Unstoppable.
This documentary gives an insight into the eventful life of Bethany Hamilton. It dwells depicts interviews, footage from the competition, videos made at home, and shows her before the attack, after it, and her return into competitive surfing.
Bethany was highly talented early in life and won many awards and accolades for her performance. At eight years of age, she had made up her mind to become a professional surfer.
In the movie, Bethany’s passion for her watery sport is revealed. Close to her heart is also her love for God, her parents, and her own family.
The director reveals a clip of the earlier days when the youngster was about to ride on a gigantic wave. She was so young and shy standing next to her older friends. Bethany has high regard for her parents, who labored through three jobs to give a good life to her and her two male siblings. As a young teenager, she competed with Carissa Moore and several other notable personalities in surfing.
At thirteen, the fateful event that permanently changed the life of this talented girl is understandably not shown. While she was out paddling together with her friend Alana Blanchard her left arm was bitten off by a tiger shark, leaving her bleeding slowly. The footage of her in the hospital bed surrounded by her family, friends, and fellow surfers is touching. Even as she lies there in pain, she struggles to minimize the shark attack and expresses her desire to get back into the water and do what she does best; surfing. She explains how she struggled to extricate herself from the grip of the shark’s jaws, a nightmare that would keep re-appearing every night. The stark evidence of what transpired in the water was the surfboard, with part of it bitten off by the shark. The drive; the desire; the passion was vivid and alive in her even as she lay there.
Later she was to retrain herself to balance with one arm. An improvisation on her board by her father ensured that she could make duck-dives without a problem. Her victory in the annual amateur national championship at San Clemente in California at 15 years was a declaration that her struggle was in the game to win. The movie does not delve deep into the technicalities of surfing but dwells on Bethany’s life.
Making the return to surfing was not a small matter as she had to surmount significant obstacles. Watching her friends making it big on the world stage made her bleed with a desire to get back into the water and fight on. She had to struggle with the rigors of the game and her new status to stay on tour. We see her fighting adversities, falling, and losing at the very last bit of a race. We see her pain of frustration at failure. Pushing herself hard to succeed is evident, as is the constant love and encouragement of her parents to whom she owes so much for their support. However, she eventually finds comfort in the hands of Adam Dirks, whom she marries a few months after meeting.
Adam becomes her bedrock as she fights to make a mark in surfing even after getting a baby.
Notably, however, having to labor under the gaze of the media is not easy. This is the price she has to pay for her celebrity status. She has to balance between her family, sport, privacy, and keeping appointments with the press, which is regularly breathing down her shoulders.
This documentary underlines an unrelenting struggle against adversity. Faith, dedication, and great tenacity are displayed as a driving force in the life of Bethany as she makes major achievements in life. She has no place for self-pity and despair. Despite her responsibility as a mother, a wife, a sportswoman, and a star celebrity, she breaks mountains of obstacles to achieve success. And to manage all she has done with just one arm is genuinely phenomenal. Bethany Hamilton has remained optimistic and focused. She is a great inspiration. She is unstoppable.