First Person with Wayne Shepherd

First Person: Bethany Hamilton

Surfing champion Bethany Hamilton talks about the movie SOUL SURFER which tells her life story and gives God the glory. Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company: FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007 Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 31 Mar 2011
Audio Format:: other

Surfing champion Bethany Hamilton talks about the movie SOUL SURFER which tells her life story and gives God the glory.

Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:
FEBC National Processing Center
Far East Broadcasting Company
P.O. Box 6020
Albert Lea, MN 56007

Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

We can't let fear stop us from doing what God has called us to do, and we just got to trust in him, and he will guide us every step of the way. I guess that's just what I try to do is just trust in God and give every little frustration or doubt to him, and he'll take care of it. This is First Person, and today we'll meet a woman who not only possesses great skill, but has been called of God to exercise great courage in her young life. We'll meet Bethany Hamilton, whose life story is about to be told through the new movie Soul Surfer. Welcome to this week's edition of our program. I'm Wayne Sheppard. It's always nice to have you join us, whether online or on the radio. First Person is meant to remind us all of how God redeems and redirects a life which is offered to him without reservation. Each week, we talk with a guest who tells us their story of God's faithful hand in shaping who they are. And in addition to this week's guest, you'll find all of our previous programs online for listening anytime at firstpersoninterview.com. Just click on the Listen Now button at firstpersoninterview.com. Well, over a year ago, I met Bethany Hamilton on the set of Soul Surfer as the movie was being made. Bethany's whole Christian family surrounded her, making the movie just as they surrounded her that day when she was 13 years old and a shark bit off her arm, seemingly ending a promising surfing career. But God had other plans for Bethany, and she now is one of the top ranked women's surfers in the world. Soul Surfer will be released in theaters in just a few days, and I recently talked with Bethany about the film. Making Soul Surfer was incredible. My family and I have actually been working on it for about five years, and it's kind of been jumping back and forth from this to this. And we've gone over several scripts, and it's been quite an adventure and journey just to get to where we are now. It's actually quite a relief to have it finally finished, and now it's getting ready to come out in theaters. It's been really exciting and amazing, but very technical and difficult at times, but very rewarding. We just have a sense of well done by the end of this, but now seeing the final product. Yeah, so it's good. What was important to you to make sure that it came through in this movie? What was the most important thing to you? Well, I guess as a family, we all wanted, of course, God to get the glory because he has been the center focus of our life, and just for him to be honored throughout the whole film, and just how our personal relationship with him has been a stronghold for every little detail of our life and everything that we've been through. And then we also wanted the surfing to come out really well, and just to be portrayed properly, you know, how Hollywood can kind of get surfing wrong, and we've seen that in some of the movies in the past. So the surfing turned out really good, and that's another fun aspect to the film. I want to talk to you about both those things, and about the surfing, because I've seen the film. I saw it for the first time just last night prior to this conversation, and the surfing scenes are phenomenal. I mean, is that normal? I mean, you look at it with a little different eyes, a professional, but how did it come about to be so good? Yeah, well, women surfing has really taken another level, and that was one exciting part for me because I did a lot of the one-arms surfing in the second half of the film. I mean, there's not too many one-arm surfers out there, so it's cool to be able to play my own character in the surfing aspect of it. Yeah, it's actually a really hard thing to shoot because the ocean is moving, and you've got to get waterproof cameras, and get everyone here at the right time, and then you have to get good waves. And the surfer has to be performing well, but it was a lot of my good friends that I surf with all the time. I came over to a Wahoo to surf in the film, and my friend Alana, who I grew up with and who was there during the shark attack and all she did her own stunt surfing too, so it was really cool. I get the feeling you guys are used to being kind of free spirits out there in the water, and then all of a sudden the movie crew shows up, and you've got to do everything probably ten times and catch a wave that they're all going to be happy with. Yeah, I mean it's kind of crazy because if the sun wasn't out perfectly good, then we would have to sit around and wait, and then you have to wait for them to set up the camera gear, and all these little details, and then plus you have to wear the wardrobe, and accordingly you have to wear this wardrobe for this scene. So all these little details, and all you want to do is just go out there and surf, but it has a cool experience. It really is fun to be a part of. As you mentioned, you were your own, well I wouldn't say you're your own stunt double, you actually played yourself in the water on those surfing scenes, but Anna Sofia Rob plays you in the movie. Yeah. What kind of relationship with Anna Sofia, and a friendship developed there? Yes, Anna Sofia Rob is a young actress, she's just starting out, and I had seen