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah, I guess we have a really unique life.
And we kind of dabble in a bunch of different areas,
from surfing to a lot of travel.
And right now I'm on the start of a speaking
tour around America.
So it's definitely a big balance bringing our little guy along.
But thankfully, we can do it together as a family.
And yeah, we just make it work and bring Tobias
into our lives and our world.
KEVIN BELK: And you started surfing at a really young age.
So can you talk about what got you
into surfing and any kind of family influences or friend
influences?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
So I probably was on a surfboard before I could walk.
And I know that my passion began very young.
And I'm still incredibly passionate about surfing today.
But I guess growing up in Hawaii,
it's kind of the perfect spot to take on surfing.
And everyone in my family surfed.
Both my mom and dad moved out to Hawaii in the early 70s, kind
of nomad hippies chasing their dream
to live a simple life in Hawaii and spend
as much time in the ocean as they could.
So eventually they taught my two older brothers and I
how to sew.
And at a young age, they could see
that I had a natural passion and talent for surfing.
And I just kind of stuck to it.
And that was the start of something
that I knew I'd do forever.
KEVIN BELK: It's amazing.
And so what other passions do you have, besides surfing?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah, I have so many different passions.
But I'm definitely a healthy-living sort of girl.
And I love just eating healthy.
So we'll cook a lot of our own food.
And it's awesome, in Hawaii there's a lot of local produce
available and a lot of organic produce at reach
that is just amazing.
And what else.
I love just staying active.
I have lot of different hobbies.
It's hard to get to them, but I love
just playing tennis and hanging at the beach with family
and friends.
And I like reading.
KEVIN BELK: And you're just like everyone else.
Look at that.
And you surf awesomely, too.
BETHANY HAMILTON: I surf a lot.
When we get home from this trip in November,
it's the start of Hawaii's winter season, which
is the best time for surfing.
So I'll be in the water a lot.
And I also enjoy public speaking.
It's a huge passion of mine now, and I
have such an awesome audience of young people.
And I love being able to influence them
in good directions, to just think about their decisions.
So that's another area of passion of mine.
KEVIN BELK: And you have your book
from last year, "Body and Soul."
Can you talk about what inspired that and just the development
process of that?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
So I had the pleasure of writing another book called
"Body and Soul."
And my hope with "Body and Soul" is
to encourage, especially young girls
because I end up talking and hanging out
with young girls a lot.
So I wanted to encourage girls in their health
and their overall journey through those teenage years,
which can be really tough.
So with the book, I was kind of encouraging girls
to think about what they eat, how they move their body
in healthy ways-- talking from not just working
out, but posture and finding things
that they like to do to stay active.
And then, from there, also encouraging them
in their faith in God and just their mental approach on a day
to day basis.
Just live thankfully.
And I found so much.
I meet a lot of girls in everything that I do.
And a lot of girls struggle with their body image.
So I really wanted to encourage them
to focus on being healthy rather than getting caught up
in eating disorders or just different struggles of the way
they view themselves and where they place their identity.
And it's not so much their physical, outer look but just
everything that they are-- the different things
that they're passionate about and that they're talented.
And yeah.
So it's been a lot of fun to have a book in that area, which
there's not a lot of information for girls in the teenage years
that is very accessible and user friendly.
KEVIN BELK: Yeah.
I love when you said "posture" everyone in this room
just went-- you know?
Even me.
I'm like, all right, stuck in the gut.
BETHANY HAMILTON: Posture is so important!
It affects your overall health.
And people don't realize that.
You think of it as more of like, oh, my mom told me to sit up,
so I'm going to set up.
But then like 15 minutes later you're
hanging over the side of your chair.
KEVIN BELK: So after your incident,
what was the toughest thing to realize?
OK, I'm going to keep doing this.
So what was the toughest thing to get right and find
that better balance to get back on the board?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
After losing my arm-- I was 13 years old when
I lost my arm to a shark.
And I think, at the time, when it initially happened,
I thought I had lost much more than just my arm.
I thought I had lost surfing.
And I didn't know what my future was going to hold.
And everything felt really unknown and kind of scary.
I just didn't know what was possible.
Thankfully, I had an amazing community
of people there to support and encourage me.
First of all, I had my faith in God.
It reminded me that, hey, God has a future for your life.
And He has a plan for you.
And He's going to help you get through this.
And He certainly did.
And also I got to talk to another fellow amputee, which
was huge for me.
And he had lost his leg to a shark.
And then he continued surfing-- or he actually
learned how to surf with one leg.
And that was my first light bulbs switch, like, wow,
maybe I can surf with one arm.
So before I even got out of the hospital, which was less
than a week, I was already planning
to try surfing with one arm and basically
just waiting for the doctor to allow me back
in the ocean after healing.
And so my journey kind of began less than a month later.
I got back on my board.
And I remember my first time paddling out with one arm.
It just felt so awkward and weird.
And my dad's right there.
I kind of fell on my first wave, and he's like,
here, let me help you.
And I was little miss independent.
