Maui Kate

What happens when you raise a girl in both Maui, hanging with world class surfers, and Lake Tahoe where she can become a ridiculously sick skier? You get Maui Kate!

I moved to Crested Butte, Colorado in late 1989/early 1990, looking for a way to escape Ohio and start a new life. Emotionally, I wasn’t in my best place, and until that time, really struggled with female relationships. The first time I ever saw Kate was at the poma lift to the Face on CB. I went up and watched her absolutely shred the Face, not even fully realizing she was a woman with her hair up in her hat. As she came down to the lift below the Face, I remember clearly seeing her take off her hat, her waist long hair falling, and hearing multiple guys in the line say, “holy shit, that’s a chic…”

From that moment, I just wanted to follow her and be able to bask in the glow of her absolute coolness, especially when I was in such a low place emotionally at the time. Kate befriended me with open arms. Trips in the Jeep. Camping in Telluride. Wrecking the single track with our fire in Durango. And trying, desperately, just to keep up with her on the mountain. As she will tell you, I got REALLY good at wiping out.

Kate’s life as an absolute shredder led from Crested Butte to Kirkwood to Chamonix, where she skied some of the most challenging terrain on the planet, also meeting the man she would bring back to the US mountains and start a family with, continuing the tradition of raising a shredder in her son, Gus, settling in Mt Hood.

Beautiful, savage, kind, and so in touch with who she is and what she values, I am so proud to call Kate my friend.

The next portrait in my series is entitled, “Maui Kate.” The piece is based off of one of the many pictures of Kate with her beautiful long hair swept up and a traditional flower tucked behind her ear. Her flower is incredibly sparkly Monarch glass and she is standing next to the mountains she loves with a rainbow to represent her birth state of Maui. She is wearing a genuine Hawaiian pareo and a beautiful man in the moon necklace. Her face has a rainbow of pressed flowers and glitter stars, because she truly is a superstar of epic proportions! Love you Kate!!