 I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book, which is also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. Today's special guest is Guy Hagi. He is the very popular weather anchor on Hawaii News Now, and today we are going Beyond Weather. Hey, Guy. Hi, Rusty. Great seeing you the other night at the Guns N' Roses concert. Yeah, one of the rare nights that I get to go out and take off my weatherman outfit and go out and mingle with everybody. It was crazy. It was crazy. Yeah. And, Guy, a lot of people know you, but they don't know you, and I want everyone to get to know you today. Uh-oh. Let's start from the beginning. Where did you grow up, and what schools did you attempt? I grew up in Lower Nuanu, near Liliha Bakery. So I know that menu back to front, mahalo to the new owners of Liliha Bakery. They've really done a good job with changing that thing. But I grew up there. I went to Lanakila. I walked to Lanakila. I walked to Kuanakua Middle, and they caught the bus to McKinley until I graduated. Wow. And then what kind of sports did you play? So early on was everything, right? Football, baseball, basketball. I was decent in all of them, never stellar in any of them. And then just about, just at the end of middle school, which was intermediate school for us, somebody turned us on to surfing, and we haven't turned back since. Wow. And then what college did you end up attending? So I went to UH for a little bit. I went to HPU, but it was HPC back then. I never graduated though, because I got a pretty decent job in the short-sightedness of youth, went after the money and the fun of the job, and thinking, I'm going to get back to college. I'm going to get back. So it's one of my great regrets, but I never did finish. So what job was it? It was a sales rep in the surf industry. Perfect. So it was exciting at that time, right? The surf industry was growing. It was booming. And if you're a surfer and you have entry into this world that's deeper behind the surf shops, right? You're talking about the best shapers, the surf stars, the latest equipment, and I got to be a part of that. So that's why it was very exciting. So I thought, of course I'm going to put off college for a little while to do this. And it ended up being a job that I was with for some 20 odd years. That's amazing. And then your wife, Kim, Janala, she was a fantastic weather TV news anchor, not weather, but my main anchor. Right. Well, I think people quickly found out about Kim is that she had a background in news. And weather was just a way to get her onto that. She kind of stumbled onto doing the weather. She graduated from UT University of Texas at Austin, so she's a longhorn. And she graduated in a four-year program in three years. She's one of those, right? And then so she was a journalist in Texas, Arizona, San Francisco, Florida, and then came to Hawaii on a short-term thing. And then ended up staying. Yeah. She was phenomenal as a TV news anchor. And you guys have two kids? So we have two kids, Luke and Alia, junior and sophomore now, 15 and 16 years old. Yeah. And it's tough chasing them. And I mean, this is the most fun times, I guess, because so much is happening in their life. Yeah. And how old are they? So Luke is 16, and Alia's just made 15. So they were a year and a half apart. We didn't waste any time. But it's challenging and fun and exciting all at the same time. Playing with teenagers is exactly what they tell you. It can be the greatest thing ever. It can be the worst, halacious experience ever as well, depending on the time of the day and the time of the month. And then obviously your passion is surfing. Yeah. It has been since we started. And I tell everybody that surfing is unlike any other sport. It's more obsessive than anything. I mean, Rusty, you've been playing tennis since you were a little kid, right? But I don't think there was ever a tennis court that you went, man, I got to be at the tennis court at 10 in the morning when the conditions are just right. And it's so fleeting that the waves are good. Everything's got to come together in nature. And when they do, you have that pull of nature that fishermen know, that mountain climbers know, that snowboarders know. And it's that thing that keeps on pulling you out into the ocean. And had I not gone to McKinley, I probably would have been a better student. Because McKinley's so close to the ocean, right? Like we figured that we catch a wave before class, catch a couple. And the waves are so good going, and we'll go back at lunch. We'll be okay. We'll be okay. And then at lunch, it's like, we better go. No, no, no. Just a couple more. A couple more. And then we'll go back after lunch. So there are too many days after that. And my parents know this now, but they didn't know. But yeah, we should have been in school. But the call of the ocean was just too big. And then now it's affected my kids. But it's easier because we have a little more control over where they go. Because I know the tricks about getting out there. So guy, out of all those years that you've been in the water surfing, how many sharks have you seen? You know, I've seen a handful, but nothing like the big stuff that would chase you out. I can't say I saw anything really big or really dangerous. But I also saw a, I think probably a 15 foot shark that Peridane caught outside of Hollywood. And I was in the water earlier that day surfing. And to see something that big, you and I could join hands and we couldn't go around the shark. Okay. To think that that thing's swimming under you and you don't see it is more a more unsettling feeling. But seeing a shark, when you see them, they're like dogs, they're curious dogs, right? It's the ones you don't see. And they're the ones they're not going to show up until it's too late. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a big thing except for, I think, parts of Maui. It's been rather scary for the last couple years. And then we've had attacks, obviously, up on our North Shore as well. So it's something we're always aware of. But I don't think it detracts us from surfing at any one particular time now. And then, you know, early in your career, you did surf reports on radio. How did that happen? That lasted a long time. I was a teenager working at Town and Country. My first surf job was working as a little stock guy, you know, doing with t-shirts and shorts and leashes and boards and stuff. And then they had professional surfers there on staff that they would sponsor. And it was their responsibility to do the surf report. But when you got to do a surf report every morning, seven days a week, 7 a.m. in the morning, the professional surf guys got other priorities, let's say. So they couldn't get... So Craig said, hey, guy, you know what? You speak half decent English because you're a townie. So why don't you do the surf report? It was a big gas, it's 18 years old, to have your name on the radio, right? That was a big charge, right? So that was incentive enough. And then later on it turned into a little business when the radio station said, we want to sell the surf report. So instead of giving it to Town and Country, guy, how about we have you do it, we'll pay you to do this. So it ended up a little bit of a side business. I wouldn't say that it was a job per se because it was a whole lot of fun gathering surf information and recording a little 40-second surf report and putting it out for everybody to hear. And there's only a couple guys doing it at the time. And I think that helped to establish the brand if there is such a thing. So everybody kind of was familiar with my name. Now how did you get your start into TV? So that was all, you know how they say luck is an opportunity, it meets preparedness, right? So that all happened. I was doing surf reports for the better part of 15 years by then. And Dan Cook was the first guy that Cahit and I hired when they started a news production away from Cahit and El. So that started everything to affect. Sherry Schema who was their weekend anchor had to weekend weather, had to do their main weather so they needed a weekend weather person. And the word came about today, let's just try that guy, he's got a good identity, he can bring us a new demographic, the surf guys that don't watch the news. So we brought him in. So I was hired there but they couldn't put me on payroll because they had just been bought. So then Dan Cook said, they hired you but they can't come over to us and we got a spot for you. So that's how it all started. And then you have an interesting story about when you actually first started at KGMB. Yeah, because I was going to move from KHNL to KGMB and before, and Kim was already there and Kim said, you know what, before you start, let's go on this vacation. So let's go to New York. So we went to New York and brought my parents along. And it was a wonderful trip, we go top of the World Trade Center, we come back home and we wake up the morning of September 11th, 2001. We had just landed the night before. So we got Kim turns on the TV, all hell's breaking loose. She goes, we're being attacked. We got to get to the new station now. And this is my first day that I'm supposed to start. So she develops the pictures because back then you had to develop the pictures. She develops the pictures of us atop the World Trade Center, brings it up to work and they go, okay, now here's Guy Hagi with the weather. None of this fanfare, the lay, the beautiful welcome, none of that. Was all of this, here we go, just do the weather for 30 seconds, we're going to get right back to the coverage of the bombing, the attack. And that's how we started. That was my first day on KGMB and I've been there ever since, since September 11th, 2001. And then, you know, on Hawaii News now, I mean you're such a popular weather anchor for Hawaii News now, what is it about your job now that you absolutely love? I've been doing it for a long time, right? I love the weather and the weather conditions that we get to report on. I have a little tagline, somebody said I should trademark it. I went to it, I don't