I'm like, no, Dad!
Stay away!
But he did help me verbally.
KEVIN BELK: Typical 13-year-old girl, yeah.
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah, verbally he helped me.
He was like, try to put your hand in the center of the board
because normally, with two arms, you put both hands on the side
when you pop up to ride waves.
So instead, putting my one hand in the middle of the board.
So my third try, I popped right up
and rode the wave all the way to the beach and just
had tears of joy, and was so excited to be
doing what I love to do.
And long story short, today I'm a professional surfer.
And it's what I love to do.
[APPLAUSE]
KEVIN BELK: And then you had "Soul Surfer,"
which is a book that you had written pretty much a year
right after.
It was 2004.
And then it was turned to a movie.
So what was your involvement with not only the book,
but turning it into the movie and the process of that?
Because that came out-- I think the movie came out in 2011,
right?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
So "Soul Surfer," the book, released in 2004.
And I was involved.
I was also a very distracted teenager.
So the ghost writer had to work with me a lot.
I would go surf and then talk with him
and then go do something and then talk with him some more.
And I know it was a long process for him,
but thank goodness we got through it.
And, eventually, "Soul Surfer" the movie
started coming together.
It was a long process, probably about four or five years.
And my whole family and I were very involved.
My brother and sister-in-law were co-producers.
And we all had some say in the script writing,
just trying to make it our own voice
and make it more true to us as a family.
And I guess, growing up in Hawaii,
we really didn't know what we were doing.
But at the same time, we did our best.
And I love the director, Sean McNamara.
He was very open to my feedback.
So anytime I could go and talk to him.
So one day I was on set and they were filming a church scene.
My family and I grew up going to church.
And they were filming this church scene.
It literally looked like everyone was at a funeral.
So I go on set.
I'm like, hey, everyone.
If you could just do me a favor, pretend
you're not at a funeral.
You're at church.
And I personally am really stoked when I'm at church.
So at least pretend you are while you're
doing your job of acting.
And so I had a lot of fun just bouncing to and from on set.
And I even got to go into the editing room
and have a say here and there on different scenes,
like the shark attack.
I remember they initially made it like a "Jaws" scene.
And I was like, no.
This Is way too scary.
Parents are not going to allow their kids to watch this.
And in actuality, it was really quick.
And I didn't even see the shark.
So let's keep it quick, short and-- not so sweet,
but short and sweet.
[LAUGHTER]
KEVIN BELK: And, I mean, you've done everything.
You've done, obviously, a book, a movie, surfing, and stuff.
But you also were in "The Amazing Race"
with your husband, Adam.
And so can you talk about that?
You guys finished third.
And just that incredible, I mean--
BETHANY HAMILTON: You just spoiled it for everyone.
KEVIN BELK: Oh, no!
Wikipedia spoiled it for me.
Watch your TV shows.
Come on, people!
No, but you did that with Adam.
So can you talk about just-- I mean,
that must have been an incredible experience.
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah. "The Amazing Race"
was kind of our second honeymoon, in a sense.
We got married the August before we did the race.
And we raced that next June.
And it was a lot of fun.
It was not easy, but we went into the first leg
just planning not to get lost.
Just make it through the first leg.
And lo and behold, we slowly made it through each leg.
And some of our favorite legs-- the second leg,
we went to England.
And we got to run around a race track in less than a minute
and 15 seconds while flipping pancakes
and keeping up your speed.
And we nailed it in our first shot
and then went on and ended up winning
the leg, which was awesome.
So that kind of built our confidence
early on in the race.
Though anything can happen at any moment,
like a bad taxi driver.
Or you just really screw up on your directions
without your iPhone.
Everyone here, I am sure you rely
on your iPhone for your directions-- or whatever phone.
KEVIN BELK: Android.
Android.
BETHANY HAMILTON: Sorry, the Android!
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, your Androids are very important.
KEVIN BELK: Just be like, iPhone, Android.
We'll edit that part.
BETHANY HAMILTON: So we rely on our brains and a map
to get us around.
And there was a lot of lost moments throughout the race.
But we ended up racing on to the finals, which was awesome.
And it came down to the last challenge.
I had to do it, no matter what, because Adam
had done the challenge before.
And we're basically running around this maze of shipping
containers, looking for different cities
that we had been to.
And each city came with a number.
And you're trying to memorize it.
And then you have to put it all in order.
And I got to that challenge 15 minutes through.
And I was like, OK, my goal is just to finish this.
I want to finish this whole entire race on a positive note.
It's not necessarily about winning at this point
because I am not good with memory.
So I did finish.
And we finished third and we were really stoked.
KEVIN BELK: That's so cool.
And so what was the most difficult challenge in all
of that, other than not relying on technology,
and the variables and stuff?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
I don't know about the most difficult.
But one of my most memorable challenges,
where I got really dirty, I was in Morocco.
And each leg either Adam or I have to do a different task.
And then sometimes we're together doing tasks.
So we're in Morocco and I decided
to do skinning the goat hair off the goat skin.
