QOTM guest of honor Bethany Hamilton gets some one-on-one snowboarding tips from pro rider Tara Dakides by Melissa Buckley
Bethany gets tips from the best in the business.
At the tender age of 14, Bethany Hamilton is lucky to be alive. With twice as many years logged, but still young at 28, Tara Dakides is too. Both professional athletes came dangerously close to paying the ultimate price for doing what they love in recent months, but have since made it clear that pursuing their passions is worth the risk.
Tara settin' Bethany's stance.
In October 2003, Bethany survived a shark attack that cost her an arm while surfing; Tara escaped with mere stitches and a concussion after falling two stories to pavement while performing a snowboarding stunt for “Late Night with David Letterman.” The lucky pair met at Mountain High on February 20, 2004, to hang out, ride, and show the world that it takes more than a trip to the emergency room to keep these girls down.
It was Tara’s first time on the snow since the incident and only Bethany’s second trip to the mountains—she visited Steamboat, Colorado, earlier in the season—but with a little coaching from the still-sore Tara, the young Hawaiian took to the hill like it was second nature. “Strapping in is the hardest part,” Bethany—who managed to don all of her cumbersome snowboarding gear with zero help—explained.
The media was out in full force. “Entertainment Tonight,” Fox, and CBS camera crews trailed the girls for much of the morning. But once interviews were taped and the buzz died down, the girls were able to sneak off and enjoy some press-free powder runs, much to Bethany’s delight. “It’s so much funner to just snowboard by yourself or paddle out and surf without 50 people watching you,” she lamented.
Prime-time princessess chattin' it up for "ET"
No stranger to the press herself these days, Tara swears she didn’t set up the Letterman incident as a publicity stunt. “I really didn’t plan this one, guys,” she joked with “ET.” She does, however, plan to get back to competing as soon as she can. With winter on its way out and the season’s end drawing near, though, she just might have to get her thrills in the water courtesy of surf sessions with Bethany.
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At the tender age of 14, Bethany Hamilton is lucky to be alive. With twice as many years logged, but still young at 28, Tara Dakides is too. Both professional athletes came dangerously close to paying the ultimate price for doing what they love in recent months, but have since made it clear that pursuing their passions is worth the risk.
