HiLevel Profile: Guy Hagi
By Brad Yates

"Surfing is pure fun for me!" This is the voice of Guy Hagi, 40, the surfer who is best known for doing the news and weather on early morning TV. Guy and I are sitting outside of Jamba Juice in Kahala. Guy continues, "I have a fun-quotient that needs to be met each day and surfing Bowls satisfies this need."

"Wait a minute," I said, "Bowls? To work as hard as you do at your age and still have enough energy left to compete for waves at Bowls. How do you do it?" I was a little more than impressed.

Guy was thinking out loud as he answered my question, "I love the challenge of being able to line up the wave and quite honestly, I'm addicted to the endorphin rush I get from surfing at this level. When I don't get it, I get edgy and cranky. On those days, I run or play golf."

Listening to Guy I quickly realized that I was in the presence of a very aware and special person. Guy Hagi the athlete; he is natural in the pure sense of the word. Along with surfing, he excels at golf, triathlon competition and snowboarding. In golf, he taught himself to play, he can't stand to practice, yet he routinely scores in the 80's and he has the psyche to play in a Celebrity Tournament and make outstanding shots. In the triathlon, without any prior athletic training he did well, consistently finished in the top ten percent of his age group. At the peak of his training he ran a 10K in 38 minutes flat. Just for fun he trained for and completed the Iron Man. In snowboarding, without lessons, he literally went to the top of the mountain and easily handled the hardest runs. This prompts Steve Cranston, a long time surfer and friend to comment, "Guy is the best natural athlete I have ever seen."

Guy Hagi, the person, was born and raised in Kalihi, with a public school education, he has transcended his humble beginnings to become a TV celebrity. Through hard work he has learned to relax in the spotlight. In his words, "I have trained myself to be as comfortable hosting a cooking show on TV as I am talking to the boys at Makaha about the surf." Bernie Baker reflects on what Guy Hagi means to surfers. "Guy passes on to us the swell information from the buoy readouts from around the state and provides us with on-going updates, giving us a good picture of what the ocean is doing and just as important, what will happen next. And he gets the video cameras aimed at the ocean in the morning, so we can a get a quick, live glimpse at what is going on in our Ocean world, not just the street and highway traffic. When it is flat everywhere, you can tell by the look on his face even before he makes a comment on screen."

My interest in Guy Hagi the athlete and person nearly caused me to forget the turmoil in his life: The TV Station that employs him has recently terminated his contract! In the face of this life-changing event, Guy is calm and relaxed. There is no question that his love of competition has given him the confidence to get up for this challenge. "So what are your plans?" I begin, "how are you holding up under the stress of your situation?" Guy does not look down or away, his eyes are crystal clear as he responds. "I worked hard to get where I am in this business (TV) and my success to date is because I tell the truth and try to be myself. This is a tricky business… but I have learned my lessons well. I'm confident that I will land on my feet and be working soon."

As the surf world stands by ready to mourn the loss of this talented journalist, Guy is grateful. "My life is the healthiest, happiest and most balanced right now that it has ever been." A life that includes getting up at 2:30 AM, studying the weather and news from 5:30 t0 7:30, doing live TV from 5:30 to 7:30 AM five days a week and being happily married to Kim Gennaula, a hi-profiled TV personality, who works the evening news. In his spare time he volunteers tirelessly to do community service with a variety of charities, reading in the elementary schools and speaking to high school students on a variety of subjects. "Life, as someone said is never easy, I can handle the challenge of finding a new job and resolving this conflict. I always tell kids when I'm speaking in schools that my only advice is to establish a direction in your life and stay with it. Find out what you like to do and get good at it. I love doing TV, I think I'm good at it and I plan to stay with it."

As I walked away from my meeting with Guy, I knew why this local boy is so popular and so successful. He is very genuine and engaging; as they say in the industry he is a "primetime player" and yet the success has not changed him. He is quick to acknowledge his roots, "I've surfed all my life and surfing definitely helps prepare you for the other things and yes, it helped train me for my job." Guy Hagi lives by a simple truth, "I simply do what's in front of me to do and I have fun doing it." That's HiLevel!