"LOSING SUCKS AND MEDIOCRITY IS UNACCEPTABLE." THIS IS KAINOA MCGEE'S PHILOSOPHY ON LIFE.

Kainoa Kalama McGee is an individual - to put it mildly. He is the only person that has made the transition from a respected professional bodyboarder to a professional surfer. The most impressive part: he became a world-class surfer in just a couple of years. The boys at Pipe claim him as their own, whether they are wearing Viper fins or riding thrusters.

If you saw this Honolulu local's 6'2", 210-pound frame on the street, sporting basketball shorts, a wife beater and his signature "mo" cut (short for Mohawk or mojo, according to Kainoa), you would probably peg him as a pro fighter or a basketball player. Kainoa has been competing in bodyboarding since 1981. He was top-ranked throughout the 90s and one of the best drop-knee guys in the world (the first to ever drop-knee Pipe in the barrel without grabbing rail.)

The Kaimuki grad has been surfing for five years to date, first hopping on a shortboard in 2001. Only five months into surfing, he entered an amateur event at Ala Moana Bowls and placed fifth. The following winter, Kainoa stunned nay-sayers and fans alike when he entered the Hansen's Energy Pro at Pipeline and made the semi-finals, which also made him the first pro bodyboarder to crossover to competitive surfing.

The next two years McGee made the quarters and semi-finals again at Pipe, and was embraced by the surfing world as an extraordinary Pipe Charger, both prone and erect. Perhaps it was a life-changing event in December of 1999 that made Kainoa decide to go outside his comfort zone. Kainoa contracted viral encephalitis, (a serious illness that swells the brain to the point where it hits the cranium.) The swelling induced a grand mal seizure because of the excruciating pain and shut down McGee's body. The freak illness put Kainoa in a coma for three days and almost took his life...

Of Hawaiian, Chinese, German and Irish descent, Kainoa's powerful demeanor is part beast, part teddy bear. He is as aggressive as he is charismatic, one of those guys that you want next to you walking down a dark alley but also someone you can always count on to make you laugh. This complexity is also what makes people intrigued or intimidated - or both. Kainoa is ever-evolving, but one thing is concrete: he has the best of both worlds at his fingertips.

written by: Tiff Hervey, Editor of Freesurf Magazine