her in a couple of movies prior to that she had done like Bridget Terabithia and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She's actually a believer as well, and so it's really cool when she came out to Hawaii, we just got to get to know each other, and she kind of picked my brain on how I live my life, and stuff she was just curious about. So she could become really figure out this role that she's playing, and it's interesting that I'm still alive and young, and we can relate to each other in a lot of different things. And then I got to teach her how to surf, and it was really fun getting to know her, and she did an amazing job, and I'm so happy that she was a girl chosen to play my part. I want to go back to the surfing for just a moment, because there was one scene in particular where I don't know what the terminology is, you know what I don't, but you were inside a wave. I mean you were in the barrel of this wave. Yeah, that's the right term, I was in the barrel. It was phenomenal. Do you do that all the time? I love to get barreled, it's one of my favorite things about surfing. The feeling is undescribable, and it's very special, and it's actually quite challenging too. But I do quite often, just depending on the waves, you've got to go to certain waves that have that shape to them, and oftentimes they're really challenging, so you've got to work at it and try to get in there. It looks impossible to me. I don't know how you do it, but it's something that comes naturally in a sense, but you've already worked at it as well. Yeah, I mean it's been a lot of time in the water. It's been like four to six hours a day surfing, and so over time you eventually figured out and learning how to read the wave and what the wave is doing. It's something that you have to work at. You mentioned your friendship with Anna Sofia, and I was on the set briefly when the movie was being made, just very briefly. But I really got a sense that there was a family atmosphere. Your own family was close at hand, of course. They were there as a part of your brothers were right there to intergo part of the making of this movie. Your mom and dad were there, but I mean you must have felt this family, this larger family than you're used to. For sure, it was really fun being on the set every day, and everyone was very passionate about our story. We all had a somewhat similar goal in making the project turn out the best it could be, and made some really good friends. It was a fun time, and it's sad to see everyone go off and start making new films and doing their own thing. But every time we all see it, we can all just remember the good times we had. Any insight production stories or any stories you can tell on Sean McNamara or anybody, your director or anybody like that? Sean is awesome. I really enjoyed him. He was just a miracle in my eyes. He really kept it personal between my family and I. Having us a part of decision-making process and influencing the script and just different scenes and how to make it more accurate. He's a surfer too, right? Yeah, he serves. One thing that was really cool, I liked was Dennis started surfing because of the film, and he got totally hooked on surfing. Dennis Quaid? Yeah, Dennis Quaid, and he's more of a golfer, and he would pick surfing over golfing every chance he got. Helen surfed so well, and we all kind of got hooked. One day, my parents, my mom hadn't surfed in a couple years because she's just kind of lost her spark for it, and just got distracted with other stuff. Helen made her go out surfing, so that was really fun just to get my mom in the water. Yeah, it's just a group of us all just having fun in the water. You grew up in Hawaii as a surfing family. Your mom and dad were surfers when they met, and they just passed it on to you kids, huh? Yeah, both my parents moved to Hawaii to surf, and that's where they met each other. My two older brothers are very talented wave riders as well, and we all kind of have this passion for riding bigger waves. So we all kind of just go out there and have fun, and we all like, when we want to go surf, we all kind of just stop and say, "Okay, we'll go surf." Yeah, Bethany, when I visited the set, we were there a few days, including a Sunday, and we went to church, as did a lot of the crew in the cast, and you and your family were there at church that day. And then after church, we're driving back to where we were staying, and somebody said, "There's Bethany out in the water." And you left church quickly. You're all by yourself, but you're out there riding these waves, just having a good time, just practicing what were you doing? Yeah, I mean, surfing's my life. I'm a professional surfer, so I spent a majority of my day surfing and training for that, and just bettering the best, trying to become the best surfer I can be. Yeah, I just love being out there, and it's just my way of just kind of breaking away from everything else. When the accident happened, your youth leader, Sarah Hill, became a very important person. I'm sure she was important to you before the accident as well. But tell me about Sarah, and what she means to you? Yes, Sarah has been one of my best friends since I was eight or nine, and even though she's older, she has a young, fun aspect to her, and just real, we can go and just go serve, or hang at the beach, or just go and read the Bible together. So she's just been a really good influence on my life, and Carrie Underwood actually started Sarah in the movie, and she's one of my favorite characters just because I love Sarah so much. And you can kind of see that aspect of how Sarah was influencing me, and you know, Carrie did an amazing job. It was one of her first major big films, and she really nailed it, so that was cool. It's important to you that Sarah betrayed correctly, and Carrie did a great job. Sarah had her own surfing