Another Aussie, the highly rated Nikki Van Dijk, succumbed in the quarter-finals before Hamilton finally fell to the competition’s eventual winner, France’s Johanne Defay, in the semis.
“Beyond stoked to finish 3rd… as the wildcard! LOVED competing looking forward to more adventures,” she tweeted after the event.
It is the sixth time Hamilton, who had a child last year, has competed on the elite tour, with her previous best a ninth place in 2010.
But the simple fact she is competing has already inspired a Hollywood movie, 2011’s “Soul Surfer” featuring Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt.
Hamilton was a promising junior aged 13 when a huge tiger shark mauled her, losing 60 percent of her blood after it ripped off her arm.