know, but anyway, the line is the best weather on the planet. I really feel that that's what we deal with on a day-to-day basis, the best weather on the planet. I've traveled around, not, you know, a lot of places, but I went to enough places to know that day in, day out we have the best spot, right, in terms of surf, in terms of temperature and all that. So I love that part about the job that I get to report on that and nine times out of ten it's happy weather, right? I'm a happy guy. You know that now. Yeah, totally. And I always look at the positive side. So I like that. And then the other part, the people I get to meet. I mean just the people I work with are incredible, right? The staff from, from the guy you don't see to Blurk-Rick Blangearty, everybody's awesome to work with. And the people that walk in the studio, just on Saturday, my friend, Max Holloway won the, won the championship again, right? And I got to meet Max, got to hang with him, talk to him. And guys like that, Zeke Loud just won the World Cup at Sunset Beach against the best surfers in the world. I've known that kid thanks to the news like, like that. So, and that in the governors and the politicians I get to meet. So, so that's got to be the best part of my job. It's not a day in, day out thing, but on the occasion that I get, you know, to meet these people, it's really, really a very powerful thing. And on tonight's Magnum PI episode two. Yeah, there's a recognizable face I think. It might be pretty cool, so you might want to check that out. And then when you do your newscast, you know, you're, you're so real. You have your own style. How would you describe your style? You know, when I first started this news, news business, I talked to Jim Lehi because I knew him from radio, because he used to do radio with Myra Station as well. And he told me there's only three rules. The first rule is, well, two rules in specific. There's, you got to be yourself. You can't be anybody else. And number two is don't tell a lie because you can come back and bite you in the behind. Yeah. So, so those two rules stuck with me. And then, and, and I never had any coaching to do it. So I only know how to be myself. Granted, it was a rough start. Don't watch the beginning part of my career. Oh, man. But, but as you get better at anything, you know, like, I've never had tennis lessons, but I played it for a little while, just playing it by myself. And I figured out what to do and where I could actually, I could hit the ball back to you all the time. If you start not be rusty, corny at a pro. You know, I mean, if you just try to hit the ball with you, I could play ping pong with you, right? So same thing. I've learned enough over the years to figure out what works and what doesn't work. And the thing that works for me is being myself. Yeah. Yeah. And we love that from you. And you're very real. You're, you're open. Yeah. I mean, I just, just by happenstance, it happens to work with the audience too, being myself. Because sometimes being yourself might not work and that might not have been where my career had led me had I been myself and been true to myself, I might be in another vocation. Who knows? And guy, let's talk about memes. Yeah. You know, because you know you're super popular when people are doing memes about you and your work. I know. I know. And I'm very blessed with that. And people, and what's funny is my friends and family, they're the one get upset. Aren't you offended? They go, no. Are you kidding me? I mean, I love all the attention that and talent. Somebody had to put in the time to put that in, you know, and then now they've gotten even more creative. And they like, there's this guy, Mento Maui Brata, he's taken clips of like the Wizard of Oz and he's dubbed Pigeon over it. And he put my name in there. I mean, that's so flattering. You know what I mean? How can I not be flattered and humbled by it? So every time a big weather event comes, it's like, oh no, here come the memes. I'm like, oh yes, here come the memes. You know what I mean? Because obviously there are other people doing the same thing and they don't get that kind of attention despite being very good at what they do. So I don't know why how the thing came, and what's really funny is the whole meme thing started when I was gone. And impending severe weather event was coming and somebody started making memes. Even though I was not even here to address it, and then somebody on the radio station said, hey, you got this thing coming, all these memes. Have you known it? I said, no. But when I looked at it, I go, shoot, I can't wait for this anymore. I mean, it's like artwork for some of these guys, man. So I'm flattered till this day. That's too funny, guy. OK, now I want to ask you about cheap eats and how it all started. Yeah. It wasn't creative at all. Lao Galdera, a dear departed friend of mine, and Russell Yamanoja, who was a reporter, the sports guy at KHNL, they started the series already. And they were the first, by any stretch here or across the country to do a cheap