accident before yours, and that really stopped her from surfing, I understand, at least for a time. Yeah, well, Sarah has been just an athletic girl since she was young, and she was just finishing up high school, and she had a scholarship for water polo, and she was surfing one day because that was just more of her recreational fun sport. And she ended up breaking her back because she hit the sand in a bad way, and she didn't really know it. She just kind of was like, "Ah, something's wrong. She sat in a chair for a day." Went to a doctor. They said she was fine. She just knew the rest, but she had actually broken her back, and she ended up laying in a bed for a year. My reason for bringing that up is that, is there a sense, do you feel that maybe the Lord kind of put her in your path because she had experienced some adversity when you experienced adversity, and she kind of knew what you were going to go through, right? Yeah, I mean, definitely. I think God can coordinate all these people to encourage each other and be there for each other, and as much as Sarah can encourage me, I can encourage her as well in certain things, because we all go through rough times, and it comes and goes, comes and goes, and ultimately we just got to encourage each other to trust in Jesus and love Him more, and just devote our lives to Him. And Sarah's still surfing today, and she just devotes her life to youth ministry, and just always having kids around her, and she's great. We'll continue this conversation with Bethany Hamilton in a few moments. She'll talk about the courage God gave her after the shark attack. Next time on First Person, Dr. Robbie Zacharias speaks to the issue of living for God. If we find our identity in our own strength, or some other thing we have attained along the way, we will not delight the Lord, and if your goal in life is to delight the Lord, you should have that healthy reverence. Join us for a First Person conversation with international evangelist Robbie Zacharias, next time here on First Person. At the end of today's program with Bethany Hamilton, we'll put links to her soul surfer movie and an associated Bible study that goes along with it as well. Continuing to talk to Bethany, I ask her about a favorite Bible verse. Well, one verse that I really like to refer to is 2 Timothy 1, 7, and it's "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." And that just reminds me, it's like we can't let fear stop us from doing what God has called us to do, and we just got to trust in Him, and He will guide us every step of the way. And I guess that's just what I try to do is just trust in God and give every little frustration or doubt to Him, and He'll take care of it. Your story is so inspiring. You know that you know the effect it has on everyone, including young people, your age and younger. I'm sure you've heard from people all over the world, including kids, teens, preteens. What do you say to them? Do you feel any kinship with these around the world that have written to you? It's exciting because I get a lot of letters and emails and stuff, and oftentimes I've been of good influence on their life. But at the same time, oftentimes I'll get letters of encouragement to me that it will only encourage me and just help me to just be thankful for what God is doing. So it goes in a circle. I encourage people, they encourage me, we all encourage each other. But young people especially. Yeah, definitely a large group of young people. But at the same time, I've had every age write letters to me, so I think it got to all different ages. But you're aware of the fact that you are someone they can look up to, someone they can identify with. You're not that much further, you're what, 20 years old? You're not that much further ahead than a 14 or 15 year old who may be struggling with self-esteem or some adversity in their life. Do you sense that role as a model, so to speak? I guess. I mean, I try not to dwell on the fact that I'm kind of a role model for a lot of young kids. You just want to be you? Yeah, I just want to be me and just do what I love, which is surfing and I'm just pressing on with my goals and at the same time just seeking God and what He has for us. And I think ultimately we all can be a role model for someone in one way or another and it doesn't necessarily have to be this huge star or whatever. But yeah, there's not a lot of good role models, so it's exciting to know that I can just be a role model by what I'm doing. Bethany, is it true that you were actually back in the water, what, not much more than a month after your arm was taken? Yeah, it was less than a month and I couldn't have waited much longer. I went out as soon as the doctor said I could actually a day earlier than he said I was allowed to. Do you remember the feeling when you first set foot back in the water? I mean, I was a little nervous, but super excited and just happy to just give it a chance and not sure if I could do it. But once I got up on my third, I think it was my third or fourth wave and I rode it all the way in and it was just really just exciting feeling of tears of joy and just knowing that I could still serve. Such a great story and such a positive attitude about it and yet you're human. There had to be some discouragement set in. Talk about that time and how you feel the Lord kind of overcame that for you. Yeah, that's one aspect in the movie that shows really what my family and I struggled with and our high and our low points. And ultimately, we just got to give our problems to God and help take care of it and also it just showed me struggling with learning how to surf with one arm and adapt to that. And you just got to take it one day at a time. In the movie, you're struggling with the discouragement. I'm not sure how much of this matches up with real life, but it's basically a true story. But you're in