When they were kids, there’s little chance that Alana Blanchard and Bethany Hamilton had any idea they’d become two of the most recognizable women in surfing. Both growing up on the north shore of Kauai, Blanchard and Hamilton became fast friends when they first met at Kilauea Elementary School as young kids and realized they were some of the only girls their age that surfed.
In those early years, both seemed destined for professional surfing careers, but Hamilton’s now infamous shark attack in which she lost her left arm at the shoulder put the two on divergent paths. Blanchard, of course, went on to the Championship Tour and now has a successful free surfing and modeling career, and Hamilton, who never went full-time on the CT, continues to inspire millions of surfers and non-surfers alike with her story.
In tribute to her lifelong friendship with Blanchard, Hamilton recently uploaded the video above – an excerpt from the 2007 documentary film Heart of a Soul Surfer – with the note, “Thinking of one of your childhood friends? Reach out to them to share a happy memory!”
