Bethany Hamilton on "The Amazing Race" & Tips for Healthy Living

It's so great to have Bethany Hamilton in the studio. Great to see you.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

We're happy to have you. It's been you've been pretty busy.

Very, very busy. A little bit of an amazing race.

Yeah, a lot of fun though. You're newly wed well you're kind of new. Didn't you just celebrate your one year anniversary? So doing The Amazing Race with your husband. Talk to me about that dynamic. Because not every you know there are some people there that are couples, some people that are not. Yeah. How does it sort of put the relationship to the test and sort of working together with your with your hubby?

Yeah, I mean, going into the race we both knew that we would be under a lot of stress and like not enough sleep and like just trying to work so hard in that race environment. But until you're actually doing it, you don't even know what you're getting yourself into.

We've had over 200 teams. We've gone to about 80 countries around the world. And the cool thing about The Amazing Race is that there's still so much for us to see. There's still so many great teams to see.

I had been wanting to go on The Amazing Race for a while. So, I think we kind of went into the race knowing that like, okay, let's not like blame each other, get upset at each other but to realize that it's the situation that's stressful and like we're just tired. Right. Which we did really well at and um yeah it was amazing to be able to race with my best friend and my husband.

So sweet. And you guys are together quite a bit, aren't you?

Yeah, we um travel like all over six months of the year together and then we're home together and yeah, we work good as a team. So, I know The Amazing Race every year at the Emmys, they always win for Best Reality Show. What is it about the show do you think that people cuz I think this was the 20th season. Um what is it about the show?

I think why people are so attracted to it is one, like there's the whole dynamic of all the different relationships that go under these crazy situations. And two, like we all dream of traveling around the world and seeing different places and experiencing different cultures and that's exactly what the race does. But even more so because you do stuff that you would not do as a normal tourist. Right. And a lot of times it's really funny. So.

Is there anything you can tell us about sort of either your favorite place or something a different culture or something you experience that.

Well, I mean, I can say we went around the world. So we've really experienced a ton of different cultures. Um and going to different climates and all of this. All the meanwhile you're carrying everything on your back. So it's kind of rugged. Um you're not exactly like clean the whole time racing. And I was put into situations where I was just completely disgusted, but like at the same time you're in race mode, so.

But also having cameras on you 24/7. What was that sort of transition like?

Yeah, it's definitely like an adjustment having cameras on you all the time and you have your own camera crew and it's um I don't know, sometimes when you just like have been awake all night on a plane and then you're immediately like running off the plane and you don't really exactly feel beautiful and It's kind of those are those are girl problem.

Yeah total girl problems. I bet that's why I could never do The Amazing Race. I would need the other person to be the hair and makeup person. They could do the race with me.

Yeah, like there was this one girl on the race that was hilarious and she like always had her fake eyelashes on and I don't know how she pulled it off, but she pretty much always looked amazing.

Oh my gosh. Okay, so I want to get to the other stuff that you're doing as well. Dolphin Tale 2, you have a cameo in it.

Mhm.

Um first time acting?

Um pretty much first time acting you think? And I mean, I was playing myself but at the same time you kind of are acting and it was kind of a lot of pressure cuz there's these amazing actors and actresses and I'm just a surfer and all of a sudden I'm in acting position and I got to meet Morgan Freeman on set which I kind of got totally starstruck.

I interviewed him once. I kind of got starstruck too. That was about like the only time I've been starstruck.

Same. I never get starstruck and then Morgan walks up and he's like, hey, do you still surf? And I'm like, no. And I'm that's what I do for a living. I'm a professional surfer.

She said surfer.

Yeah. You got nervous? I was like, didn't know what I did for a living. When Morgan comes up. That's awesome.

And then you have your book too.

Mhm.

Body and Soul. It's it's sort of to inspire younger girls. I know you even have a fan that came here today to see you. You have so many um girls, and I think that's sort of your target audience is girls, you know, growing up and sort of teaching them healthy eating, sort of how do you you know, eat fresh, how do you sort of what are your tips for Cuz I know you have tips that you give to girls.

Yeah, I mean I think that age of like basically when you first get your period and you're going from a girl into a woman and it's kind of awkward and you're adjusting to these changes can be really daunting. And I remember when I was like a teenager, I, whatever, American diet, fast food, junk food and didn't really think much of it. And then as soon as I hit that age where things started changing, I started to take notice and um as an athlete I wanted to take care of myself and be able to perform to the best that I could. But even if I wasn't an athlete, like I love eating healthy now and I love staying active and doing the things that I love. So, my encouragement for young girls is take it like little steps at a time. Like, I don't know, maybe once a week get together with your best friends and have like a healthy dinner night or if you're wanting to get more active, like make it a goal like once a month try a new sport.

Okay, so you just won a Kid's Choice award for Best Comeback. Red carpet. How did the how does the posing? Are you good with it now? Like is it comfortable for you being on a red carpet? You're comfortable in the water. I know that.

Yeah, I mean, I have fun at the red carpet and the Kids' Choice Awards was especially fun because it was Adam's first well, in that case it was an orange carpet. Nickelodeon style. And it was the first time going with Adam. So that was fun.

You seem happy on the red carpet. That's fun.

Yeah, it was like really

It's a great accessory.

Yeah. He's nodding like yeah, I'll be the accessory that's fun.

Okay, before I let you go, I just wanted to get to a couple of tweets a couple of your tweets cuz they were hilarious. Um first of all, you talked about making guava fruit leather and coconut leather. I don't know what maybe does everybody know what that is and I don't know what that is.

Okay, so guava is like this orange fruit pretty much only in Hawaii or maybe some other like tropical islands. So Adam and I like ran got some guava fruit and then we blend it in the blender and then strained it and then put it out on our um dehydrator mat and then we dehydrate it. And then it's like it's just like chewable. Yeah, it's kind of like a fruit leather.

You should brand this and sell it.

Well, the final outcome wasn't quite as yummy as we hoped.

You thought it was good. Okay. And then you did a survey on Twitter about whether or not people enjoy your lovey-dovey tweets or do you you said respond with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. So what did you get more of?

I got more thumbs up which I was stoked. I was stoked people are stoked on love. And I think like being our first year of marriage, I've been kind of tweeting a lot of like lovey-dovey stuff so I was wondering if people were annoyed or not. Not like I asked for feedback. Am I annoying you with my love or is it or is it cool?

Thank you so much for coming. This is so much fun. Can't wait to see The Amazing Race what happens.

Thank you.