- Ryan Craig

There was a natural genius to the surfing of 1993 World Champion Derek Ho. From the time he rode his first waves at three years old to his last dramatic session at Pipeline at 55 years old, he always appeared to feel perfectly at home in the ocean. That's not something that can be taught like heat strategy or how do to an air, Ho, as well as the rest of his beautiful family, was born with it.

A lot of people say, "I want to surf for the rest of my life." Derek Ho not only surfed his entire life, but he surfed at the highest level for a good portion of his time here on this blue planet. His nephew, Mason Ho, has just released a compendium of Derek's last five years in the water. It's a celebration of a life lived to the absolute fullest.

What the footage reveals is that there's probably not another 55-year-old that got as barreled as Uncle D. He was, as Mason says, "blown out of the barrel more than most will know."

At the apex of the carnivorous food chain that is the Pipeline pecking order, Derek got whatever what he wanted and somehow almost always found a way to dance his way to the channel. It wasn't by his overwhelming size or demonstrative presence that he was afforded his respect, rather his natural genius and aloha-radiating smile.

He was "always inspiring people around him and blowing minds in the water or on land...a scientist of fun!" testifies Mason.

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