Recently we watched the movie Soul Surfer as a family. The film is about a Christian surfer (Bethany Hamilton) who lost her arm from a shark attack, while surfing. Against a variety of odds she made a surfing comeback and is now a professional surfer and US national champion. We actually had a Youth Group guest speaker who personally knows Bethany. After his talk he told us the movie was definitely worth watching, capturing many of the nuances and challenges Bethany encountered post-shark attack. I think his exact words were, "Hollywood did a pretty fair job on her story – I was surprised!" (Left: in the background Sela and I help her balance on the board while Sebastian plays in the water awaiting his turn.)

Our kids now love this film, which is quite inspiring, has a good soundtrack and is young at heart.
Therefore today we headed out to Hong Kong's Big Wave Bay to try our hand at surfing. After the kids had a short cross-country run with Tess, we packed ourselves into the car arriving at the beach early enough to snag a parking spot, rent some boards and avoid the crowds. (The partly cloudy weather helped.) We spent about 2.5 hours splashing about. The kids, with some assistance, accustomed themselves to balancing on the boards then caught a wave. Each one managed to surf small waves for a distance of about 20 meters… some further. They were thrilled. This could be the start of a new hobby. (Many thanks to Tess who stood in the cold water taking pictures!)