this time of discouragement. You take the mission trip with Sarah and other young people to Thailand. This is after the tsunami it hit. What did that trip do for you? Did it give perspective? Did it help overcome some of the discouragement you may have been feeling? At the time, I can't fully remember exactly what was going on in my head, but Thailand was amazing. What my main focus kind of was when I was there was helping people overcome their fear of the water. And a lot of the kids from this particular village that I went to hadn't touched the water since the tsunami. The Thai culture spends a lot of their time fishing and water activity type lifestyle. So it was cool to get them out in the water and show that if I can continue surfing after a shark bit my arm and took that away from me. They can, even though they've been through so much, many of them had lost their family members and just not really stuff had happened to them at such a young age. So it was just a really good experience, a good learning experience to just be thankful for everything and everyone that you learned. So in a sense it was kind of therapy for you as well, wasn't it? Yeah, always definitely. Any time going on that kind of trip where you're devoting your time to other people. And I think that's something that's really important is that God calls us to put him first and others second and then ourselves. And nowadays I just feel like in life a lot of stuff is just really selfishly based and people are trying to make themselves happier by whatever they think they can find joy and happiness in. And I'm not finding it and I think it's important to just know that it's God that should be first and we are second. I think it's true for many of us that we find ourselves through serving others. That's what happened to you. Yeah, for sure. What is the message you like to communicate when you're put in front of a group of young people? And suddenly Bethany Hamilton, the professional surfer is there and she's got such a great testimony. What's the basic message you like to communicate? I mean, I guess it just varies depending on day to day but what comes to mind now is like I'm just like everyone else. I'm not up on a pedestal or whatever. I have my struggles. I go through hard times and I just constantly what it is is just trusting in God day to day and giving your whole heart to him. And I think especially if you're younger and you're growing up and just trying to figure out life. Don't let the world just make you believe the lies that you have to be this way or that way. But just be yourself and just try to honor God in everything that you do. You know, especially young girls, like purity I think is something that's really important just to wait for a marriage. You know, it's worth waiting for and it's something that I'm doing and I'm definitely just focused on God right now and waiting for the right time. When God picks that particular person, you know. Given all the media attention you've had, it has to be your family that's really kept you rooted and grounded, kept you being just Bethany instead of this world star, so to speak. You have to be grateful for mom and dad and your brothers. Yeah, I definitely have a really good family and we all kind of have our own little jobs in this whole process. Both my brothers and my older brothers are a photographer and the other one's a videographer and they're both just really strong. They both have their own touch in our family's life and my mom and dad are just always there for me and encouraging me. On top of that, I have a really good group of friends that are all offered about in the world right now because we're at that age where some are at college, some are traveling and they have just been a huge impact in my life as well. I want to ask you about the professional part of your surfing career. Now, what are you excited about? I think I got to go to Indonesia with one of my sponsors, Ripkrill. We kind of have this theme of like searching for waves and I was with three group of girls that were just a really fun group of girls and we got to just go and surf and travel to new places that not many people get to see and it was just really beautiful. There's so many excitements to pro surfing that I'm just blessed to partake in. You're living a dream, aren't you? Definitely, and it's nice that I can do all this, but at the same time know that I can be a light for God at the same time. Bethany, thank you so much. God bless you for being you and not being shaped into something that somebody else wanted to create you to be, but just being who God wants you to be. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been good. Bethany's story is truly remarkable. A modern day testament to what Paul said in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. If you joined us late and would like to hear the complete conversation with Bethany Hamilton, you can visit firstpersoninterview.com and click on the listen now button. In addition to the program archive, there's also a calendar of upcoming guests who will be joining us. And there's always our Facebook page and you can find us there as well. You heard Bethany discussing the new movie Soul Surfer which debuts across America in a few days. There's a great companion website which offers ministry resources and a Bible study. It's soulsurferwave.com and you'll find it linked at firstpersoninterview.com. Next time our guest will be Dr. Ravi Zacharias. Ravi is a writer, speaker, evangelist, but we're going to talk about how God first reached his heart when he was a struggling teenager trying to commit suicide. Join us for the conversation with Ravi Zacharias next week. With thanks to my producer and friend Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepard. Join us next week for First Person. 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