I interviewed Kainoa McGee at Ala Moana Beach Park where he is a lifegaurd. For a guy who considers Pipeline his place of peace – Kainoa is what you would expect. Animated, funny, personable, and someone who knows a thing or two about surfing.
His back story is amazing, a near death infection followed up by a top placing in the Pipe Masters after learning how to surf. Kainoa is of legendary status in the bodyboard community, the surfing community and now in the stand up community as one of the few willing to stand up paddle into Pipeline.
We did the shoot at Pipe after the bodyboard championships wrapped for the day. I had never been to Pipeline before; it was like a major dream come true to be standing on that beach shooting. I had a sense of what Bruce Brown must have felt shooting it for the first time in the 60’s. As Kainoa paddled out, he got tossed around by a set and came in with a broken leash. Undeterred he charged back out and started to weave his way around the pack of bodyboarders and surfers. I guess what I did not realize about Pipe is that it is crowded. I mean REALLY crowded. And since it is such a short, shallow wave, I am amazed that more people do not get hurt or killed there.
I will never forget actually rooting for Kainoa NOT to take any waves. It was just scary to watch him on his stand up board charging into the barrels and paddling into the steep drops.
Morgan Hoesterey came with me (without her I would not have found it ) and snapped some incredible pictures of Kainoa and of me hard at work. An amazing day, and I tell you, his story is taking a while to edit out. There is so much to it, it is hard to focus on just one thing. It is possible that we will do his story in two parts to cram it all in.
Here are some pics from our first Pipe Shoot (all photos by Morgan Hoesterey - Plant Ocean Photo)