eat series. They sat down and said, now that Hawaii News now has come to pass, this is one of the things that we got to do. We got to do cheap eats. Hagi, you're the guy you're going to do it with. And what do you think? Who you want to call? So I went, I don't know, we're thinking. And then, you know, all the names were dropped in the hat, and then I said, well, I know Augie. I've known Augie since he was a little kid. And then, let's do Augie. It's going to be real easy, because I can be the straight man foil. And then just toss it over to him, he'll make it a cracker. And we both local boys, loving local food. And it turned out to be really good. But thanks to Galdera and Yamanoja, who kind of set the table for us. Yeah, I had Augie tea on my show a couple weeks ago. And I know that you guys are super close friends for a long time. Now, I love watching that segment of cheap eats. And it works. I mean, I start to get hungry for it now. Is it as fun as it looks? It's a lot of fun. We got it down to a science. So it's not a lot of work. We have some very talented photographers and editors who make it look just fantastic. And so we just rely on that. We have this formula. We try to, you know, not try to make it the same every time. But we got it so where the resources, we maximize the resources. And the local restaurants are very, very accommodating. They're very good. And it's just a whole lot of fun. And no, we don't eat as much as you think we do. Because they give us all this food. We bite it. We taste it. And it's hard to talk and have food in your mouth. And then we generally box it up. Because otherwise we'd be there for an hour and a half eating. So then we box it up and send it back to the station. On cheap eats day, it's the best day for the people there at the station. Because they get like eight plates of whatever it is gourmet things we're eating. Well, that's some good insights there. Yeah, it's fun. Guy, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to continue going beyond weather. OK, sounds good. You're watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Guy Hagi. We'll be back in 60 seconds. Aloha. I'm Wendy Lowe. And I'm coming to you every other Tuesday at 2 o'clock live from Think Tech Hawaii. And on our show, we talk about taking your health back. And what does that mean? It means mind, body, and soul. Anything you can do that makes your body healthier and happier is what we're going to be talking about, whether it's spiritual health, mental health, fascia health, beautiful smile health, whatever it means. Let's take healthy back. Aloha. Hello, I'm Yukari Kunisue. I'm your host of the new Japanese language show on Think Tech Hawaii called Konnichiwa Hawaii. Broadcasting live every other Monday at 2 PM. Please join us where we discuss important and useful information for the Japanese language community in Hawaii. The show will be all in Japanese. Hope you can join us every other Monday at 2 PM. Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is Guy Hagi, who is the very popular weather anchor for Hawaii News Now. And today we are going beyond weather. Guy, in my book Beyond the Lines, I talk about finding greatness and ultimately finding fulfillment other than surfing. What makes you happy and fulfilled? I think now being a father is definitely seeing my kids happy, seeing all their needs met, and being encouraged to live great lives and affect other people in a positive way, and seeing my wife happy and doing the same thing. When all said and done, that's what's most important. When everybody talks about money is not the most important thing, money is not the most important thing, but the problem is that you don't realize that until it's too late. So now it's more about experiences with the kids. It's about making sure they make the right choices and making sure they are happy when they make those right choices. So that's what makes me happy, seeing them thrive and seeing them happy by doing the best things. So we surround ourselves with really good friends that hopefully my kids can see that the friends that we've chosen are the friends that lift us up, are the friends that need our help sometimes and the friends that we can reach out when we need our help too. And hopefully that rubs off on them because ultimately choice is the biggest word I think, right? You want to have enough education so you can have a vocational choice, right? You want to have the opportunity to make that choice because a lot of times if you didn't prepare yourself correctly, you don't have a choice. You can only have this choice of one job because you only did this much education. You do this much education, you got the choice of where to work, right? So that's kind of what instills, we try to instill in them and brings me a lot of pleasure seeing that they're kind of going down that path. And your wife, Kim, right now, she is the director of development for Ilani School? Correct. I mean, Ilani must be so fortunate and lucky to have someone like her there. Yeah, I mean, it's a