On a surfing trip to Fiji, Gerry Costa was pressured into trying Jiu Jitsu by his close friend Carlos Gama. Just to get Carlos to leave him alone, Gerry agreed to try a class once they were back home. Thinking he would go once and never have to hear about it again, Gerry was hooked after that first class, and he has been dedicated to the Martial Art ever since.
Early in his journey, Gerry was always getting smashed but one day he caught Carlos's younger brother Felipe and Felipe gave him the nickname Kid Peligro, which translates to The Dangerous Kid. This nickname would stick and is now synonymous with Gerry. So much so that Gerry Costa and Kid Peligro are often thought of as two separate people, leading to hilarious misunderstandings that continue to this day.
After starting under Carlos Gracie Jr. Black Belt, Nelson Monteiro in California, Gerry was talked into traveling an hour to take a class with Master Rickson Gracie. It was at his first class with Rickson that Gerry really understood how powerful Jiu Jitsu could be. This began years of training with Rickson and Royler Gracie. Kid would travel hours to train with Rickson and when Rickson left to fight in Japan, Kid asked him who he should start training with. Rickson told him Royler but Royler was living in Brazil. So, Kid began traveling to Brazil for months at a time to train with Royler, then back to California to continue his training.
Along his journey Kid became training partners and friends with the creator of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club, Sheik Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Sheik Tahnoun invited Kid to the first ADCC Championships and later asked Kid to write stories for the ADCC website. Not knowing how to write stories Kid agreed to do it just until they could find someone to take over. This was the late 1990's and with very few Jiu Jitsu websites or even magazines to choose from, Kid's writing became successful. These very short stories led to monthly magazine articles and eventually to Kid writing one of the first books about Jiu Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Theory and Technique by Renzo and Royler Gracie. Kid went from not knowing how to write a short article about Jiu Jitsu to write what many consider the Jiu Jitsu bible in just a couple of years, and has since gone on to write over 23 books on Jiu Jitsu and other topics.
Kid's first passion was surfing. He has surfed around the world and was always looking to improve his surfing. Through Ginastica, Plyometrics, and various other techniques he has learned over his decades of training in a variety of sports, he began to incorporate different body movements into his surfing. He also began to train other surfers using these techniques and keeping an open mind listened to their feedback and created a training regime that is used by world champion and Olympic surfers including the best surfer in the world John John Florence.
Gerry "Kid Peligro" Costa was given an amazing opportunity to train with the greatest Jiu Jitsu practitioners in the world. He took not only what he learned about Jiu Jitsu from them, but also what he learned about life and has dedicated his own life to helping others. Through his own Jiu Jitsu, his writing, and his surfing programs he has changed the lives of countless people.