And we walk into this big area about the size of this room
and there's just goat skins everywhere.
And I had to skin the hair off the goat skin.
And it stank.
And I'm wearing special gloves and just getting really dirty.
And I'm trying to skin the goat hair off the skin.
And then we had to take the dried goat skin
and bike it around through the tiny streets
and navigate your way to wherever it needed to go.
It was chaos.
But it was really fun, crazy memories
that you wouldn't do on a normal, day-to-day basis.
KEVIN BELK: Like flipping pancakes while running.
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah, flipping pancakes.
KEVIN BELK: I clearly do that all the time.
So what advice do you have for younger people,
but even adults too?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
There's so many times in life-- we
all go through different challenges and struggles.
And I found, in my life, I've hugely relied on the things
that I'm passionate about to overcome and give me
motivation and hope that there's a future
beyond this momentary struggle and this pain
that we're going through.
And for me it's been my faith in God and surfing.
And these two things I'm so incredibly grateful for.
First, knowing how much God loves me and the grace He
has in my life.
And just being able to be in the ocean
and do what I love and work towards that has helped
me overcome so much.
And it just leaves us to be thankful for what we do have
rather than what we don't have.
And also just clinging to your community
of people that are going to help you get
through your hard times, too.
KEVIN BELK: So you have Friends of Bethany.
Can you talk a little bit about that as well?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
Friends of Bethany is my nonprofit organization.
I have an awesome team of people that help me with it.
And, actually, I just came from one of my favorite events
that I get to be a part of all year.
It's a retreat for amputee girls.
And we basically hang out for the weekend in Southern
California, take the girls surfing,
encourage them through their struggles.
And all these girls have their own different stories
and different ways of how they have overcome.
And we, basically, leave them with a life-changing weekend
to remind them that they can overcome different struggles
in their lives.
And it's really cool.
We just kind of hang out at some point in the weekend
and talk about, how do you put your hair up with one arm,
and just simple things like that that most of us
wouldn't think about.
So I love what I get to be a part of.
And we're also doing a lot of youth events and teenage girl
events and reaching out to amputees as a whole.
And it's a lot of fun.
KEVIN BELK: And how can people get involved?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah, just check out friendsofbethany.com.
And you'll get the inside scoop there.
KEVIN BELK: And so what's been some of your favorite moments
over the years?
I mean, you have the book.
You have the movie and stuff like that,
but over just the past 12, 15 years?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Well, I'd say getting married was up there.
I have an amazing husband.
I'm so thankful for him in my life.
And then, now, having our little guy Tobias
is even-- it's so amazing.
I'm just loving being a mom and parents together.
It's a very special thing that I feel really grateful for.
KEVIN BELK: Well, family seems to be really important to you,
as well.
So do you have any mentors or anyone
who influenced you, even before that incident
and then just now?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
I mean, my parents were very involved in my life,
which I'm very grateful for because I know,
as parents nowadays, you can kind of
get distracted with your work life
and neglect your kids in a sense.
Sorry to pull it out on parents.
But my parents have been so amazing in my life
and so supportive in many different ways-- my dad,
cheering me on with surfing, and my mom encouraging me
so much in my faith in God.
I also had some really good friends,
a solid group of core girlfriends
that made really healthy decisions as teenagers
and kind of kept us on a good track.
KEVIN BELK: How do you set your goals?
So is there anything that you haven't done
that you're like, I want to do?
BETHANY HAMILTON: Yeah.
Well I'm working on a film project right now called
"Surfs Like a Girl."
And I have a lot of lofty goals within that project
because, in the action sports world, you can kind of either
be very focused on competition or filmmaking.
So I'm kind of veering more towards filmmaking.
So this is a film I'm working on,
highlighting a lot of my surfing ability
while encouraging girls in their sport.
But a lot of people know I continued surfing with one arm,
but they don't understand the level of surfing that I have.
And so I'm going to just be surfing some
of the best waves in the world.
And I have some goals just to perform really high.
So when I'm home-- and on the road--
I work, do different things throughout the day,
just keeping my body in shape and watching
other surfers who I appreciate their way of approaching
surfing.
And also I got a trampoline to elevate my surfing
and get repetition on the trampoline, which you can't
get in the ocean, necessarily.
So I think when you're reaching towards different goals
in your life, take little steps towards the ultimate goal.
Because I think, if you think about the ultimate goal
all the time, you can get overwhelmed
with how challenging it may be and how daunting of a task
it is.
Just one little step at a time.
KEVIN BELK: Where's your favorite place to surf?
BETHANY HAMILTON: My favorite place
to surf-- besides Hawaii, I'm a Hawaii girl at heart.
I love Tahiti, which is very similar to Hawaii.
Tahiti is like Hawaii back in the days.
And it's so gorgeous, and the waves are amazing.
KEVIN BELK: Well, thank you so much for coming today.
We really appreciate that.
BETHANY HAMILTON: Awesome, glad to be here!
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC PLAYING]