Plucky surfer.

On November 27, 2003 (Thanksgiving Day), 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton of Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii, went surfing near Rock Quarry beach at the eastern end of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. As reported in the December 2 Honolulu Advertiser, "she had some difficulty with her balance and missed the first two waves she tried for, but got the board sliding down the third and surfed it aggressively." She enjoyed the venture so much that she went again the next day.

Thousands of teens surf, but Bethany's story is special because less than four weeks earlier, while she was surfing the West Reef area fronting Tunnels Beach in Ha'ena off Kauai's north shore, a shark had bitten off her left arm four inches below the shoulder. Details of her ordeal and recovery, and her positive outlook and effervescent personality, captivated the nation and became one of the year's most inspiring and uplifting news events.

At around 5 a.m. on October 31, Bethany arose and leaded out for a morning of surfing with her best friend, Alana Blanchard, as well as Alana's father, Holt, and brother, Byron. At 7:30 a.m. she took a break, resting on her surfboard with her arm dangling in the ocean. Suddenly, what is believed to have been a 12- to 15-foot tiger shark attacked the teen, bit off her arm (along with a chunk of surfboard), and disappeared.

Holt Blanchard was nearby, but did not see the shark. He only heard Bethany calmly say, "I got attacked by a shark." At first he thought she was kidding, because she neither struggled nor screamed. But "all of a sudden she was paddling in toward Byron and Alana and myself. And I saw blood in the water and I realized she did get attacked. I paddled up to her and at that point I noticed her arm was gone."

Mr. Blanchard has been credited with saving the young the girl's life. First, he bound the wound with his T-shirt. Then Bethany, who remained conscious throughout the ordeal, held on to his leg as he swam toward shore, where he applied a tourniquet fashioned from a surfboard leash to what remained of the arm.

Bethany was rushed by ambulance to Wilcox Memorial Hospital in Lihue, the same hospital where, coincidentally, Bethany's father, Tom, had been scheduled for knee surgery that morning. Dr. David Rovinsky broke the news to him. The physician told the November 21 edition of ABC's 20/20: "I knew how it would affect Tom, and it's the hardest news you can share with another parent." Mr. Hamilton recalled, "I just prayed to God that she'd survive."

She did, and 20/20 reported that "within days, she started taking the first steps toward her recovery. She's already begun learning to do things with one hand, and adjusting to the physical and emotional effects of the attack." Bethany told ABC News, "I think that I should just have a positive attitude toward things and the challenges coming up and if I have a bad attitude, then it's not really gonna make it anything better." The November 11 Los Angeles Times noted that only a few days after losing her arm Bethany left her hospital room to visit "a young patient suffering with a tumor, to see if she could lift her spirits." She also visited "a blind man and expressed a desire to help him."

Bethany is no ordinary teenager--and no ordinary surfer. Prior to the shark attack, she was Hawaii's top female surfer in her age group. She is also a home-schooler, which enables her to compete as often as possible. Last year alone, she compiled what the November 1 Honolulu Advocate described as "one of the most successful runs of any amateur surfer in Hawai'i," including:

* First place in the girls/women's division (which was open to all ages) of the Local Motion-Ezekiel Surf Into Summer contest at Ala Moana on Oahu, one of the state's largest and most prestigious competitions.

* First place in the explorer women's division of the National Scholastic Surfing Association's (NSSA) Open and Explorer event on Kauai.

* Second place in the NSSA national championships in San Clemente, California (where she was also named an NSSA surfer/scholar for her 3.8 grade-point average).

* Third place in the girls shortboard division, and second in the longboard division, at the United States Surfing Federation (USSF) National Championships at Oceanside, California.

Bethany's dream of turning professional may still be realized. According to Dr. Rovinsky, surfboards and prosthetic devices could be modified to enable her "to do 95 percent of what she wants to do," and "knowing Bethany, it's not going to slow her down too much."

If there were any question as to whether or not Bethany would resume surfing, it was answered by the enjoyment she effused when, only a week after her stitches were removed, she took to the waves on Thanks giving day. Two days before that first attempt, she had told CNN: "I can't wait to get out. I'm really excited and not really scared of any sharks." Moreover, she had quipped to the November 21 Honolulu Advertiser that she had previously been known for flopping her arms around while surfing, but that the shark attack cured her of that.