'Soul Surfer' rides on crest of predictable wave

Like the Kauai Coast, which provides Sean McNamara’s film with its stunning backdrop, life ebbs and flows, transforming from dead calm to raging storm at frightening speed.

For 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton, everything changed in the blink of an eye on October 31, 2003, when a 14-foot tiger shark ripped off her left arm just below the shoulder during a morning surf.