Derek Ho was born on September 26, 1964, in Kailua, Oahu. The younger brother of Michael Ho and uncle of Mason and Coco Ho, he was a goofyfoot who spent his life refining the art of riding Pipeline.

He won the Pipe Masters in 1986 and 1993 and the Triple Crown of Surfing four times. In 1993, at 29, he won the world title, the Pipe Masters and the Triple Crown in the same season, becoming the first Native Hawaiian man to win the pro world title.

On Nalu TV he runs from Herbie Fletcher’s first Wave Warriors (1985) and Son of the Last Surf Movie through Raw Power, Winter Warriors, Modern Legends in Hawaiian Surf and Larry Haynes’s Fluid Combustion films.

He kept surfing Pipeline into his fifties and was also a painter. He died on July 17, 2020, at 55.