Bethany Hamilton (Overcoming Trauma, Conservation and Parenting) - Episode 280

Behind The Shield

James Geering

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Fitness

4.9 • 667 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bethany Hamilton is one of the world's most elite surfers, despite losing an arm at age 13. She is an author and the subject of her new documentary "Unstoppable". We discuss discovering her passion, overcoming physical and mental trauma, pregnancy, motherhood, chasing excellence and much more.

Bethany Hamilton has become a source of inspiration to millions through her story of determination, faith, and hope. At the age of 13, Bethany lost her left arm to a 14-foot tiger shark, which seemed to end her career as a rising surf star. One month after the attack, Bethany returned to the water and within two years had won her first national title.

In 2007, she realized her dream of surfing professionally and since then, her story has been told in a New York Times best selling autobiography and in the 2011 film, Soul Surfer. Bethany is involved in numerous charitable efforts, including her own foundation, Friends of Bethany, which reaches out to amputees and youth, encouraging and offering hope to overcome through Jesus Christ. Using her platform as a professional athlete to promote living a fit and healthy lifestyle, she authored the book Body and Soul in 2014.

Bethany’s latest project, Unstoppable, a surf documentary which showcases her as one of the best women surfers in the world, released theatrically in the USA on July 12, 2019, accompanied by a photo book and a children’s book.

Passionate about helping young women be unstoppable in life and faith, Bethany has launched a new website and online course for sharing content and facilitating connection. Her greatest joy is being a wife and mother, and she continues to touch and inspire lives globally as a professional surfer and motivational speaker.

https://bethanyhamilton.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by 511 Tactical, a company that I've used for over a decade since they supplied the uniforms for Anaheim Fire when I worked out in California.
0:08.9	And they have partnered with the Behind the Shield podcast to offer you, the listener, 15% off, not just a single purchase, but an ongoing discount every time you shop at 511 Tactical.com.
0:20.3	And I will give you the discount code in a moment.
0:22.0	I just want to go on a kind of product focus for a second. In episode 125 of Behind the Show podcast,
0:28.6	I spoke to podiatrist Dr. Mike Donato. And we discussed a concern that I've had, which is the footwear
0:35.2	for first responders. If you're a firefighter, obviously,
0:38.3	if we're doing an extrication, if we're fighting fire, our bunker boots are definitely the best
0:42.4	things. They offer a high level of protection. But the day-to-day calls, the EMS calls, all those
0:47.6	kind of are areas, they are absolutely overkill some of the boots that we are being given.
0:52.4	And I wanted to find a kind of happy medium
0:54.3	between protection and comfort as a lot of these heavy, heavy boots are causing overuse injuries,
1:00.6	knee pain, ankle pain, back pain. And 511 tactical has come up with a shoe called the Norris
1:05.6	sneaker. Now this has the feel literally of a skate shoe. It's incredibly comfortable. It has puncture
1:12.0	protection on the bottom. It has the toe protection on the front, but they've taken a lot of the
1:16.8	weight away and made it far more comfortable. I think many of us will admit that as an alternative
1:21.3	to duty boots, we turn to sneakers, which are also very comfortable, really don't offer any
1:26.9	protection. So this is a great
1:28.4	happy medium between the two. If you want to see this, as I said, it's called the Norris N-O-R-I-S-S-S-E-R-I-S-E-S-E-R-I-S-E-S-E-L-E-L-D-1-5.
1:43.3	That will be applicable for all of your purchases. The only time that's not going to work is when they have an additional sale that's actually going to be higher. So if they're offering a 20% or 25% off, obviously that 15 is going to be invalid because you're going to get even more off. So for the Norris sneaker and all the other things that I'm going to showcase that I personally use.
2:01.9	I'm not going to start talking about things that I don't use, but the products of theirs that I think are amazing.
2:06.7	Go to 511 Tactical, put in Shield 15, and save 15% every single time.
2:13.7	Welcome, guys, to episode 280 of Behind the Shield podcast.
	...

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