Katie Slocumb-“The Adventurer”

by Shannon Chang

 

I met Katie Slocumb in a coffee shop downtown.  Katie is an award winning architect at Mason Architects where she specializes in historic architecture. She also happens to have a passion for the ocean that is contagious. An hour with her and I was wondering how fast I could be packed up and on the water. 

Our time together also reminded me how each opportunity explored is an opportunity for another adventure to arise.  From a childhood where she was rarely around the water, casual conversations, career interests, and a try anything spirit have lead Katie to be a top competitor in outrigger canoe paddling 3,000 miles away from her childhood home in New Mexico. 

Although finding her place in the ocean would not come till later in life, Katie has always loved being outdoors.  Growing up, she spent time horseback riding and camping with her family.  When it was time for college, she headed for Boulder, Colorado (another great place to spend time outdoors).  In Boulder, she somehow became acquainted with the Fotis, and remembers Jim Foti saying if she were ever in Hawaii, she should try paddling.  As it turned out she found herself in Hawaii to attend graduate school at UH.  The demands of school and starting a career took up most of her time, but the idea stayed planted in the back of her mind until she was out running one day with her good friend and fellow architect Deborah Rosenblum.  Rosenblum mentioned she had just joined Koa Kai canoe club, and encouraged Katie to come join her. 

It was a good fit for the experienced athlete.  She would spend time paddling during the off season, and during that time found she enjoyed steering.  Years went by and she eventually made a home for herself in seat six.  It’s a role she takes seriously, and thoroughly enjoys.  She works hard to foster the team aspect of the sport which is one of the things she most appreciates about paddling.  “I think one of the great things about paddling is that it’s a team sport…an intense team sport…you really all have to work together.  What’s interesting as a steersman is that you have to analyze whether that is happening or not.”

Katie will occasionally paddle and listen to other steersmen to pick up on how they communicate.  She continually works to improve her skills.  She does her research; studies water conditions, knows the competition.  Rosenblum, who has had Katie as her steersperson many times over the last fourteen years they have paddled together, most recently at Hui Lanakila says, “She’s as well prepared a competitor as you could ask for.  She is aggressive, but she is also very quiet about it.  She isn’t in your face but in her quiet and fortitude you see how strong she is.”

She also adds, “She embodies everything about paddling that’s really great.  She has a great spirit.  She has compassion for every person as a paddler.  Although she’s extremely experienced…she’s never beyond helping a novice person out…If they want to get in a boat to get on the ocean, then she is game to get in the boat with them.”

Naturally competitive, Katie expanded her events by racing OC-1 for many years.  More recently she has been racing OC-2.  Although she says she doesn’t necessarily enjoy one over the other she has found an added component to paddling OC-2, “It gives you a sense of teamwork and camaraderie.  You are out there enjoying that with someone right next to you.” 

The common bond of paddling and loving time on the water has gifted Katie with a large circle of friends who like her, are always ready for another adventure.  She found canoe sailing through some friends who knew Terry Galpin, current president of the Hawaiian Sailing Canoe Association (HSCA).  Galpin usually puts together an all women’s crew for the HSCA’s extensive race season that has teams racing from the Big Island to Kauai over a five month period.  Galpin was looking for another paddler to join her crew, and Katie signed on.  This exciting race series touches on most of the islands, and crosses most of the major channels.  Each race is two days.  The first day is a channel crossing, and the second day, a coastal run.  The sailing canoe, which is the same size as a six man outrigger canoe, with the addition of a second ama, mast and sail, carries six crew members; three paddlers, two steersmen, and one person working the sail. 

Galpin recalls their first experience together, “I put together this all wahine crew and pretty much all of us were novice.  I had the experience of at least knowing the basics.  Katie came on board as our back up steersperson and there were four other women and we learned how to do the channel and work the sails, how to steer…and we did it literally by ourselves.”

That kind of bonding experience creates memories that last.  Thinking back to their first race, Galpin remembers, “All six of us are in the canoe...It was the most fun I’ve ever had in the canoe.  We just had a blast.  We learned by trial and error.”  To give you a sense of the distance, that first race was about 90 miles, from Maui to Kailua around the backside of Molokai. 

Unlike most distance outrigger canoe racing, there are no switches in canoe sailing.  “It’s all iron…you’re in there the whole entire time.  You could be in there thirteen hours…Katie was always the one that would keep us going,” shares Galpin.

Katie has continued to participate, and has raced each leg of the five part season, and now competes with one of the top mixed crews.  Her enthusiasm for the sport is evident, “It is just such a neat experience to cross the channels like that.  You see coastline that you would never get to see…There’s nothing else like it.”

Through another friend, Mike Willet, Katie ventured into canoe surfing.  She used to go out in Willet’s four man canoe on the windward side.  Eventually she was competing with Willet out at Makaha.  She recently acquired her own four man canoe with a friend, and they have been enjoying putting crews together to compete.

As I sat and thought of all the time Katie has had on the water, I asked if she had a particular memory that stood out.  She said, “I have one that occurs at least a couple times a year.  Coming across the Kaiwi channel and coming up to Makapu’u and you can actually see around to Rabbit Island and you can see the whole coastline.  That is just one of my favorite views coming across that channel. And it is always different.  Every time I’ve crossed that channel it’s different. You are with different people, you are on different crafts.  The water is different.  The conditions are different.  It makes each time that happens special.”

It is clear why as Rosenblum says, “Katie is always game for a greater adventure.”  She finds something new in each one.  What’s next?  You guessed it.  She just got a stand up paddle board.  Chances are if you are on the water, you are going to see Katie Slocumb.