two-way street. You know, it's a wonderful institution. I mean, and they're doing some great things moving forward. And Luke got into that school before Kim had even any thoughts of working there. Now with the two kids on campus, plus with Kim being there, it helps our family dynamic so much. And then with all the things that the school is doing, that Kim's being a big part of, that's giving her a lot of satisfaction as well. And the Ilani network goes out across the world. She's dealing with alumni from the far reaches of the, you know, the Orient. We're talking Hong Kong, Tokyo, to London, to New York, to Rome. I mean, all those places, that's how far out the network's gone. Like any good institution, you know, their alumni are making positive differences out there. And they're gonna come back and make a positive influence on the institution that changed their lives. So she's made that connection stronger. That's been kind of her goal. And it's also helped in a secondary way by helping the finances and getting their needs met as well. Yeah, for sure. And Guy, everyone has different definitions of success. I wanna know how you would define what success is. Well, kind of going back to the other thing, I think if I'm making my family proud for me and by the choices that I make and the jobs that I do and the people that I affect in the way that I affect them, I think that's successful to me, you know? I mean, that's a catch-all kind of, you know, airy kind of thing, but I think when I, and I don't think about it very much, you know what I mean? But I think when I go to sleep at night, when I lay down, if I did something that was counter to those things, then it would keep me up at night. And I can't stay up at night anymore. I gotta hit the bed, 8.30, I gotta be ready for sleeping, man. Breathing exercises done, you know what I mean? Teeth brushed, all that stuff, gotta be ready. I mean, sunrise starts early, yeah, yeah. There's a reason why it's called sunrise. Yeah, but we're pre-sunrise, yeah. In my younger days, my friends would be going home from their late night activities and I'd be going to work at the same time, so yeah. Now, reflecting back on your life, you know, back to when you had your first job with doing all the surfing accessories and then the surf reports and then getting into TV and being at Hawaii News Now, why are you successful? Geez, Rusty, I can't tell you, aside from, you know, God's blessings, I can't even tell you. I don't know, you know, we live in the toughest place to make a living, right? In the U.S., it's tough. And I just happened to just manage to navigate my way through the grace of a lot of people, you know what I mean? I mean, Rick Blanchardi, my current boss has been unbelievable to me in my success since we started working together. The crew that I work with now, the crew that I worked with before, they've been instrumental in whatever you call the success in terms of my job. In terms of my family, I gotta credit my wife. I mean, she works really hard at everything. She's like type A, I'm like typical surfer type. Like, where do I gotta go? What do I gotta do? And she has the vision and foresight for everything. I mean, we moved into town even before our kids were going to school in town, right? She had the vision that this is what we're gonna do. This is where the kids are gonna go to school and this and that, and all came to pass. So she plays a large part of my personal success too. So it's definitely not anything that I can pat myself on the back and say I did. I mean, even my success in surfing, I'm still riding a really short board at my age. It's not really good, but it's because of the guys that I surf with and the guys that helped push me along. And with regard to my kids and their being successful, it's because my parents kind of carved out the same thing for me. They were young parents raising four kids and the lessons they taught me kind of invariably get passed on to the kids. Now, Guy, what's something that you've always wanted to do that you just haven't done yet? Sumo wrestle. Yeah. No, no, no. I'm a great admirer of sumo wrestling, believe it or not. I don't know, Rusty, every year there's something that comes up and a lot of it is definitely physical, right? Like I've never surfed outside of Mexico and Hawaii, believe it or not. I've never traveled down to the mental wise or down to Australia or those places. And now my son, that's all he thinks about, right? I've skied and snowboarded a lot of places. I want to ski and snowboard a lot more. I've never gone to Europe, but there's places in Japan I still haven't gone. So that's the short-term selfish kind of stuff I want to do. As far as loftier goals, I don't know, you know, I just want to be, I think, if I can see my kids well past their successful college years, I think that's where our goals are now as parents. So that would mean success for us in the short term, or what I would like to do and like to see. I can't imagine what that's like. My dad, who died earlier this year, he cried at my