paddlerprofile KateTownsend
She was living the life. Seventeen-year-old Kate Townsend, with her blond hair, long legs and devilish smile, was at the world’s largest outdoor industry show in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was coming off a Junior Women’s silver finish at the 2001 World Freestyle Championships and was carrying around copies of Rapid magazine cracked open to her photos, no doubt convincing sponsors to jump on board. And what com- pany wouldn’t want her in its catalogue? Kate was the 2000 and 2001 Junior Women’s Canadian Champion, placed sec- ond at the Ottawa River Rodeo, won the Chambly River and Ocoee River rodeos and was already a member of Team Wave Sport and Team IR. She hadn’t graduated high school yet!
Only three years earlier, Kate had attended Madawaska Kanu Centre’s Kids Camp and then returned the following year and fell into the hands of Sanne VanDerRos, the 1997 women’s freestyle bronze medalist. Jazzed to paddle, Townsend surfed the Net and discovered the 1999 Canadian freestyle team didn’t have a junior woman going to the World’s. After showing team captain Mark Scriver what she calls “a few measly spins,” she was on the team and off to New Zealand. After spending last summer living training and paddling on the Ottawa River, Kate is studying Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, half a day’s drive from any real whitewater.
How did you feel flying to New Zealand to com- pete in the 1999 World’s?
When I arrived in New Zealand there were only two junior women there, so we got bumped into the senior women’s class. It was a very scary thing at the time…and sometimes still is. I ended up placing 30th out of about 60 senior women, so I was fairly happy with that.
You’ve since moved into the senior women’s division in competition. What was that transition like?
16
www.rapidmag.com
The transition has been exciting, yet a bit scary. It meant bumping up the calibre of my paddling and training. It’s go big or go home!
How do you think you will balance school and being a pro paddler?
For the next few years I am just going to focus on my schoolwork and paddle when school’s out in the summer. Although pad- dling is very important to me, right now I’ve got to buckle down and focus on setting myself up for—I hate to say it—a “real job” so that I will be able to go and play. Fortunately, school ends in April, conveniently at the beginning of the competitive season. For now, I have joined Western’s whitewater team.
Where do you think you will be down the road, say in real life?
I hope to apply to law school. I haven’t decided exactly what kind of law yet, but probably corporate or political law. I also want to travel for awhile. My hope is to visit Thailand and Chile in the near future. And, I guess someday, have a nice family—but that is crazy talk right now.
You‘re pretty focused on freestyle competition. Where do you see paddling going? Competitive freestyle paddling seems to be at a stalemate right now. The calibre of the paddling is increasing, but the competitive sport itself is stalling. The paddling industry needs to work with the dam industry in order to guarantee water for the competitions. The media simply will not come if they aren’t guaranteed a wave to film. Furthermore, with the arrival of aerial moves, I think the sport needs to incorporate amplitude judging or air-bonuses like in freestyle snowboarding. We need to appeal to the mass media to ensure our sport’s growth.
The longevity of the sport relies upon the next generation of juniors. Any advice for them? It’s the juniors who are pushing the barriers of the sport—creating the new moves, run- ning the “un-runnable” and carrying the sport to where it needs to be. Advice? First, ensure that you are doing it in the end for the love of the sport. Then, if you decide to com- pete, go at it full force, get out there and expose yourself, introduce yourself to every- one—big and especially small—and kick some butt while you’re at it!
Rapid Stock Images
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52