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So few of us humans get to be part of the food chain and still live to tell about it. Raised to surf from an early age, Bethany Hamilton’s left arm was bitten off by a tiger shark during a morning jaunt off the North Shore of Kauai when she was 13. Bethany narrowly survived. Yet a month later she jumped right back into the water and continued competing in – and winning – surf contests. In 2011 a major motion picture about her life, Soul Surfer, was released and grossed over $40 million at the box office.
With holistic healthcare practitioner Dustin Dillberg and the TRX Suspension Trainer by her side, not to mention a boatload of skill, determination, and unwavering faith, Bethany has been able to overcome her spinal distortion to compete on the national stage.
It might be hard to imagine how someone with one arm trains with the TRX. It’s really very simple, explains Dustin. “We just attach the foot cradle to her left shoulder girdle. The TRX allows muscles to engage in the multiple planes of motion Bethany needs to restore balance in her frame and improve stability.”
And while Dustin works diligently to fine tune Bethany’s body for peak performance, as a former competitive surfer himself, he still remains slightly baffled by her abilities. “She’s working at a huge deficit with only one arm. Yet the things she is able to do…like competing in paddle battles, outmaneuvering two-armed surfers for waves or getting whipped around in 25-foot surf…it’s just amazing,” Dustin says. “She copes incredibly well with her disadvantage and makes it seem like it doesn’t exist.”
We wish Bethany the best of luck in her surfing career. Though, with the determination and guidance that she has, she hardly needs it.