high school graduation. I couldn't understand it. I went, why? Why? I get it back then. I get it now. I get it now. In fact, when I watch those ESPN stories, those are the ones that really make me tear up. The ESPN stuff, right? Oh, the father sacrificed so much for the son and all this. So that's the stuff that tears me up and affects me now. So hopefully I can be like that now, yeah. So talking about your dad, you know, what kind of man was he in? What did he do? Well, local boy, right? High school educated, Farrington grad, had kids really early. I'm sure it was a surprise. Shotgun went and kind of think I'm positive. That's what it was. Went right to work at the Chevron refinery, the standard refinery. Stayed there until he retired, right? Worked hard every day. But not nine to five, but he would leave the house at 6.30, come home by 3.30. And then stand up guy, my mom who was pursuing her career as in the construction industry. She was vice president. She got to Liberty Bank. She got to vice president of Les Baker for years. She was in a management career. He was white color, I mean his blue color union, right? But he'd come home, take off that hat, wash the clothes, cook the dinner for us. And then when we started surfing, every day take us to the beach. Every day. Not complain, hit the tennis ball against the wall. And all the boys were talking, the neighborhood crew of guys, five guys, he'd take us all go surfing every day. No matter how hard his day was, we never heard about it. He would just come home, take us to the thing. That's what he'd do. He'd come up, my kids, we never had that, I love you kid, I'm doing this for you and none of that. It was just, this is what he did. He took it, came home, make sure to close our wash, to make sure the food is cooked. I mean, not every time we ate his food, we ate whatever, but he made sure we ate. You know what I mean? And then back then it was tough. He had three kids. He never traveled around the world until he was later in life when he went to Las Vegas 10 times a year. That was his outlet. That was his outlet, but that was my biggest frustration. Dad, Tokyo. You know, Rome, London, Italy. No, Las Vegas, man, it's all Las Vegas. And Morris, downtown, I love the people that go to downtown, right? I mean, great all for them. But there are other places to go. So anyway, so I've taken my kids and they have that thing too. Yeah. Nice to hear about all that. Yeah, so it was awesome. Guy, other than a family member, who's been a mentor to you in your TV news business? I don't know that there's any one, but there's a lot of people that I look at, you know, around in the business. As people that I think, I kind of would like to do that in that way. Yeah. Right? Like Jim Lehi, right? I think Jim's awesome in everything he does. And as great as the guys, he is on TV, he's an even better guy outside. And you talk about real. The thing about Jim is you can't have the camera on him all the time. So Jim Lehi, I think what he's done is unreal. I think what Joe Moore has done is unreal. I don't know Joe very well. I met him once, right? He's done things on his own terms. He's not, you know, I can't say that, you know, some people, he has his detractors, right? But to be that successful and that dominant in what he did, it's incredible, right? For so long. Yeah. Michael W. Perry and Larry Price. Those guys, right? Still doing the same thing. Well, you know, Larry's retired and Mike's getting older, but still those guys and the way they carry their community service out too, right? So those are the guys I kind of look at always doing things the right way. Yeah, that's kind of it. I mean, I don't really look at whether people perceive, but I look at other people in sports, the sports commentators, Al Michaels coming from here. You know, I was a kid when Al Michaels was on the radio and on KITV here, you know, to see that. And then to see guys like Neil Everett go on, Neil's a buddy, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, totally. To see him like run LA now. It's incredible. So all of that, I kind of look at all of that as inspiration. Yeah. Well, Guy, you know, thank you for really sharing your insights on Beyond the Lines today. It was like, it was awesome having you on the show. Thank you. And it's kind of tough, Rusty, doing this as a local kid, talking about yourself for too long. Like, my friends would be walking out, like, pfft. But congratulations on you and all your success. The book's doing very well, from what I understand. I guess I got to take time to read it. But remember, I, you know, because of my background, now I was honest with you. Yeah, congratulations. I heard the book's doing very well, making some very positive impacts. So congratulations. Thank you, Guy. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit my website RustyKamori.com and my book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all Costco stores in Hawaii. I hope that my book and TV show inspires you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.